CLR James commenting on the condition of former African slaves in the Caribbean once said that “West Indian uniqueness consists in this, that of all of these hundreds of millions of formerly colonial coloured peoples, West Indians are the only ones who are completely westernized, they have no native language, no native religion, no native way of life.” Further speaking to this point, Morton Klass went on to define Creole culture as a “variant of European culture” as he distinguished it from the native African culture. But it was Lloyd Brathwaite who best explained this line of thinking when he stated that “the idea of most people was to disassociate themselves as much as possible from anything that sounded ‘African.’ ‘African’ was associated with the primitive, the barbarous and the uncivilized, and in fact the idea of Africa and its inhabitants corresponded in no small measure to the stereotype so often found in the United Kingdom.”
I bring this up because all of these comments were made around the same time, in the 1950s and early 1960s, which was of course a seminal moment in our history as it was on the verge of our independence. And this line of thinking created a divide that I don’t think many people grasp even to this day. Because at the time that the Creole and West Indian culture was being created, it was being done by half the population, guided by Western philosophies and the various churches of the Christian religion, which also until the emergence of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, had a monopoly on the education system. The outcome of this was the birth of a Trini culture that would forever ostracize the Eastern cultures of the indentured workers who still are not considered part of this group to this day. Even former PNM Minister Winston Mahabir noticed this when he noted that the PNM was creating “apartheid in reverse” by propagating nationalism that excluded certain ethnic groups.
Now you might find yourself thinking, well, surely there are East Indians who have adopted the Trini culture and belong to this group today, but I would retort with a simple question: what does that actually mean? Why are people who can trace their roots in this country to over 150 years ago still considered to be part of a minority sub-sect of the Trini identity simply because they have not erased their original heritage from their memories? I mean, someone can walk Trini and talk Trini, but because they go to a temple instead of a church and eat sada roti instead of bread does that make them a lower caste of Trini culture? What exactly is the cutoff point and why were these rules created to begin with?
For as long as the government continues to look upon people of Indian heritage as a separate social class, there will always be fear among this group that their Rights and Freedoms are under threat because the act of labelling is in itself an attack upon them. The fact that Dr. Keith Rowley is being forced to stretch thin the articles of the Constitution in appointing Stuart Young as the next Prime Minister, knowing that the PNM would never do such a thing of their own volition, is an indictment of the racism that still exists within their party to this day. So even though the Prime Minister insists that the renewed investigation of certain UNC officials is not racist in any way, if Kamla Persad Bissessar, Roodal Moonilal and other Opposition members are considered and treated as being East Indians at all, then it is a case of Indians being targetted by the PNM government.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj
