Dear Editor,
I was in Delhi, India when I got a phone call that Pt. Ramlall had passed on. It was only days before I spoke with him on the phone when I was in the holy city of Varanasi. He had asked to see me. Whenever I was in India, Pt Ramlall always asked for some small favour. On a previous trip, I had brought back copies of his biography. I returned to New York on Monday and attended a tribute session for him on Monday night at the Arya Samaj he helped found. It was packed to capacity; I was told a larger assembly gathered the night before to pay tribute to him.
Pt. Ramlall was an iconic figure in the greater New York. He was perhaps the last of the older revered figures that was still around. And he will be sorely missed for his knowledge on Hinduism as well as on the history of the struggle of independence of Guyana. He was part of that struggle having served time at Sibley Hall for advocating for Guyana’s freedom. He was a Jaganite to his last breath. And he made an invaluable contribution to the liberation of the homeland. He was frank, forthright, and fearless. And he was effective at opening doors for the championing of causes relating to Guyanese in America and in Guyana.
Pt. Ramlall had a large following in NYC. A few decades ago, at a public event in Jamaica, Queens, the elder Eusi Kwayana praised Pt. Ramlall for his contributions to the struggle for Guyana’s independence and for free and fair elections.
At the tributes for Pt. Ramlall, everyone expressed sadness at his passing and some anecdotes of their encounters with him. They were all praiseworthy. I had a long experience with Pt. Ramlall. We are both Berbicians, he from Skeldon and I from Port Mourant, home of Jagan. Pt. Ramlall, as an Arya missionary, would frequently visit our village and engage community leaders on politics and Hinduism (his Arya versus the Sanatanist); there were strong debates. It was there I learned of him and his work as a champion of the Arya Samaj movement and as a PPP activist. And then in the mid 1970s, he migrated to New York where we met by chance in the late 1970s through religious activities. We both briefly lived in the Bronx. Later, we both moved to Queens and collaborated in the struggle for free and fair elections in Guyana. Pt. Ramlall provided much support at his religious functions and at his mandir – providing a forum for the likes of myself and other Guyanese nationalists to champion the cause of Guyana. We attended several of his religious activities during the 1980s and up to 1992 so we could have an audience to discuss human rights violations in Guyana. In 1990, Pt. Ramlall supported a group of us that included Mahadeo Persaud, Ravi Dev, Vassan Ramracha, etc. lobbying the U.S. govt for Free and Fair Elections. Pt. Ramlall joined a Fast and Vigil outside the United Nations in Manhattan spearheaded by Brother Baichoo. The objective was to focus international attention on rights violations and mass starvation in Guyana.
Pt. Ramlall was a fearless leader with strong principles – for him, Guyana must be a democracy and even though members of my group were not PPPites, that common goal of restoring democratic governance to Guyana drew us together. He was among a few pandits who provided his mandir and poojas for a discussion on Guyana and also gave support for a liberation movement. Most other mandirs closed their doors to us fearing political backlash from the authorities in Guyana. And for this, my group of former activists is eternally grateful to Pt. Ramlall and the Arya Samaj mandir.I would visit Pt. Ramlall regularly at his home over the last several years to check on his well-being. He always welcomed me and ordered his maid to prepare tea and snacks and at times a full meal. I also drove him around on some errands or transported his maid for shopping. In fact, in our last conversation, he asked when I returned to NYC to come to see him. Regrettably, that I will have to do at his funeral rites. I shall miss him immensely.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram
