Dear Editor,
Reference is drawn to comments by Hamilton Green denigrating Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as the Mahatma (Great Soul) in your Oct 6th edition wherein Green claims that “Proposal to rename Promenade Gardens would be insult of monumental proportions to descendants of African slaves”. Was renaming of places, including a city “Linden”, after the dictator Forbes Burnham and his children and wife, Viola, not an insult to the nation? While not agreeing with some positions of Gandhi, like the rest of the world, I revere and salute Gandhi’s contributions to India’s freedom movement, paving the way for independence. Because of his struggle, other countries in Africa and Asia in the 1950s and subsequently the Caribbean, including Guyana, in the 1960s and 1970s were able to gain their freedom from colonial rule. That in itself is worthy of naming a place after him.
Green refers to Gandhi as a foreigner. He is wrong. Gandhi has outlived the physical features of an Indian and as foreign. Green states that places should not be named after a foreigner. What should we do with Nelson Mandela Avenue? Or is Green only seeing “race” in his thoughts and actions? Is naming a place after Mandela ok but not after Gandhi? Green states that Middle Street or Promenade Gardens, if were to be name changed, should be named after someone who was connected to emancipation. Gandhi helped emancipate not only Guyana but the world. He was not born (1869) during slavery, but he fought against indentureship which was a new form of slavery that was practiced in Guyana. His struggle helped to end the new slavery in 1920 and emancipated the “new slaves”. But even Burnham admired aspects of Gandhi’s struggle comparing a few miles of his march at national service in 1974 with the Dandi Salt March; there is/was no comparison as Gandhi marched for 240 miles defying British authority and police beatings, landing Gandhi and several of his peace organizers in jail.
Green made reference to Gandhi’s struggle in South Africa and the removal of his statue in 2019 in Ghana. The latter was done out of ignorance of Gandhi’s ideology and positions and struggle on behalf of Black Africans. Gandhi was merely 21 when he had his first encounter with Blacks in South Africa. He didn’t know the culture or conditions of Blacks and made unfriendly remarks about them. After his experience with White racism, he better understood the predicament of Black Africans as well as Indian South Africans. He recognized that the struggle against injustice by Blacks, Indians, and Colored were intertwined, and he fought for justice for all groups. Gandhi got into the political arena in South Africa and India because of advantage and racial discrimination that was imposed on Blacks in their homeland in South Africa. He was perhaps the lone figure at the time to fight the British for liberations of Africans firstly and then later people of his native India. When he left South Africa in 1914, he expressed regret for his initial views about Blacks in 1893. And he urged the Blacks and Indians to work together.
His struggle against racial injustice was continued by Ahmed Khatrada and other prominent Indians. The African National Congress was modeled after Gandhi’ Congress organization. All South African Black leaders paid tribute to Gandhi and several places have been named after him post-apartheid. Mandela and others inaugurated events after Gandhi and praised him to help liberate South Africa from white only rule. The removal of Gandhi’s statue in Ghana was not surprising given the attitude towards Indians in that country. Did the Ghanaian leaders support Idi Amin when he told Indians to swim out of Uganda? Were not Indian assets expropriated in Ghana following the confiscation of Indian properties and businesses in Uganda by the cannibalistic Idi Amin? On honouring Gandhi then British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said Gandhi’s “approach of non-violence will resonate forever as a positive legacy, not just for the UK and India, but the world over”. Gandhi was a symbol of tolerance and non-violence. His lifestyle and struggle was the direct opposite of the violence unleashed on Africans during slavery in Guyana and in apartheid South Africa. It was a direction of beheading of slaves. That slaves were beheaded and their heads posted on stakes would have been condemned by Gandhi as he condemned all forms of violence. His behaviour is that of the triumph of tolerance and of peacefulness over slavery. Again, this perfectly justifies the placement of his statue and or renaming of Middle Street or another street or Promenade Gardens – that symbolism of peace, non-discrimination, equality, and respect for all.
Sincerely,
Dr Vishnu Bisram
