The dangers of Rum and chutney culture

Guyana Times International interview with Swami Aksharananda

Part 1

Over in TT, Divali Nagar (Divali Town) is an annual event that attracts hundreds of thousands every year. At the opening of Divali Nagar 2012 TT’s Local Government Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan made a bold statement: “I am worried about the chutney culture and the rum culture which has seeped into the psyche of our peoples, to a point where I feel that it will be irreversible in the future.”
Rambachan is an outspoken Hindu leader, but it was a dramatic assessment from a minister concededly close to his prime minister. One who had introduced a TT$2 million prize to the “Chutney King” Rikki Jai with his “White Oak and Water”.
But as a point of fact there has been a vigorous debate in Trinidad over the cause and effect of the ‘rum and chutney’ phenomenon and its effect on Indians – and mostly Hindu masses, since it exploded in the new millennium. Trinidad literally had a factory of individuals that promoted the genre.
Most of the shows were sponsored by the beer and liquor companies and the songs explicitly urged on its mostly young audiences to imbibe without inhibition. The song that symbolises the rum and chutney culture was “Rum Till Ah die” by Adesh Samaroo.
The Trinidadian artistes created a huge and lucrative market in Guyana, using the same drawing card as in Trinidad – unlimited liquor and bacchanal for the young and not so young audiences. Especially in the rural areas, it was not unusual for these shows to draw at least 10,000 patrons.
Last year, Guyana Times  (GT) ran an analysis of the phenomenon by a New York academic Dr Joy Mahabir in a multi-part series and continued with a number of editorials on the subject later.
For a while, there was a vibrant discussion about the effects of ‘rum and chutney’ in Guyana.
In the penumbra of Dr Rambachan’s intervention, this newspaper solicited the reaction of a Guyanese Hindu leader with a comparative background. Guyana Times  International conducted an interview with Swami Aksharananda (SA), principal of the now famous SVN High School (Saraswati Vidya Niketan). Before he became a swami, he earned a PhD in Hindu Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
GTI: Thank you for accepting our request on such short notice.
SA: You’re welcome.
GTI: What do you think of Dr Rambachan’s statement?
SA: Firstly, I know Dr Rambachan very well. His brother Anand teaches comparative religion in the U.S. and he recently gave the feature address at the First Hindu Conference in New York. He also was very concerned at the deterioration of Hindu values in the Caribbean and its diaspora.
GTI: What exactly do you see to be the dangers of the “rum and chutney culture” and do you agree that it affects Hindus the most?
SA: I agree wholeheartedly to the last part. As to the first, we can start at the most visible effect: the scourge of alcoholism in the Indian and Hindu communities. This has been a problem ever since the British introduced rum to our people on the plantations to ensure they would dissipate their earnings and return to work to keep the factories and fields going.
Alcohol abuse sets up a whole syndrome of effects. The husband on the plantations traditionally drank out his earnings and would beat the wife just to prevent her from complaining when he got home. The children would be subjected to what is now given a name; Children of alcoholic parents.
GTI: Is this still true today?
SA: In my estimation, alcohol abuse is even more prevalent today. It used to be that mainly the men imbibed, but today, a wide swath of women – especially in rural areas – are matching their menfolk, glass for glass.
In our schools, we see every day the effects of alcoholic parents on their children. It is devastating. We need counselling for these children.
GTI: What about the “chutney” component?
SA: Chutney is part of popular culture. Firstly, the songs of the Maticore, which have been modified into “Chutney” served to introduce the bride-to-be into some of the physical aspects of marriage (we call it Kama) have been wrenched from their context – a totally feminine one, and made into a bawdy spectacle for titillation.
The songs of the Maticore, which had a sacramental nexus – since after its performance, a full puja would have been performed – have now been given a new nexus – with liquor. Popular culture now says that all of this is okay.  The degradation has now been reached with a bar being set up by the parents of the bride – all with a wall of speakers blaring chutney – even before the maro has been constructed.
To be continued next week…