Dear Editor,
May I use your letter column to answer an ongoing query that I have been receiving in my email and solicit some information on an individual who apparently played an important historical role but is buried in history? In the former case, I have been asked continuously, and even up to a few days ago, why did I stop writing weekly columns for the Guyana Times, and my short and quick answer to this question is: I was fired. For what particular reasons, I am not sure.
In the latter case, I recently received an email from a gentleman from India and I quote “My interest lies in a subject you have mastered. One of the uncles of my mother was one Dr. Ramnarain Sharma. He was sent to British (Guiana) to look after the indentured labor of Indian origin. Our family history (word of mouth) suggests that he was involved in supporting the cause of the people he was sent to serve. That annoyed the British. Thereafter he was banished to Trinidad. Very little is known about his struggles and his last days. Dr. Ramnarine Sharma came to BG as a member of a Special Commission (Permanand Commission) created to investigate the difficulties encountered by the indentured Indian immigrant laborers working on the sugar plantations.”
Through more exchanges with this individual, I understand that Dr. Sharma was stationed in Berbice and was married to Mr. Joseph R Subryan’s daughter, Rosalind Subryan Sharma. They had one son named Herman Sharma who died in the United States in the 1980s. The larger importance here is that information on Dr. Sharma’s mission might reveal new information on resistance and accommodation during Indian indenture in British Guiana.
Yours faithfully,
Lomarsh Roopnarine
