GU ~ Indo-Grenadian Culture pg1-Viechweg

Abolition, Indentureship and Creoleness:

Reflections on the Indo-Grenadian Predicament

Raymond D. Viechweg

GRENADA UNCOVERED

An uncommon view of Grenada’s geo-cultural beauty

This effort was dedicated to the 200^th anniversary of the abolition of the African slave trade and, coincidentally, to the 150^th anniversary of the arrival of East Indian indentured servants to Grenada. Both Indians and Africans, together with a smaller percentage of Europeans form the ethnic basis of present day Grenadian culture. This article underscores the value of Grenada's minority East Indian culture, and makes a case for protecting the remains of that culture so that it expresses itself with a degree of pride and confidence, equal to that of the dominant Afro-Grenadian culture.

Abolition, Indentureship and Creoleness:

Reflections on the Indo-Grenadian predicament

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A meeting of Cultures

The abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 signaled the end of the trade in African slaves and the beginning of the trade in Indian indentures. As such, it meant the continuous intermixing, or creolizing, of cultures that would eventually place the Grenadian Indian in a position of cultural vulnerability. When Indians arrived in Grenada in 1857, they found themselves in a position subordinate to a dominant Anglo-African creolization. The occasion of the abolition of the slave trade should be commemorated neither as spectacle, nor as a mere dramatization, but as a marker which from year to year will chart the progress made towards mitigating the hegemonistic tendencies within Grenadian creolization. Hegemony is the tendency of one group to exercise dominance over other groups, even without the threat of force. In hegemonies, the espoused beliefs, values and philosophies of the dominant group are empowered, almost to the exclusion of others. In Grenada, Indians have functioned within and alongside the dominant Afro-Grenadian cultural formation for 150 years now. So, as we commemorate the abolition of the slave trade, we must simultaneously commemorate the addition to Grenadian culture of an indispensable East Indian component. Today, as we remember the perils of the slave trade, so should we also remember the perils of the journey from India. As we remember the end of the slave trade, so should we also remember the beginning of indentured labour. Today, unfortunately, we must lament the absence of any monuments to Indian contributions to Grenadian nationhood and culture. Hopefully, through the lamentation, a solution may appear.

The event of 1807 brought the Indian cultural experience to the ongoing process of Grenadian creolization that was already influenced by the Caribs, the French, the Africans and the English. Without a properly negotiated role in the intermixing process, a minority culture can suffer irreparable losses, not to speak of their being silenced under the dictates of the dominant cultural formation within that creolization. Indians in Grenada, despite some brave efforts, suffered the loss of the culture they brought from India, primarily through proselytizing schemes by the English Churches; whatever was left of their weakened culture, was absorbed, or subsumed, in the dominant Anglo-African culture. Indian culture in Grenada was weakened for other reasons, too, including an eventual apathy by Indians, themselves, in continuing to asserting their cultural privileges. Experience has shown that attachment to one’s inherited culture makes for a stronger contribution to nation building; when there is not that cultural attachment, education in culture and history should commence in order to fill the attachment gap. Noorkumar Mahabir in his study of East Indians in Grenada, begins with a quote from Jomo Kenyatta’s 1938 “Facing Mount Kenya,“ where Kenyatta powerfully describes the value of one’s inherited culture:

“It is the culture which (a man) inherits that gives a man his human dignity as well as his material prosperity. It teaches him his mental and moral values and makes him feel it worthwhile to work and fight for liberty. (Mahabir in Bahadursingh, 370)

At one time the Indians of Grenada were significantly equipped with their inherited culture, but after conversion they were not to look favorably upon their Hindu and Muslim traditions. Religious conversion was not the only condition adverse to Indian cultural survival, but it had the most profound effect. Since the traditional Indian religions were the gatekeepers of culture, Christian conversion meant the quick decimation of the Indians’ inherited traditions. Indentureship lasted for 33 years (1857–1890) and in that period more than 70 percent of Grenadian Indians were Christianized. The question remains: Is it possible, or even worthwhile, to resuscitate Indian culture in Grenada?

I believe it is possible, and worthwhile, to resuscitate Indian culture in Grenada. Obviously, resuscitation will neither be aided by a simplistic reversion to traditional Indian religions, nor by merely learning the old languages, but by a historical awareness of Indian cultural expression in Grenada. No method of cultural resuscitation will succeed, without an associated focus on the history of that culture to be resuscitated. I agree with Merle Collins when she recommends an associated teaching of the history of the kriol languages, as well as of the history of the imported communities, along with their grammars. Likewise, because culture experiences the same creolized process as language, there may be a need for an associated teaching of Indo-Grenadian cultural history, along with any attempts at resuscitating, or even just evaluating, Indian cultural practices that are now submerged in the African-dominated creolization of Grenada.

