New York’s ‘Pioneer of Indian Television’ remembered

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

Dr (Banad) Viswanath, who has pioneered Indian and Guyanese oriented broadcasting programmes in New York, recently passed away. Almost every Indo-Guyanese New Yorker watched his “Vision of Asia” segment on TV during the 1970s and 1980s.

Although he was hardly seen on TV, with his loving wife Sathya being the face of the programme every Sunday morning with her humble clasped hands, “Namaste”, Vishwanath was well known by Guyanese community leaders who interacted with him.

He gave voice to Guyanese in New York. As Kali noted, Vishwanath, with encouragement from Kali (who sponsored programmes) and people like myself, helped in the promotion and institutionalization of Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean culture in NY.

The station employed a Guyanese, Larry Diaram, as its lead cameraman who promoted Guyanese events. Vishwanath supported the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Guyana during the PNC dictatorship.

Several Guyanese community and political leaders, including Dr Jagan and Kwayana, appeared on his programme. Accolades were showered on Dr Viswanath by Guyanese community leaders for his great humanitarian activities as well as for promoting Indo-Guyanese culture on TV.

Dr Vishwanath was a trailblazer for people of Indian origin in the fields of medicine and ethnic broadcasting in the US. After his medical studies in Mysore, India (in 1960 at 22), Vishwanath came to the US in 1962 to further his training in medicine.

He was trained at Baylor University Hospital under the legendary Dr Denton Cooley in Houston, Texas. He went on to a distinguished career as an eminent cardiologist in a medical career spanning more than five decades, practicing medicine until the end, working six days a week.

He performed hundreds, if not thousands, of surgeries. He was on the team that performed the first heart transplant in the US during the early 1980s.

But Viswanath is best known among Guyanese Americans as the “Pioneer of Indian TV” when he launched “Vision of Asia” in 1976, on WNJU TV Channel 47 (Jersey City). It was a ‘must see’ for PIOs and even for many Afro-Caribbeans, as it was the only ethnic TV programme that appealed to or featured them.

For the Guyanese and Caribbean community, Dr Viswanath will never be forgotten, for he has done much to promote our culture in the greater New York area. Thank you Dr Vishwanath and family for your noble work!

 Vishnu Bisram

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