The history of the then recently formed colony of British Guiana was changed fundamentally on 5 May, 1838 with the arrival of two coolie ships, the WHITBY and the HESPERUS, both of which had sailed from the port of Calcutta earlier in the same year.
The apprenticeship system for freed slaves of African origin was about to come to a premature end on 1 August, 1838, some two years before it should have , when the first East Indian indentured labourers arrived on these shores.
Never before in the new world of the Americas had Africans and Indians been placed together in the same industrial and this historical event has
been followed by a number of others over the past 180 years leading to the current unfortunate state of polarization between Guyana’s two main ethnic groups, the Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese.
After the slave trade was abolished in 1807, the slave population of the former Dutch colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice began to decline, falling from about 100,000 in 1812 to 82,824 in 1838, seven years after these colonies were joined to form British Guiana.
At the time of the abolition of slavery in 1834, the British Government paid £20,000,000 in compensation to slave owners in the West Indies and British Guiana, the latter receiving £4,297,117 as compensation for the 82,915 enslaved persons in the colony.
As the apprenticeship system was being brought to its premature end, the declining amount of apprentices on the sugar plantations were unable to cultivate the higher amount of acres of sugarcane, resulting in the decline of sugar production from 71,280 hogsheads of sugar in 1836 to 38,444 hogsheads in 1839.
Sugar planters had anticipated this drop in production and had mulled the introduction of alternative supplies of labour to offset the declining numbers of the apprentices, many of whom were leaving the estates to work elsewhere or to settle in uninhabited riverain areas along the Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo Rivers and smaller creeks.
One of these sugar planters, John (later Sir John) Gladstone (1764-1851), wrote th on 4 January, 1836 to the Calcuttabased firm of Messrs. Gillanders
Arbuthnot & Co. stating, “You will probably be aware that we are very particularly situated with our Negro apprentices in the West Indies, and that it is a matter of doubt and uncertainty how far they may induce to continue their services on the plantations after their apprenticeship expires in 1840. This, to us, is a subject of great moment and deep interest in the colonies of Demerara and Jamaica. We are, therefore, most desirous to obtain and introduce labourers from other quarters, and particularly from climates something similar in their nature”.
Gladstone had already known that Indian indentured labourers were contracted to sugar estates in Mauritius where they were held in high regard as efficient labourers by the planters of that island; and he wished to have a number of these indentured labourers contracted to his
plantations in the West Indies. As a result of the interest of Gladstone and fellow planters of British Guiana including the brothers John and Henry
Moss (owners of Plantation Anna Regina), the first two coolie ships sailed from India with a total of 440 persons, 17 of whom did not survive the crossing of the Kaalaa Paanii. These immigrants were allotted to Gladstone’s sugar plantations at Vreeden- Hoop and Vreedestein, as well as four
more owned by others (Plantations Highbury, Waterloo, Belle Vue and Anna Regina).
The Gladstone Experiment began a process which eventually saw the introduction of just over 239,000 indentured labourers from India to British
Guiana between 1838 and 1917 when the system was brought to an end by the British.
Between 1843 and 1955, just over 77,000 of these immigrants were repatriated to India, the rest settling in British Guiana.
The impact upon the demography of British Guiana made by the increasing numbers of Indians who chose to remain in the colony is illustrated by the ratio of Indians to the entire population of British Guiana: 6% in 1851 rising to 25% in 1871 and then to 37.8% in 1891.
By the late 1960s, Indo-Guyanese comprised 51% of the population of the now independent Guyana. During the past 180 years, the original
Indian indentured labourers and their descendants, the Indo-Guyanese, have made immense and inerasable contributions to the development of the colony of British Guiana and its successor, the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
These persons of Indian origin have excelled in all fields of human activity in this country including business and commerce; banking and finance; the sugar and rice industries; coconuts and other crops; fisheries and livestock; mining and quarrying; forestry and sawmilling; education and academia; medicine and law; journalism and communications; accounting and insurance; private and national security;
the hospitality and aviation sectors; the alcohol and beverage industries; sports and entertainment; culture and religion; and politics and governance. Today, a fact that is not well known but has been widely publicized by the Indian Action Committee, which has clarified and corrected statistical errors pertaining to the arrival of the WHITBY and the HESPERUS, is that among the 423 persons that landed alive on 5 May, 1838 were 6 male, Christian, Anglo-Indian interpreters/ superintendents (Messrs. Gabriel Francis, Henry Jacobs, Charles Sharlieb, Jacob Tenhurry, Charles James Wiltshire, and William James Young).
Not only was the demography of this th country changed forever since 5 May, 1838, but also the religious and cultural aspects as well. Sanatan Dharma, also known as Hinduism, was introduced while Islam was resuscitated since it was already brought here from Africa during slavery
but was forgotten as a result of the efforts of the European colonists to suppress it in favour of Christianity. Along with these belief systems came
their accessories of places of worship (Mandirs, Masjids); holy books (Bhagavad Geeta, Holy Quran); holy songs (Bhajans, Quaseedas); musical
instruments (harmonium, dholak, tapu, dandtaal, jaal, sitar); and religious festivals and observances (Phagwah orHoli, Diwali, Janamashtami, Ram
Navmi, Navtraatri, Purnima, Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul- Adha, Youman Nabi). Cultural additions include foodstuffs (curry, dhal, roti, dhal puri, polouri, golgula, jalebi, peda, barfi, channa, gulab jamun, achaar, Muslim halwa, vermicelli); cooking utensils (tawa, karhai, lorha and sil, goblet, thali, belna); clothing and complementary articles (Sari, dhoti, shalwar, kameez, Muslim hijab, gharara/ lehenga, dupatta, khemar, bindi, mehendi,
Indian jewellery, nose ring, ghunghroo); and dance forms (Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Odissi). The effective adaptability of the Indian immigrants and their descendants, in this geographic space in the continent of South America, enabled them to plant deep roots and establish themselves successfully and this is evident today in the business and commerce sector of Guyana where exists such recognizable names as the Beharry Group of Companies (Edward Balkaran Beharry); Dr. Yesu Persaudn and Komal Samaroo of DDL; BK International Inc. (Brian Tiwarie); Queens Atlantic Investments (Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop); Mohamed’s Enterprise (Nazar Mohamed); Robert Badal of Pegasus and Guyana Stockfields; Kaieteur News (Mohan ‘Glenn’ Lall); RK Security (Roshan Khan, Sr.); Mike’s Pharmacy (Laikhram Singh); Crown Mining Supplies (Mahendra Persaud); Jack A. Alli & Sons (Ronald Alli); Gafoors (Sattaur Gafoor); E-Networks (Vishok Persaud); BM Soat Auto Sales (Basheer Mohamed); Tony’s Auto Spares (Tony Ramcharan); Caricom Auto Sales (Mohammed
Inshan); Farouk & B. A. Amin & Sons Ltd (Farouk Amin); Abdool Hakh & Sons (Abdool Hakh); RNK Investment Ltd (Rizwan Khan); Grand Coastal Inn (Mokesh Daby); A.M Khan & Sons (Ahmad Khan); Innovative Mining Inc. (Joe Jagmohan); El Dorado Trading (Tameshwar Jagmohan); S. Jagmohan
Hardware Supplies And Construction Services (Suresh Jagmohan); Silvie’s Variety Store (Rajendra Persaud); NTN Channel 18/69 (Anand Persaud); Roopan Ramotar Investments (Roopan Ramotar); Samaroo Investment (Doodnauth Samaroo); Infinity Colour Shop (Kishan Persaud); Gain Mart (Lalta
Gainda); and many others.
For many decades, these immigrants and their descendants had very little connection with India except for the occasional visits by religious persons and the arrival of Indian goods and materials brought by a few merchants; and Indian culture during that time became heavily influenced by the
introduction of Hindi films and music belonging to them. Many of these movies were religious in nature and their religious songs attained popularity amongst the Indians living here.
It was not until the establishment of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in May 2004, by the Government of India to deal with all matters relating to the Indian Diaspora around the world, that
major efforts were made to establish relations with Indo-Guyanese. Since then, several Indo-Guyanese have been honoured at the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and have received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman to honour exceptional and meritorious contribution in their chosen field or profession. Guyanese who have been awarded are Sir Shridath Ramphal (2003); Bharrat Jagdeo, former President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana (2004); Yesu Persaud (2006); and Donald Ramotar (2015).
Nationalist politics, leading to the independence of British Guiana in May 1966, was spearheaded by the Indo- Guyanese dentist, Dr. Cheddi Jagan (1918- 1997), after his return from the USA in 1943 and who, along with his wife and others, founded first the Political Affairs Committee in 1946 and then a full-fledged political party in 1950, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which unfortunately was split
asunder by the ambitions of his rival the Afro- Guyanese lawyer, L.F.S Burnham in 1955. Both Jagan and Burnham contested the 1957 General Elections as rival factions of the PPP and hav ng lost,
Burnham renamed his faction the People’s National Congress.
The history of Guyana since the 1955 split has been the rivalry between the PPP and the PNC for political power which led to violence and killings in the early 1960s followed by fraudulent elections between 1968 and 1985 resulting in the country descending into economic chaos and bankruptcy and
the concomitant departure of tens of thousands of persons of Indo-Guyanese origin to more stable countries.
After the victory of the PPP in October 1992 and during its 23 years in office, characterized by continuous destabilization by the political opposition of that period, additional tens of thousands of persons of Indo- Guyanese origin migrated, reducing the Indo-Guyanese component of the
population from 51% in 1970 to 39% in 2015.
Since May 2015, it is believed that this level of migration has continued unabated.
Even though hundreds of thousands of Indo-Guyanese have left these shores, religious practices and cultural customs remain strongly preserved and promoted and there is little fear that these will
vanish since Sanatan Dharma and Islam are extremely resilient while those Indo-
Guyanese who have become Christian converts still observe the old customs.
To this point, Guyana, since independence, has been a poor, underdeveloped third world country
afflicted with debilitating ethnic polarization between the two main ethnic groups. Until these fundamental divisions between the ethnic groups are understood and mitigated, even with
the exciting discovery of large amounts of petroleum and natural gas offshore, the future of Guyana is fraught with danger.
It is unfortunate that the majority of Guyanese politicians are not fully cognizant of the streams of division between these two groups that have retarded the development of this country and these seven streams must be studied assiduously and understood if we are to progress and move forward
for the benefit of all the citizens of Guyana.
These are the (1) historical; (2) religious; (3) cultural; (4) geographic; (5) occupational; (6) economic; and (7) political streams of division.
If the citizens of this country are not advised about the issues and problems arising from these seven streams of division, society will remain polarized and many more Indo-Guyanese will depart for other shores.