A. Introduction
Cultural festivals of British India, of Hindu and Muslim origin, were transplanted for the very first time into the New World of the Americas and the Caribbean by the introduction of Indian immigrants, mainly indentured laborers, sent to work on sugar plantations in British Guiana by way of the Coolie Ships WHITBY and HESPERUS, which arrived on 5th May, 1838.
Three of these festivals, namely, Holi or Phagwah, Deepavali or Diwali, and Eid-ul-Adha, have been legally designated national holidays of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Holi or Phagwah is a very popular and colorful festival celebrated with more vigor in North and Central India than in Southern India.
Diwali, derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Deepavali’, meaning “a row of lights,” falls on the new moon night of the month of Kartika and is celebrated over a period of five days.
Eid-ul-Adha is an Islamic festival to commemorate the willingness of the Holy Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) to follow Allah’s (God’s) command to sacrifice his son, Ishmael.
B. Major Hindu Festivals
Festivals which are associated with Hindu deities are an important means of spiritual regeneration in Sanatan Dharma or Hinduism. And through these festivals, Hindus affirm their faith in their religion, culture and spiritual heritage that has existed for over ten thousand years.
The fixed dates for the celebration of festivals are determined by the Hindu lunar calendar, called Panchanga, meaning “the five limbs”, which is based upon the daily rising and setting of the moon and on its waxing and waning characteristics.
The lunar month is divided into two 15-day parts. Beginning with the new moon, the subsequent 15 days culminating in the full moon (Purnima) are called waxing or bright fortnight (Shukla Paksha). The next 15 days following the full moon culminate in the new moon (Amavyasa) and are called waning or dark fortnight (Krishna Paksha).
The lunar year consists of twelve months of 30 days each. The calendar adds an extra month once every five years to correct for the difference between the solar and the lunar years.
The names of the months of the lunar year are: (1) Chaitra (March-April); (2) Vaisakha (April-May); (3) Jyeshtha (May-June); (4) Ashada (June-July); (5) Sravana (July-August); (6) Bhadrapada (August-September); (7) Asvina (September-October); (8) Kartika (October-November); (9) Agrahayana (November-December); (10) Pausha (December-January); (11) Magha (January-February); and (12) Phalguna (February-March).
In the Hindu calendar, the days of the week are believed to be governed by deities. Sunday is ruled by the Sun (Ravi) and is called Ravivar (var means day); Monday is called Somavar and is ruled by the Moon (Soma); Tuesday or Mangalvar is ruled by Mars (Mangal); Wednesday is ruled by Mercury (Budh), hence Budhvar; Thursday is ruled by Jupiter (Brahaspati) and is called Bhraspativar; Friday or Shukravar is ruled by Venus (Shukra); and Saturday is ruled by Saturn (Sani) and is called Sanivar.
The major festivals of India are: (a) Vasant Panchami; (b) Mahashivaratri; (c) Holi or Phagwah; (d) Ugadi; (e) Ramanavami; (f) Raksha Bandhan; (g) Janmashtami; (h) Ganesha Chaturti; (i) Durga Puja or Navaratri; (j) Dussehra; (k) Onam; and (l) Diwali.
C. Diwali
Diwali, which falls on the new moon night of Kartika, is associated with several mythological stories. According to one story, Lord Krishna is believed to have destroyed the demon Narakasura on the first day of Diwali, and in some parts of India, effigies of Narakasura are burned on Diwali to celebrate the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon.
In North India, the second day of Diwali is dedicated to the worship of the sacred hill Govardhana, near the town of Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna which is a site of deep religious significance to the devotees of Vishnu Bhagavaan and Sri Krishna, who is the eighth incarnation of Vishnu Bhagavaan.
Hindus also believe that on the day of Diwali, Lord Rama returned from exile to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana, King of Lanka; and the people of Ayodhya celebrated the return of Lord Rama by lighting thousands of diyas (clay lamps).
Hindus also worship the Goddess Lakshmi, also called Shri, in their households on the auspicious day of Diwali, with religious rituals and ceremonies especially devoted to her.
Diwali is celebrated by Hindus with extraordinary festivity, with the first day being considered very auspicious for the purchase of new clothes, utensils, house wares and other items. Houses are cleaned and painted to sanctify them. Utensils are cleaned and cushions and upholstery of furniture are changed. People wear new clothes and take pledges to begin a new life. Shops and offices are decorated with colored electric lights. Businessmen in India close their old account books and begin new ones. At dusk, homes and shops are illuminated with colored lights followed by fireworks. People exchange gifts and visit friends and relatives.
In Guyana, a week of motorcades precedes the festival of Diwali which is celebrated with religious services and lighting of diyas as darkness falls. Families, which have suffered bereavement of a very close member, do not celebrate Diwali and their residences remain unlit in recognition of the departed.
Guyanese often travel for many miles to observe and enjoy brightly lit residences, especially in rural areas where hospitality abounds.
D. Worship of Goddess Lakshmi
In Guyana, Hindus throughout the country venerate Lakshmi Maataa, the goddess of wealth and prosperity and who is the divine spouse of Vishnu Bhagavaan, providing him with wealth for the maintenance and preservation of creation.
The word “Lakshmi” is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Laksme’, meaning “goal”, and thus Goddess Lakshmi stands for the goal of life, which includes worldly prosperity, as well as spiritual prosperity.
