How do Indians from the West Indies/Caribbean who have lived under Black / African rule respond to or participate in Black Lives Matter Movements when Blacks are saying their lives
comes first before others? After numerous attempts to include All Lives Matter, they still insist that Black Lives Matter. Now the plot has twisted to All Lives Matter but it is Black when crimes are committed against black. The question remains when does anyone else have their lives matter too? When do others get the same media attention? Indians living under black /African rule in the Caribbean most of the time have faced insurmountable violence and racism both verbal and physical as part as their daily “breakfast.” Can these Indians truly identify with Black Lives Matter in countries like Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda?
In the nation-building that happened after Independence within these three countries the African leaders embarked on a Black Negritude identity race politics movement to keep Indians marginalized politically, socially and economically by rigging elections, gerrymandering, beating Indians, burning their businesses and other violent behavior against Indians. In Trinidad, Dr. Eric Williams imported voting machine and Africans from other Caribbean Islands and the use of violence against Indians. In Guyana and Suriname African leaders used brutal force by using an African army and the black populists to keep Indians out of political power. In Guyana there was the Wissmar Massacre against Indians and in Suriname the reigning party executed members of the opposition. In Uganda Idi Amin treated Indians (who came as Indentured laborers just like the West Indies) brutally and drove them out of Uganda. In Guyana, presently, the African-based party PNC / APNU lost the March 2, 2020 elections and have since refused to give up power against the demands of international organizations and observers who witness the duplicitous counting of the votes and unethical demands of the PNC/APNU. The U.S.A. had to intervene with threats of sanctions against Guyana and the banning of U.S. entry to persons involved and their families. The correct counting of votes eventually gave Indian-based PPP party the lead by 15,000. In Trinidad, the African-based PNM is already up to their old tricks calling the elections in August before they reopen the country under the coronavirus disguise, thereby disallowing (mostly Indian) voters to come in from other countries to cast their vote.
In Trinidad and Guyana Indians were forced to migrate to the U.S.A. U.K. and Canada because of lack of jobs and other opportunities against them in government. They experienced the same systemic and institutional racism which continues today in these countries that blacks complain about in America but have perpetrated on Indians in African-ruling countries. Today, Indians are more ‘creolized’ and ‘carnivalized’ and cannot speak Hindi because of systemic and institutional racism by a black government which never implemented Hindi and Indian culture as part of the education curriculum.
Indentured Indians cannot harness the same mental political thinking as New Arrival Indians [NAI ] from India who are their counterparts in the U.S.A., UK and Canada etc. These Non-Resident Indians who are recent migrants from India are participating in pulling down White Statues and protesting side by side with blacks against the “Big Bad White Man.” They never stopped to consider if the roles were reversed if any of these minorities they are fighting shoulder to shoulder with would guarantee their rights if you take the white man out of the equation. They blindly fight political wars in the U.S.A and other nations against the white man whenever it is socially acceptable and fashionable to do so. Off course the answer to these questions would appear if they decided to study Indian history in the Caribbean but then again Caribbean Indians are also guilty of not knowing their own history. These New Arrival Indian (NAI)/Non Residence Indians (NRI) are fighting for acceptance in a white world, while Indentured Indians are fighting for the breath of survival of the entire Indian Race. This is something an NRI Indian cannot understand, the survival of the Indian race. The Indentured Indian Race is not fighting for acceptance and social justice but our fair share of ownership of the political real estates to prevent the extinction of the Indian race.
It’s a well-known policy that black leaders in Trinidad and Guyana have a hidden agenda which is the miscegenation of the Indian race. How can Indians forget the President of Trinidad and Tobago Sir Ellis Clarke who told prominent Indians who helped build the People’s National Movement (PNM) party and who helped keep them in power, that the country (Trinidad) is NOT ready for an Indian Prime Minister. The First Prime Minister of Trinidad, Dr. Eric Williams labelled Indians as recalcitrant and hostile minority and wanted no coolie government. Tobago leaders have also mentioned that they didn’t want any “Calcutta Ship” coming to Tobago, meaning Indians keep away.
Will blacks acknowledge the crimes they have committed against other ethnicities including Indians? Will Indians speak up and have an opinion if it’s unfashionable to the Black Lives Matter ‘sdiscourse? So will the suffering of Indians under black governments be known when it’s time for other lives to matter? I ask the question again? Can indentured Indians in Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam, and those who were kicked out of Uganda be part of the Black Lives Matter movement?
