A query was posed on the amount in the Indian Immigrant Repatriation Fund (IIRF) when it was expropriated in 1971 to build the National Cultural Center (NCC). This fund was created for the repatriation of Indians and their Guyana born children back to India as per a contracted agreement made between the indentured Indians and the plantation owners. Only a small number of Indians accessed the fund to return to India. The rest of the money remained in the fund and grew over the period from indentureship till it was seized by the government in 1971.
Dwarka Nath, historian and Civil servant for the colonial government and thru the 1960s, in his book History of Indians in Guyana, wrote that the fund had $280,000 in 1966. Pandit Rampersaud Tiwari, who was Cabinet Secretary for the PPP and early PNC governments (1950s thru the 1970s), wrote in a paper published in a book (Indian Guyanese Words and Phrases) in Toronto (authored by Harry Hergash) that in 1968, the fund stood at $300,000. So the fund increased by $20,000 in less than two years. Rampersaud Tiwari wrote that in 1969, after the rigging of the 1968 elections, Burnham decided to seize the fund to build a “National Cultural Center” (NCC). Various machinations were used, including manipulating the Maha Sabha, to acquire the fund. There was strong opposition, including initially by Maha Sabha and other Indian organizations (Hindu and Islamic), Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the PPP, for use of the fund for a NCC. The views of leaders of Indian organizations, Dr. Jagan and the PPP were ignored, and some of their leaders (Balwant Singh, Yacoob Ali, etc.) were victimized; they lost their government jobs.
Construction of the NCC did not begin until 1971. So the fund would have grown by at least another $40,000. At the time, as penned by someone, the fund was not mere “seed money” or could merely cover only “5% to 10%” of the construction cost of the NCC that was built by the original Nabi and Sons. The fund was sufficient for construction of the NCC.
For the record, in 1966, the Guyana dollar was trading at approximately $1.60 for US$1 and slightly higher in later 1960s. The sum of G$300,000 would in American dollars be around US$183,000. The sum of $340,000 (in 1971) and higher in 1972 (over $350K) when the building was put into use, would have been in excess of US$200,000, enough for a massive structure at that time.
What is not certain is whether the fund amount quoted by Nath and Pt. Tiwari was in Guyana dollars. The fund was created in British Sterling Pounds, the currency used at the time. The British Guiana currency was created much later. It is not clear if the currency quoted by Dwarka Nath and Pandit Rampersaud Tiwari was in Sterling or Guyana dollars. Regardless of the currency, assuming it was Guyana dollars, it was a massive sum. Engineers and construction companies consulted said it could have built the NCC with left over funds.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram