In response to a request by his granddaughter, overseas-based Guyanese author Chetram Singh was inspired to travel all the way to India to research and document his ancestral heritage, in helping his family connect with their roots.
“The idea about writing this book came from my late eldest grandchild Deepa Devi Singh. She asked me if I could provide her with some information about our family; who they were; where they came from and how they ended up in Guyana. She was doing an assignment for her school that required this information. I realised although I am the eldest member of my immediate family alive today, I did not have all of the information she had requested,” Singh recalled in an interview with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine.
It dawned on Singh that there was no one else who could have provided such information for his granddaughter and for future generations in his family. This prompted the writer to begin researching his family background and to develop family trees for his future generations.
“I also decided to write an autobiography, fully realising that if I did not document interesting events in my life, these will also be lost to future generations. My book, “Autobiography of Chetram Singh”, contains information that others may find interesting but it has been prepared primarily for my children and grandchildren,” he explained.
Through his in-depth research, Singh found out that on November 25, 1887 the 1,598-ton ship Foyle, carrying immigrant workers from India to British Guiana, pulled into port Georgetown in British Guiana. It had left Calcutta about 112 days earlier with its cargo of 150 labourers recruited by the British sugar planters to work on their sugar plantations.
Heritage
On this ship was a youngster of about l0 years of age whose name was Raghunandan. He turned out to be Singh’s grandfather. According to the ship’s records, the name of Raghunandan’s father, Singh’s great grandfather, who also came on the same ship, was Jhandoo Singh and was a Thakur by caste. The Thakurs belong to the Kshatriya caste that was largely the rulers (Rajputs) and warriors of India. His lineage or Gotra was “Sandil”. The ship’s records also gave the place of birth of Raghunandan as Khiri, which, at that time, was a small village in Uttar Pradesh, not far from the Nepal border and just 100 kilometres from Lucknow, the capital of Utter Pradesh.
Today, Khiri, which is better known as Lakhimpur Khiri, has a population of more than l.5 million people.
Also on Foyle was another youngster, slightly older than Raghunandan, whose name was Nandkishore. He was a Brahmin by caste, and later became a respected Hindu priest on the Essequibo Coast. Raghunandan and Nandkishore became lifelong friends and, in fact, the latter became the godfather (guru) of most of Raghunandan’s children and grandchildren.
In Singh’s book, it stated that the labourers, Raghunandan and Nandkishore, had left India “bound” (contracted) to work at specific sugar plantations. The word “bound” was used instead of contracted and they were called “coolies” which is a corruption of the Tamil word “Kuli” meaning a porter or labourer. They were referred to as “bound coolies”. Raghunandan’s father (there is no record of his mother) and himself were “bound” to Anna Regina, a sugar plantation located on the Essequibo Coast.
The book added that Nandkishore’s parents were also bound for Anna Regina. Partly because they were reasonably well educated, and partly because of their respective castes, when they were old enough, Raghunandan and Nandkishore were promoted from the labour force to supervisory roles called drivers, as in a “slave-driver. The implication was that unless the labourers were “driven” to work by force, they would not work. The work force was divided into several gangs, each of which specialized in a particular task.
There was the “weeding gang” that cleared weeds from among the sugar cane plants using cutlasses; the “cane cutting gang” that harvested the ripe sugar cane, and the “shovel gang” that used shovels to keep the canals that were used to transport the sugar cane, free from silt. Each gang had its own “driver”, who all reported to a head driver who was given special status and privileges on the sugar plantation. For example, the head driver was provided with a house that was larger than those provided to the “drivers”, but below the standards provided to the white supervisors who were called “overseers”. The “head driver” was also provided with a horse to transport him when he visited the sugar cane fields and a boy assistant to attendant to his horse while he gave “orders” to the “drivers” who were working on the sugar cane fields.
Raghunandan
Raghunandan, according to Singh’s book, worked for many years as a “head driver”, firstly at Anna Regina sugar plantation, and later at Herstelling plantation on the East Bank of the Demerara. Raghunandan married twice while living at Anna Regina. His first wife, Secunti, bore him four children: two boys and two girls. He then married Budhni, Singh’s mother from Triumph village on the East Coast Demerara. She was born May 14, 1913 and was also called also ‘Janey’. They had four boys and three girls.
