Dear Editor,
The independence anniversary of any country is a major landmark, not to speak of its golden jubilee, and currently there are widespread signs of celebration and enthusiasm, clearly evident in, at least, one section of our population.
We now know of the duplicity and machinations of the American and British governments along with the connivance of the PNC to overthrow the PPP and to deny Cheddi Jagan an opportunity to lead the nation into independence. This is now commonly accepted history.
In many parts of the then colonial world independence came after long, bitter and often bloody struggles, but in our case the bloodshed, in the 1960s, that heralded our independence was that of the two principal ethnic groups since by that time our politics had already become irremediably split along ethnic lines. I know that much energy has gone into establishing who started the killings and who merely retaliated as if this, in and of itself, would absolve any group of its complicity and involvement.
The fact of the matter is that by the time independence finally came we had experienced one of the bloodiest periods in the country’s history occasioned by ancient ethnic insecurities and fears and fuelled by the dominant international powers that had a control of the hemisphere and their indigenous collaborators. The wounds were still fresh in 1966.
Given the ethnic political polarization of the country, the jubilation and triumphalism in one section of the population contrasted with the sense of loss, foreboding and humiliation in the other, May 26, 1966 was seen not only as initiating freedom from Britain, but also as one ethnic group triumphing over the other.
In most countries political parties that lose elections quickly get reconciled with their loss and continue with their business. In the case of Guyana, however, there was a prolonged struggle to “oppose, expose and depose” the PPP after the general elections of 1961. Racial tensions prevalent during the elections campaign worsened in the years immediately after engulfing the entire nation.
One of the places in Guyana that became the deadliest theatre for the conflict was Wismar, later to become Linden. A staggering number of more than 1600 Indians were forced to flee the town in the biggest refugee movement, with the usual atrocities, ever seen anywhere in the Caribbean. The climax and culmination of this dreadful episode was 26 May 1964.
It was to commemorate this day of victory that 26 May was chosen as Guyana’s Independence Day. The brutality and humiliation that was inflicted on the Indian population on those few fateful days in Wismar in May 1964 was our first successful attempt at ethnic cleansing. But far more dreadful things have happened in other parts of the world, and broken and dehumanised people have been able to pull themselves together and move on, and even triumph in the end.
Given the more than fifty years that have intervened since our hour of shame, we too could have transcended those dark days. But by selecting 26 May as the date for our independence, when alternative dates were suggested, the powers that be wanted to ensure that Indians never forget their collective humiliation and their tenuous place in this society.
Commemorating Independence on 26 May is also celebrating the 26 May Wismar atrocities against Indians. After all, wasn’t this what was intended, a perennial reminder of what can happen again?
Swami Aksharananda
