A community trapped in the colonial past! Trinidad express

EDITORIAL
As the election fever heats up and political parties ramp up for what may well be the nation’s most decisive general election, the traditional turbulence reigns, nerves are becoming frayed and votes of no confidence strike like flashes of lightning amidst the dark and dismal cloud of racial profiling which has doggedly dominated our electoral process from time immemorial.
Regrettably, we have become so culturalised in this tradition that the profiling is now taken for granted and we find ourselves settling for the most despicable effects of this curse, uninformed of the colonial precedents which gave rise to this predicament: a double edge sword dividing marrow and bone, and placing a wedge between the nation’s soul and spirit.
Although we have emerged from the inglorious shackles 53 years ago, we continue to wallow in the atrocities and injustices of that unholy era.
Much of the reason for this is documented in dissertations produced by our prominent scholars including Sir Shridath Ramphal, Sir Vidia Naipaul and the late Lloyd Best, Lloyd Braithwaite and C L R James. But, as is the case with so many others, these works gather dust on bookshelves all over the world.
Viranjini Munasingh, an associate professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at Cornell University, in an interview conducted by Asia Society referencing her book titled, Callaloo or Tossed Salad?: East Indians and the Cultural Politics of Identity in Trinidad, made the point that “colonial policies and racial theories continue to influence contemporary politics on the island. The division between the two major ethnic groups comprising Trinidad’s population, the Afro-Trinidadian and the Indo-Trinidadian, which is marked and reproduced by race rhetoric and ethnic stereotypes with both groups jealously guarding what they believe to be their legitimate terrain, can be traced to colonial policy. East Indians were brought to Trinidad as “scab labour” to drive down the bargaining power of the Afro-Trinidadians. Thus, East Indians from the beginning occupied a structurally antagonistic position to Afro-Trinidadians”.
If we, as a people, accept the account given by Prof Munasingh, then we will surely come to terms with the environment within which we have allowed ourselves to be slavishly trapped without even recognising it.
Prof Munasingh went on to state, “Planters were also instrumental in creating particular kinds of discourses about the character of the “Indian” and the “Negro” in order to make their case for the need for indentured labour. Caricatures of the luxury-loving, lazy, immoral Negro and of the docile, hardworking and cunning Indian abound in planter discourses of the period soon after emancipation. Many of these derogatory racial stereotypes continue to this day as the two groups use these same caricatures to undermine one another.”
These are very incisive and instructive theories of colonial impositions espoused by Prof Munasingh. To the extent that our leaders continue to conceal these historical accounts from us, and more particularly from our young people, to an even greater extent will we continue to be manipulated by those whose agenda for the future of our nation is grounded by no passion other than their lust for selfish and immoral gain.
In answer to the question: what historical factors contributed to the development of the Indo-Trinidadian community as distinct and isolated from the larger Trinidadian population? Prof Munasingh responded: “Historically a host of factors functioned to situate East Indians as separate from the rest of Creole society. Soon after arrival in Trinidad, Indian indentured labourers were banished to the sugar estates concentrated in the flatland or rolling hills of the western side of the island, later known as the sugar belt, thereby subjecting them to spatial isolation. As indentured labourers they were legally differentiated from the rest of the population and were subject to a number of laws that restricted their mobility and hence their contact with the wider society. Occupationally, they were confined to the cultivation and processing of cane. Thus the majority of East Indians were confined to the rural agricultural sector. Religious and cultural differences coupled with their inability to speak English, underscored their alienation from the rest of the population. Very little effort was made by the colonial government to integrate East Indians into the rest of society. Even education functioned to separate East Indians. The Canadian Presbyterian missions catered exclusively to East Indians and instruction was in Hindi.”
By its enlightened policy of universal free secondary education, the PNM closed the chapter on this colonial separatist injustice.
It is time that we rid ourselves of those who subliminally or openly perpetuate the race card especially at election time. Maturity demands that we exercise our franchise based on the fullness of information and in accordance with the dictates of our conscience. Let not our people perish for lack of wisdom.