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K74T wrote:Zoomindra you de fly dong for de funeral dey bai?
vaiostation wrote:Religious and cultural discrimination
(A throw back to one of Sat articles.)
Sat Maharaj
When Dr Eric Williams, first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, described all Hindu schools as "cowsheds," his supporters at Woodford Square enjoyed the sarcasm and disdain from the man whom some would like to describe "the father of the nation."
Rather than help the Hindu community transform these "cowshed" schools, he and his political party, the People's National Movement (PNM), continued the religious, cultural and even racial discrimination against the indian community and more especially the Hindus of Trinidad and Tobago. South of the Caroni River was regarded by the PNM government who ruled Trinidad and Tobago for 30 consecutive years (1956-1986), as foreign territory.
The roads were left unpaved and impassable, water to the households was at a premium and other services that were available to citizens elsewhere were denied the people south of the river. Even secondary schools for our children did not come to County Caroni and elsewhere in the countryside until a change of government in 1986.
Children from Felicity were sent to secondary schools as far as South East Port-of-Spain. Parents had to deliberately withdraw their children from these secondary schools because they full well understood the intent and purpose of the placement of the secondary school children.
But then Dr Eric Williams and the PNM were continuing the colonial policy of conversion and mixing of the races. Morton Klass in his book East Indians in Trinidad, focused on this problem in the following words: "As an indentured labourer on a sugar plantation of either Trinidad or British Guiana, the East Indian immigrant was required to assume a position within the plantation social system. The position in which he found himself was one only recently vacated by a freed slave."
Klass continued, "The plantation system had developed during slavery and it did not substantially change during the period of indentured labour. No provision was made for behaviour patterns appropriate to the immigrants' society of origin, and by the very nature of the system there was minimal opportunity for the exercising of such patterns."
Dr Cuthbert Joseph, Minister of Education and Culture in the PNM government, delivered a speech at the JFK lecture theatre UWI, St Augustine on August 12, 1981 in which, for the first time a PNM politician of his stature recognised the difficulties that Indians of Hindu and Islamic origin faced since their arrival on May 30, 1845 aboard the SS Fatal Razack. Dr Joseph said: A few facts will provide the evidence of cultural discrimination against Indians during the colonial period:
a. The recognition of imams as marriage officers for Muslims was conceded only in 1936 with the passing of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Ordinance.
b. The recognition of pundits as marriage officers for Hindus was legalised only in 1946 with the enactment of the Hindu Marriage Ordinance;
c. Legal provision was made for the cremation of the dead in accordance with Hindu rites only in 1953 through the passing of the Cremation Ordinance.
d. State assistance, offered since 1870 to Christian denominations, for the operation of denominational primary schools was extended to Muslims only in 1948 and to the Hindu community only in 1951;
e. Proposals for the introduction of universal adult suffrage in 1946 attempted to exclude sections of the Indian community through the application of a literacy test;
f. Up to the 1940s because of the high level of illiteracy then existing among rural Indians, a relatively small number of them were to be found in the Government Services and in the professions.
Writing about the cultural discrimination suffered by Indians in colonial Trinidad, CR Ottley had this to say: "It is of interest to observe that it was the wearing of the trousers, jacket and tie which first allowed him (the Indian) to make a breach in the high wall of social ostracism.
The Indian recognised that he could only enter into those sections of the social mosaic considered respectable, if he garbed himself in the common wear...Although his traditional wear was very much more in keeping with the climatic and economic conditions in which he had his being, to be accepted by members of the larger society he had to dress 'properly".
"Above all, and this placed him (the Indian) squarely outside the pale, he did not worship the one and only God existing at that time in Trinidad-the God Almighty of the Christians...To all and sundry he was a heathen, a fourth-class citizen living in a world of his own...This disdain and misinterpretation of the way of life of the Indian left him living in a sort of imperium in imperio in relation to the larger society."
• Satnarayan Maharaj Secretary General Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha
https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2. ... 9a1592c36e
It's all true and the PNM remains the same. Nothing has changed.Rovin wrote:vaiostation wrote:Religious and cultural discrimination
(A throw back to one of Sat articles.)
Sat Maharaj
When Dr Eric Williams, first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, described all Hindu schools as "cowsheds," his supporters at Woodford Square enjoyed the sarcasm and disdain from the man whom some would like to describe "the father of the nation."
Rather than help the Hindu community transform these "cowshed" schools, he and his political party, the People's National Movement (PNM), continued the religious, cultural and even racial discrimination against the indian community and more especially the Hindus of Trinidad and Tobago. South of the Caroni River was regarded by the PNM government who ruled Trinidad and Tobago for 30 consecutive years (1956-1986), as foreign territory.
The roads were left unpaved and impassable, water to the households was at a premium and other services that were available to citizens elsewhere were denied the people south of the river. Even secondary schools for our children did not come to County Caroni and elsewhere in the countryside until a change of government in 1986.
Children from Felicity were sent to secondary schools as far as South East Port-of-Spain. Parents had to deliberately withdraw their children from these secondary schools because they full well understood the intent and purpose of the placement of the secondary school children.
But then Dr Eric Williams and the PNM were continuing the colonial policy of conversion and mixing of the races. Morton Klass in his book East Indians in Trinidad, focused on this problem in the following words: "As an indentured labourer on a sugar plantation of either Trinidad or British Guiana, the East Indian immigrant was required to assume a position within the plantation social system. The position in which he found himself was one only recently vacated by a freed slave."
Klass continued, "The plantation system had developed during slavery and it did not substantially change during the period of indentured labour. No provision was made for behaviour patterns appropriate to the immigrants' society of origin, and by the very nature of the system there was minimal opportunity for the exercising of such patterns."
Dr Cuthbert Joseph, Minister of Education and Culture in the PNM government, delivered a speech at the JFK lecture theatre UWI, St Augustine on August 12, 1981 in which, for the first time a PNM politician of his stature recognised the difficulties that Indians of Hindu and Islamic origin faced since their arrival on May 30, 1845 aboard the SS Fatal Razack. Dr Joseph said: A few facts will provide the evidence of cultural discrimination against Indians during the colonial period:
a. The recognition of imams as marriage officers for Muslims was conceded only in 1936 with the passing of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Ordinance.
b. The recognition of pundits as marriage officers for Hindus was legalised only in 1946 with the enactment of the Hindu Marriage Ordinance;
c. Legal provision was made for the cremation of the dead in accordance with Hindu rites only in 1953 through the passing of the Cremation Ordinance.
d. State assistance, offered since 1870 to Christian denominations, for the operation of denominational primary schools was extended to Muslims only in 1948 and to the Hindu community only in 1951;
e. Proposals for the introduction of universal adult suffrage in 1946 attempted to exclude sections of the Indian community through the application of a literacy test;
f. Up to the 1940s because of the high level of illiteracy then existing among rural Indians, a relatively small number of them were to be found in the Government Services and in the professions.
Writing about the cultural discrimination suffered by Indians in colonial Trinidad, CR Ottley had this to say: "It is of interest to observe that it was the wearing of the trousers, jacket and tie which first allowed him (the Indian) to make a breach in the high wall of social ostracism.
The Indian recognised that he could only enter into those sections of the social mosaic considered respectable, if he garbed himself in the common wear...Although his traditional wear was very much more in keeping with the climatic and economic conditions in which he had his being, to be accepted by members of the larger society he had to dress 'properly".
"Above all, and this placed him (the Indian) squarely outside the pale, he did not worship the one and only God existing at that time in Trinidad-the God Almighty of the Christians...To all and sundry he was a heathen, a fourth-class citizen living in a world of his own...This disdain and misinterpretation of the way of life of the Indian left him living in a sort of imperium in imperio in relation to the larger society."
• Satnarayan Maharaj Secretary General Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha
https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2. ... 9a1592c36e
interesting stuff there
i wud like to see anybody who existed at d time to counteract anything false he said there for d knowledge of us all ........
He refused to be taken in by those who accused him of being a racist, insisting that he was a Trinidadian, a Hindu and a citizen of the world. People said his popularity was based on the schools he had built in cowsheds. His response was that it was better to be educated in a cowshed than not to be educated at all.