The creolizing process does not occur without bargaining and concessions. In fact, it is in the bargaining process that an education in history becomes advantageous. The bargaining process may have ensured the Indians their physical survival in exchange for the surrendering of their cultural capital. But, by any standard of conscience or social justice, the imbalance in such an exchange cries out for rectification. In fact, in the creolization process, there were outright dictatorial forces to which the minority Indian culture inevitably succumbed. Therefore, in a contentious cultural environment, Indo-Grenadians will need all the informational input they can muster in order to strengthen their stance. John Ford observes the contentious nature of the creolization process when he asserts that:

The process of negotiation, jockeying for social

position, struggling for material advantage and

cultural expression has not, of course, taken place

in a context of democratically agreed reforms. (Ford, 3)

Belair Presbyterian Church, originally founded for the conversion of indentured Indians

Belair Presbyterian Church (updated)

One of the original Church locations used by English colonialism in their successful bid to convert the early East Indians

Ford, further, agrees with Nigel Bolland that:

Creolization should not be understood as a homogenizing process but as a process of contention. (Ford, 3)

For each cultural community it will take education, thought and discursive contention in order to decipher and appropriate the culturally distinct elements of its Grenadian identity, that are typically buried somewhere within the misperception of a monolithic Grenadian culture. Grenadians generally appear as one people, based on a careless assumption that the nation is all-African. We are not, regrettably, united on the true basis of our cultural plurality. For a validation of our plurality there must be an identification of the singularities that constitute that plurality, or there is no plurality. Palpably, and quite fortunately, there are still cultural areas where heterogeneity explodes in its full splendour.

One such explosion of heterogeneous plurality is at carnival. Carnival is an experience that provides a working basis for an investigation of our Grenadian heritage(s). At Carnival, the imitation of Caribs, as Wild Indians, by both Africans and East Indians, occurs even as we use African melodies that are expressed in Grenadian Patwa (same as Patois). Another explosion of heterogeneity is where at a Grenadian party, for example, one does not find the insularity in musical selections you would find in North American parties. A North American party may consist of Hip Hop, and only Hip Hop; R & B, and only R & B; Rock, and only Rock; even Jamaicans often give you Reggae, and only Reggae; and, Trinidadians often jam with only Soca. In a Grenadian party, there usually is an eclectic mix including all of the above, and more. Dances can range anywhere between Passa Passa and Waltz. The reason why this mix-up occurs, is because Grenada is actively engaged in the negotiations of a heterogeneous creolization. In the creolization process, the results are not the hegemonic pretensions to completeness, definitiveness, perfection and closure. There is no homogenous totality in our negotiated cultural forms. The result is always open-ended, in progress, allowing for the entry of new cultural negotiators.

I believe an increased knowledge of our Indian heritage will result in an enrichment of the negotiation process in a significant way. I think conscious agency will benefit the marginalized Indian voice, especially since Grenadian Indians have been silenced to the point that there has never even been an Indian holiday in Grenada. Where is the support

for a celebration of Indian Independence, the way African Liberation Day is celebrated? Where is the recognition of Hosay or Divali, consistent with our recognition of our Christian holidays? Again, where are our Indian monuments and heroes? We should, at least, re-commence our Indian Arrival Day celebration in Grenada. I believe in the long run many Grenadians including half-Indians (douglahs), and others, will benefit from an increased understanding of our Indian heritage.

Let us take for example, and this is where a confluence of purely incidental factors has resulted in my added interest in the cause of Indian cultural resuscitation, the event marking the 100^th anniversary of the coming of Indians to Grenada:

The Indian Centenary celebration was held

on May 1^st, 1957 in an elementary school in

Belmont, St. Andrews. It was an occasion

which drew Indians by bus, car and foot to

honour the surviving ex-indentured immigrants.

Indians were dressed in dhoti, sari and ohrini

and were informed about Indian history in

Grenada and about the significance of

Indian Arrival Day. There were songs dance

and music. (Mahabir in Bahadursingh, 387)

Let me correct two bits of information from the above quote. First, Belmont is near the border of St. Patricks and St. Andrews, but actually located in St. Patricks, and not in St. Andrews. Second, the school mentioned is actually the old Hermitage Government School, located near the extended reaches of Belmont Estate. An Indian, Nobert Nyack, who was one of the wealthiest Grenadians at the time, owned Belmont Estate.

Location of Indo-Grenadian centenary celebration in 1957

Location of the Centenary celebration in 1957

Hermitage Elementary School was located here, in the Callaloo section of Hermitage. The banana patch to the right of the white house marks the exact location.