Dear Editor,
I write in response to recent letters in the media by the President of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, Dr. Vindyha Persaud, and Pandits. My comments on the weddings were based on my years of close up observations of wedding houses where it was all about rum and noise for 3 to 7 days starting from 1 pm to 3 am next day. I merely reported my observations. How did my factual letter offend and bring shame on Hindus? Is it not the Hindus who are desecrating their religion? That rum and noise, accompanied by chopping up, has been a crisis, is borne out by no other than Dr. Vindhya herself, who in her letter, stated that she had written law enforcement agencies on several occasions to deny permission to operate “alcohol bars” at Hindu wedding houses.
Dr. Vindyha and Pandits also stated that Pandits were directed not to officiate at weddings with “alcohol bars.” Is it my actions that brings Hinduism into disrepute, or is it the action of Hindus? One of the Pandits wrote that I had a similar letter in the media in 2000. I actually first wrote about Hindus and rum around 1989/1990, when I observed that on the West Demerara, in the afternoons, the playfields were filled with Afro youths doing sports while the rum shops were filled with Indo youths doing rum. The secretary of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha responded with a one sentence letter that those Hindus in the rum shops were not true Hindus. I can safely say that I first raised my concerns about rum over 30 years ago. And back then there were not so many rum shops, because the Maha Sabha had got the government to freeze new rum shop licences from the mid 1970’s to 1992.
Unfortunately after 1992, rum shop licences were literally shared out in Indian dominated villages while Indian youths were actively discouraged from enlisting in the GDF and Police Force. In the years that followed, the rum and noise culture was birthed and it has since been destroying Hindu youths. I refer Dr. Vindhya and Pandits to the incident in 2021, in Crabwood Creek, where rum and noise youths beat a Pandit to death. The killers were all in their late 20’s. They were angry that the Pandit would report noise violence in his village and they responded by regularly parking their cars in front of the Pandit’s home, consume rum, unleash noise barrages, curse the Pandit and his teenage daughters, issue threats to rape the girls, threats to burn the house, and threats to kill the Pandit.
Hindu youths are being destroyed by rum and noise and Dr. Vindyha and Pandits must campaign daily in their communities to curb and reverse the destruction. Have the Pandits walked the dams and streets of the villages and talk with the groups of youths doing rum and drugs? The Pandits should do this daily. I do. In early 2021, I walked all the villages on the West Coast Demerara and stopped and engaged Hindu youths as to why they were doing rum or coke, why they didn’t learn to read and write, go to Mandirs, join the GDF, join the Police, do sports, etc. Just don’t have the Pandits do weddings and Jhandis for a fee. Urge them to go out daily and counsel the youth. Go where the youths are. If the Pandits are afraid to venture on the sea dams and back streets I can accompany them… for free.
Sincerely,
Malcolm Harripaul