To the tens of thousands who passed through Bhadase’s cowsheds, there was no doubt in their minds. In a sense, he outgrew the DLP he had created, left the party and in the words of historian Michael Anthony, who wrote a short biography of Bhadase, he “fought on, like a lone gladiator”. He carried his battle to both the PNM and to the DLP. In parliament, he was a fierce critic and a true independent.
vaiostation wrote:It have a reason why the Chinese and Syrians don't mix with any outsiders. Their culture gives them their identity.
You know of any local cases of old men marrying children ?MaxPower wrote:SAT had any idea what child marriage entailed?
These old ass STINK infected men forcing themselves on these young defenseless girls and impregnating them.....how disgusting.
I am happy he is dead, its such a pity he died somewhat comfortable.
Btw, i am neither PNM or UNC...or affiliated with allyuh kinda people.
Condolences NOT.
sMASH wrote:cro cro time now!!
Cudjoe: Sat was T&T’s Martin Luther King
Anna Ramdass
Satnarayan Maharaj was yesterday likened to late freedom fighter Martin Luther King by Prof Selwyn Cudjoe.
Cudjoe was speaking at Maharaj’s funeral service held at Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College, St Augustine.
He reminded mourners that while Maharaj was absent in body, his spirit, his legacy and his love for Trinidad and Tobago will forever live on.
“No man or woman in this twin-island nation loved this island better than he did. And he loved with a rare devotion and pride,” Cudjoe said.
Cudjoe said people would want to compare Maharaj to anti-colonial nationalist Mahatma Gandhi but he felt Maharaj was more akin to Martin Luther King Junior because of his struggles and commitment to fighting for minorities.
Trinidad and Tobago was a broken nation in the 1970s and it was up to Maharaj and others to keep up the fight for minority rights, even though the minority Indo-Trinidadians were now a majority, Cudjoe said.
“Like Dr King, Sat Maharaj would go down in our history as one of the major architects in helping to perfect our union, to make ours a fairer society and to make this a better place in which to live,” he said.
Cudjoe said when he first learnt of his friend’s death he knew he had to return to Trinidad to pay tribute to this “great patriot”.
“Sat was dead and I had to be home to pay my respect to this great educator,” he said.
He disclosed that he first met Maharaj when former prime minister Patrick Manning set up a committee on race relations to allow parties to talk about race relations in the country.
He said they had exchanged insults in the newspapers but they were “chasing after shadows”.
Cudjoe said at first they were hostile to one another but then they discovered they both had one thing in common — they both were determined to advance the interest and welfare of their respective groups.
He said the committee helped in building that respect for humanity as he called for such a committee to be re-established.
Cudjoe said Maharaj fought for his group but he also did not forget the others.
He said when Maharaj collected $1 million from the Government for the repair of mandirs he contacted him and said, “Selwyn, I get mine, you go and get yours.”
He said people questioned Maharaj’s patriotism but he was a man who was “Trini to the bone” who did not want his ashes to be scatted in the Ganges in India but right here in the Gulf of Paria waters.
Cudjoe said Maharaj helped all to develop their national identity.
“Sat served his country by serving his people, but in so doing, he helped us all to develop our national identity and to recognise that Trinbagonianism comes in different forms and in different shapes, in different theological formulations and in varying religious alignments,” he said.
matr1x wrote:Rachel price fat jowels probably jiggling with fury.
Well when she not blowing someone to go to one of her "shows "
Rovin wrote:^^^after he sang about kamla "she's royal" ..... when $$$ passin ppl does do anything
The_Honourable wrote:Cro cro sing bout the man and all he have to show decades later is a government van from cepep
Dr. Williams called the Hindu schools cowsheds he did not intend to denigrate Hindu schools or Hindu children. He merely sought to deplore the condition in which the education of our school children took place.
Redman wrote:http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=6403
The Cowshed Fable
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 30, 2012
Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI want to congratulate my East Indian compatriots for the achievements they have made over the 167 years they have spent in Trinidad and Tobago and the enormous efforts they have made to carve out a space in these two beautiful islands in the West Indies. I also wish to congratulate Sat Maharaj for the herculean efforts he has made to improve the educational standards of his people and his determination to ensure that his people receive their rightful share of the national pie. When the history of the second half of the twentieth century is written I am certain he will take his place as one of the more outstanding Trinbagonians of the era.
