In the 1960s, as Caribbean countries with large Indian diasporas were gaining independence, an idea popped up tens of thousands of kilometres away in New Delhi: let us teach them Hindi and Sanskrit.
The initiative was spearheaded by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, or ICCR, an agency under the Ministry of External Affairs. And its target were the descendants of indentured labourers sent from North India to Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname, most of whom primarily spoke Awadhi and Bhojpuri.
For its initiative, the ICCR recruited teachers from the Central Institute of Indian Languages and paid each about Rs 2,000 a month, which is equal to over Rs 1 lakh in today’s money. The name they were given was “cultural lecturers”.
The cultural lecturers worked independently, unattached to any institution, and more than lived up to their title. Apart from teaching those of Indian origin, they would serve as cultural ambassadors, teaching even those who did not have roots in India but had an interest in its culture. One of those cultural ambassadors was Yogi Raj.
Yogi Raj was sent by the ICCR to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, where 40% of the population was of Indian descent at the time of independence in 1966. During his time there, Yogi Raj supported and encouraged the opening of new Hindi schools in Guyana, including in isolated villages such as Princess Carolina.
“The Village Princess Carolina is situated at the West Bank of River Demerara...,” a report sent to the Ministry of External Affairs by the Indian High Commission in Guyana said. “There are no roads or streets in the small villages of this area. The means of communication is motor boats.”
“The population of this area is mostly of Indian descent,” the report added. “The teaching of Hindi and opening of a Hindi school is a new idea for them.”
Despite the novelty of the idea, Yogi Raj was able to convince enough villagers to get 80 children to enrol in the school. A teacher named Shri Ganga Persaud agreed to move to Princess Carolina and teach for free.
Welcome move
The ICCR initiative was welcomed by Guyana. Its government gave grants for evening classes to a number of cultural bodies that were already teaching Hindi, such as Guyana Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Gandhi Youth Organisation, American Aryan League (an Arya Samaj-affiliated group) and Sadri Islamic Anjuman.
In a June 1969 letter to the Ministry of External Affairs, SJ Wilfred, India’s High Commissioner in Georgetown, mentioned an organisation called the Bhartiya Guyanada Samiti that was “helping the ICCR lecturer in conducting Hindi and Sanskrit examinations in Guyana and also teaching Hindi and Sanskrit to people of Indian origin and other citizens” who were interested in the language. This organisation ensured that 62 schools in the mainland Caribbean nation taught Hindi.
The “ICCR Hindi lecturer also conducts the examinations of Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha of Madras,” Wilfred wrote. “Guyana, being an English speaking country, these simple examinations of Hindi Prachar Sabha, Madras, in English medium, suit the local students.”
In 1969, the newly-established Central Hindi Committee in New Delhi recommended that the Ministry of Education work with the Ministry of External Affairs to promote Hindi.
A letter was sent to Wilfred by BK Massand, joint secretary (Americas) at the Ministry of External Affairs, asking the High Commissioner’s opinion on the appointment of an officer at the mission “for the purpose of propagating Hindi and Sanskrit”. “Would the Indian mission prefer [the] establishment of a separate library of Hindi and Sanskrit books,” Massand added, “and could the Indian mission arrange it if the Ministry of Education provided the necessary finance?”
Another possibility raised in the letter was the establishment of a department of Indian studies where other modern Indian languages could be taught as well.
In his reply, Wilfred seemed enthusiastic about some of these propositions. He welcomed the “excellent idea” to appoint a special officer for Hindi and Sanskrit at the mission, saying it would fulfill “a long-needed necessity” in Guyana. He even suggested that the Bhartiya Guyanada Samiti get affiliated to the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and Central Sanskrit Board and conduct examinations in both languages.
But what he did not approve of was the idea of building a new library at the mission in the immediate future: he suggested stocking Hindi and Sanskrit books in the mission’s library instead. He also did not think any institution in the country could host a department of Indian studies at the time. “The University of Guyana is in the formative stage at present,” he wrote. “In another two or three years when it is well established, we may take up the question of establishing a department of Indian studies.”
Wilfred’s reply to Massand also included a critique of Yogi Raj’s work in Guyana. “The present Hindi Cultural Lecturer, sent by ICCR, is well versed in Hindi and Sanskrit but not in English,” Wilfred wrote. “He also does not know anything about music.” Wilfred recommended that the special officer for Hindi and Sanskrit at the mission “should be well versed in English and music, apart from having Hindi and Sanskrit qualifications, who would be able to play Harmonium etc., as a vast proportion of the population of this country is of Indian origin and they are very anxious to learn Hindi, Sanskrit and music...It is necessary that the new officer must have these qualifications to propagate Indian culture in this country.”
Divisive effect
As in Guyana, a proposal for promoting Hindi was made to the Indian High Commission in Port of Spain, which was accredited to Suriname (then spelt as Surinam) as well as Trinidad and Tobago. But while Trinidad and Tobago, which attained independence from Britain in 1962, welcomed the ideas from India, Surinam, which was still a Dutch colony, and its prime minister Jules Sedney were disapproving of them.
“During my recent visit to Paramaribo (Surinam), I discussed this matter with the Prime Minister of Surinam, but his reaction to our proposal of setting up the Hindi-cum-Sanskrit Centre there was not at all favourable,” LN Ray, India’s High Commissioner in Port of Spain, wrote in a confidential letter to the Ministry of External Affairs in August 1970. “The Prime Minister said that his Government could hardly agree to the Government of India undertaking cultural activities in Surinam as it would go against the policy of the present government which aims at an integrated Surinamese culture and hence could not encourage the promotion of the cultures of any of their ethnic groups, such as Indian, African or Indonesian.”
Ray said that Sedney felt the proposal would have a divisive, not cohesive, effect on the composite society of the country. “He went on further to state that Dutch was the official language for Surinam and hence his Government’s objective was to see that every citizen spoke and used only the official language.”
Despite his other reservations, Sedney was appreciative of the work of the cultural lecturer sent to Surinam, Mahatam Singh. His only demand was that Singh continue to work in the country as “a representative of a private, and not governmental organisation”.
It is clear from Sedney’s qualified demand that the Surinamese authorities did not mind members of the ethnic Indian community learning better Hindi. Their opposition was to the involvement of the Indian government, which they feared could influence the Indo-Surinamese community, comprising almost 38% of the population, to revolt against Dutch rule.
A confirmation of this can be seen in Ray’s letter. In it, he said Surinam’s education minister had requested India to send a music teacher, along with Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit teachers, but through private channels.
In 1970, Surinam refused to allow Indian research scholars to live in the country to study the local Hindi dialect. Its education minister was “dead against it,” said Ray. “He said that the local Hindi, as it was spoken, was a very debased form having no grammar and further mingled with deformed Dutch and English...The local Indians use it in a very informal manner and for most ordinary purposes.... [W]henever they are to address a gathering or put anything in writing, they try to use as chaste and Sanskritised Hindi as they can command.”
Suriname gradually loosened the restrictions on Indian government bodies teaching Hindi after 1975 when it became independent.
Still, promoting Hindi and Sanskrit was one way India strengthened bonds with the Caribbean nations. Another was through education. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, students from Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean countries studied in India on scholarships. With many of them becoming politicians and bureaucrats back home, the spread of Indian culture in the region became easier.
Today, the strong ties between the Caribbean and India are frequently on display. Whenever the Indian government organises initiatives centred around the diaspora, such as the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, some of the most enthusiastic participants are from the Caribbean.
Ajay Kamalakaran is a writer, primarily based in Mumbai. His Twitter handle is @ajaykamalakaran.
