Dear Editor,
It was noted in the press that starting last month, Guyana had the serendipitous intersection of observances from the three major religions that involved fasting by their adherents – Nauratri, Ramadan and Lent. But somehow Ram Naumi, the celebration of the birth of Sri Ram, the seventh incarnation of Bhagwan Vishnu, which occurred at midday on the final day of Nauratri, got lost in the shuffle. There was only a single mention of the event in the press, notwithstanding in the almost three hundred Mandirs across the country there were observances involving thousands of devotees. Even President Irfaan Ali and VP Bharrat Jagdeo with AG Anil Nandlall, whose activities are minutely covered, did not earn coverage that they attended observances at Tuschen, EBE and Better Hope ECD Mandirs, respectively.
Why this lacuna in reportage? It is a continuation of the “silencing” of the Hindu presence in Guyana that characterized colonial rule when they were defined as “pagans” beyond the pale who “worshipped idols”. I was a columnist at the Stabroek News in the early nineties and noticing that lacuna after participating with probably ten thousand devotees in the Shiva Ratri observances at the Cove and John Ashram, asked the General Manager if they would publish a supplement (at my expense) that would be distributed inside their newspaper. She told me, “no”, even though they carried other supplements, and advised me to publish my own Hindu newspaper. I did – “Caribbean Jahaji” – for the next few years.
What is regrettable about this continued silencing of Hindu practices is that its signaling that they are not “news that’s fit to print” is internalized by most Hindus. They generally confine their observances rather sheepishly to their private sphere. Ironically, in an age where we have now been convinced that females must not be excluded from any sphere of life, the Hindu worship of God in a female form during Nau Ratri is not promoted by woke females as “progressive”. The declaration of Phagwah and Diwali as National Holidays in 1967 helped unsilence those Hindu observances to non-Hindus and one must give credit to PNC leader Forbes Burnham for that act.
But the background to the institutionalization of Hindu (and Muslim) holidays offers an insight into why that credit has been grudging. Speaking to the resolution introduced in parliament in December 1962, Burnham expansively noted, “One of the difficulties in our community is that we have Christians living side by side with Muslims and Hindus living side by side with Christians and none of those three understanding even some of the basic tenets of the other two…I believe that if we were able to share the holidays we at least would be invited to attempt to learn each other’s point of view, creeds, beliefs and attitudes, and that further education and information will undoubtedly lead to a greater understanding and bring closer to us the day when we have a Guyanese nation as distinct from a country with a number of different peoples.”
A Consultation Committee was established in 1963 to make recommendations and in 1964 proposed to parliament that Phagwah, Ram Naumi and Dipavali for Hindus and Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Ahza for Muslims be declared Public Holidays. But there were no Hindus on the Committee and instead an African Guyanese (PPP) and an Indian Muslim supporter of the PNC. When the PNC, now in government since the end of 1964, finally decided to pass the ordinances on these holidays in 1967, it unilaterally decided to remove Ram Naumi and Eid-ul-Fitr without proper consultation of the involved religious bodies. Criticism was raised by the latter.
The historian Mc Almont explained the non-inclusion of the relevant bodies, “To the question as to why an Afro-Guyanese was selected to speak for the two religious groups when there were several Hindu and Muslim members of government, he (the chairman of the consultation committee) opined that the government felt its support came not from Hindus or Muslims but from the Indo Guianese community and since the discussion was on “Indian holidays” then any person selected by the government would speak on behalf of the Indian community.”
Sri Ram is a major Deity in the Hindu pantheon and it is suggested that Hindus be permitted to be absent from their workplaces or schools on Ram Naumi so they can observe Ram Naumi celebrations.
Sincerely,
Ravi Dev