In her images and pictures, Lakshmi Maataa is depicted in a female form with four arms and four hands. She wears red clothes with a golden lining and is seated on a lotus. She has gold coins, a half-opened red lotus and a golden, fully blossomed lotus in her hands. An owl and four elephants are shown next to her.
The four arms symbolize the four directions denoting omnipresence and omnipotence of Goddess Lakshmi. The red color symbolizes activity. The golden embroidery on her red dress denotes prosperity. Her four hands represent the four goals of human life: (i) dharma (righteousness); (ii) kama (genuine desires); (iii) artha (wealth); (iv) moksha (liberation). Her front hands represent the activity in the physical world and her back hands indicate the activity in the spiritual world. The half-blossomed red lotus in her back left hand conveys the idea that one must perform all duties in accordance with one’s dharma. The fully-blossomed lotus in her back right hand symbolizes moksha. The owl sitting next to gold coins signifies that one must not be blinded by material wealth and dwell in ignorance, since the passion for possessiveness leads to suffering and injustice in the world. The four elephants spraying water on Goddess Lakshmi from golden vessels convey the idea that continuous self-effort, in accordance with one’s dharma and governed by wisdom and purity, leads to both material and spiritual prosperity. The seating of Goddess Lakshmi, who is always busy distributing wealth and prosperity to her devotees, on a lotus signifies that when one lives in this world, one can enjoy its wealth, yet not become obsessed with it.
E. Diwali from Indentureship to Independence
Every morning in the sub-continent of India, a deer or gazelle wakes up and knows that it must run faster than the fastest tiger or leopard or get killed. Every morning also in India, a tiger or leopard wakes up and knows that it must run faster than the slowest deer or gazelle or starve to death; so, whether one is a deer or gazelle, a tiger or leopard, when one wakes up in the morning, one has no choice but to run as fast as one can.
The Indian immigrants who arrived in British Guiana and the Caribbean likewise had no choice but to work as hard as they could with each new day of toil.
These immigrants, who were mainly indentured laborers, totaling just over 239,000, arrived in British Guiana between 1838 and 1917 on 245 Coolie Ships. The ships made a total of 534 voyages across the Kaalaa Paanii filled with Indians who left India for the betterment of their lives and the future of their children.
The vast majority of them were poor, of low caste, illiterate and uneducated. Of this number, the Hindus, comprising approximately 80 percent, transplanted the festival of Diwali into the New World.
They migrated from a vast sub-continent which, at the time, was being plundered and pillaged by the East Indian Company of Great Britain, which had traded extensively in India for 150 years before its conquest of Bengal in 1757.
During this period, India was relatively advanced economically. Its methods of production and its industrial and commercial organizations definitely comparing with those prevailing in western Europe. In fact, India had been manufacturing and exporting the finest muslins and luxurious fabrics since the time when most western Europeans were backward primitive people.
After the conquest of Bengal, the East India Company became the ruling power in much of India, and previous trade turned to harsh exploitation. It has been estimated that, between 1757 and 1815, the British took between £500 million and £1000 million of wealth out of India. The incredible magnitude of this sum can be appreciated only when compared with the £36 million that represented the total capital investment of all the joint stock companies operating in India.
The main policy of the East India Company during these years was to extract as much wealth as possible from India in the shortest possible time. Thousands of greedy company officials sought personal fortunes overnight, their only thought being to wring some hundreds of thousands of pounds out of the natives as quickly as possible and hurry home to Britain to display their wealth. Enormous fortunes were, thus, rapidly accumulated at Calcutta, while over thirty million human beings were reduced to the extremity of wretchedness. In fact, in their blind rage for enrichment, they took more from the Bengali peasants than those peasants could furnish and live; and the peasants duly died.
The second goal of the East India Company was to discourage or eliminate India manufacturers and make India independent on British industries by forcing the Indians to concentrate on raw materials and export them to supply the textile looms and other British manufacturers. The total effect of this policy, which was brutally, methodically and successfully executed, was that the British administration of India systematically destroyed all the fibers and foundations of Indian economy and substituted, for it, the parasitic land owner and moneylender. Its commercial policy destroyed the Indian artisan and created the infamous slums of the Indian cities filled with millions of starving and diseased paupers. Its economic policy broke down whatever beginnings there were of an indigenous industrial development and promoted the proliferations of speculators, petty businessmen, agents, and sharks of all descriptions eking out a sterile and precarious livelihood in the meshes of decaying society.
This was the India left behind by these
239,000 immigrants who arrived in the colony of British Guiana. Some 76,000 of them eventually returned to their homeland. The vast majority of them, labored for long hours on the sugar plantations of British Guiana; endured great hardships in a snake-infested and a mosquito-ridden, malarial, swampy environment which took the lives of many. Those who survived the British in India and then their working conditions in British Guiana were aided in this by tenaciously holding on to their ancient cultures of Sanatan Dharma and Islam and resisting, strongly, all efforts to Christianize them.
In British Guiana, the separation of the rural Indians from the urban Africans prevented social mixing and allowed the former to preserve their religious and cultural traditions including the festival of Diwali.
In Guyana today, however, following the end of the indentureship system in 1920, and the social expansion of East Indians due to accumulated wealth, higher education, their rise in the business sector and ascent to political power, has brought Indians out of their rural isolation to the extent that the festival of Diwali is now a national holiday for Guyanese of all ethnicities to participate in and enjoy.