I also wanted to thank Sat for inviting me to share in the Maha Sabha celebration of Indian Arrival Day and granting me the pleasure of meeting novelist Rambindranath Maharaj whom the Maha Sabha honored at their function for his literary achievements. Robin, a Robert Village Hindu School and Naparima College graduate, has made a name for himself in Canada. Sat compared his work to that of V. S. Naipaul but I am not in a position to critique that judgment since I have not read any of his novels. I intend to remedy that shortcoming in the very near future.
Many of the national luminaries of Indian descent, primarily government ministers, spoke with much enthusiasm about the sacrifices their forefathers and foremothers made to get them where they are today. They argued that those who went before carved the way for present achievers. Robin Maharaj took the position that their forebears completely disregarded their own sufferings confident that they were sacrificing themselves for the generations after them which raises the question: does any Indian generation ever live for itself?
As I listened to various speakers the whole theme of the evening revolved around the fabled nature of the cowshed; it being reported by all of the speakers that Dr. Eric Williams called the Hindu schools cowshed and look at what the cowsheds have produced? Sat Maharaj, the grandest luminary of all had to correct the younger ones by letting them know that when Dr. Williams called the Hindu schools cowshed, Badase Sagan Maraj, his father-in-law, declared: “It is better to educate a child in a cowshed than not to educate them at all.”
However, there is a problem with these apocryphal stories. In spite of their ethnic appeal they lose their real meaning as they are told from one generation to another. They are misconstrued and become uplifting fables which may have a moral but veer so far from the truth that anytime it is uttered it becomes yet another whip with which to beat the present generation of oppressors.
When Dr. Williams arrived on the scene in 1956 the conditions of the Hindu schools were quite deplorable as I presume the same was true of the non-Hindu schools. I went to Tacarigua E.C., a school that was built by enslaved Africans in 1838 and what in our days we called the “Cocoa House.” I went to that school from 1948 to 1954. It was just one open building with a large stage under which we placed the agricultural tools we used to till our school gardens that lay on the southern side of the Eastern Main Road near to the Vestry that was built in 1843.
In 1955 Badase was doing his best to build some schools for the Hindu children. Dr. Williams deplored the fact that the East Indian schools looked like cowsheds and vowed to do a better job of school building for all of the children, Hindu as well as Christian children, when he came into power. Although present Hindu lore has it thatDr. Williams called the Hindu schools cowsheds he did not intend to denigrate Hindu schools or Hindu children. He merely sought to deplore the condition in which the education of our school children took place.
None of the speakers at the Dinner could forego the temptation to hit out at the PNM administration—read Black people—for all of the evils that the Black people had done to them. The only problem with such a narrative is that it only tells us part of the story rather than the whole story. In fact, the only way to understand what happened to East Indians between 1955 and 2010 is to tell the whole story; contextualize the issue; and opt for racial healing rather than fanning the flames of racial hatred in a subliminal manner.
One only has to compare the progress East Indians made in the society from 1917, the year in which indentureship ended, to 1955, the year when PNM came on the scene, with the progress East Indians made from 1955 to 2010 to understand the apocryphal nature of the cowshed tale. Use any yardstick and one would see that the cowshed story is only a fanciful story that is told from generation to generation to fan the flames of racial hatred and continue to remind the present generation that they really have an enemy when none is there. And while they do not name the enemy, it is inferred.
And this is why I appreciated the closing sentiments of Robin Maharaj’s response. “He warned East Indians present that they must be proud without being vain; celebratory without being jingoistic.” In this, I thought he hit the correct note. Although a historian may want to mark this present time in our history as the moment when the East Indians were fully inculcated and recognized in the society, it should not be used as an opportunity to emphasize their exclusivity but as a time to affirm their Trinbagonianness; a moment when the society opens its arms to welcome another strand of its many fabrics.
While we are at it, it may be wise to drop the cowshed fable. It only tends to divide rather than bring us together as a multi-ethnic society with all of the richness that such a society implies.
And yes, Happy East Indian Arrival Day!
maj. tom wrote:Good article, and research from an actual historian! Lots of people like to distort the stories they think they heard about our history, but here a real academician historian who has the authority on the subject has recorded the facts on paper, and it shall be known thus.
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