Synopses & Reviews
Clem Seecharan brings together two visions of Caribbean history, one public, the other personal, in his discussions of race, culture and politics in Guyana and the Caribbean. In bringing together conventional” but always insightful studies of Indo-Caribbean history (and essays on Walter Rodney and CLR James) with autobiographical explorations of the construction of his point of view, he brings rare honesty to the discussion of a historiography that is adequate to the regions diversity. Shaped over a period of twenty years, this is an elegantly written, scholarly but highly accessible, collection of essays that are essentially a map of how one of the Caribbeans most distinguished historians has sought to discover himself through practise of his craft. It covers new ground in Indo-Caribbean history primarily, but it also explores innovatively aspects of the intellectual legacy of four eminent Caribbean writers and thinkers: Guyanese poet, Martin Carter, Guyanese historian, Walter Rodney, Nobel laureate, V.S. Naipaul, and C.L.R. James, author of one of the great books of the 20th century, Beyond a Boundary (1963). Several of the pieces by Professor Seecharan, author of many books, including Sweetening Bitter Sugar: Jock Campbell, the Booker Reformer in British Guiana, 1934-66 (awarded the prestigious Elsa Goveia Prize in 2005 by the Association of Caribbean Historians), adopt a revisionist approach in revisiting the migration of indentured labourers from India to the Caribbean, between 1838 and 1917. He challenges many of the received assumptions on the subject; and he rejects that it was a new system of slavery; that all the people were duped or kidnapped into indentureship; indeed, that the migrants had no agency in the process. He counters that the reverse was invariably the case, documenting that most women and men dared to travel alone, fleeing a life of utter despair in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India to greater social freedom and a modicum of material success flight to Guyana and Trinidad could therefore be considered, in most cases, an escape to freedom. Seecharans essays demonstrate that the struggles on the plantations notwithstanding, Indians in Guyana gradually shaped a new persona of hope, rising quietly but confidently from the death of caste prejudice; thriving on the fruits of their new, vastly more open, environment with the making of communities rooted in rice, cattle and retail trade; maximizing the benefits of education while claiming the legacy of many Indias, part fact, part fiction, in advancing their civil and political rights in Guyana. Within this complex mix are located several Indo-Guyanese personalities, such as Joseph Ruhomon, a pioneer intellectual; Cheddi Jagan and Balram Singh Rai, politicians of contrasting visions; and the unsung cricketer, Ivan Madray. In the process, Seecharan finds not only himself, but he locates a rich narrative vein, illuminating a vital aspect of Caribbean life
Synopsis
Clem Seecharan brings together two visions of Caribbean history—one public, the other personal—in his discussions of race, culture, and politics in Guyana and the Caribbean. Shaped over a period of 20 years, this is an elegantly written, scholarly, but highly accessible collection of essays that are essentially a map of how one of the Caribbean’s most distinguished historians has sought to discover himself through practice of his craft. It covers new ground in Indo-Caribbean history primarily, but it also explores innovatively aspects of the intellectual legacy of four eminent Caribbean writers and thinkers: Guyanese poet Martin Carter, Guyanese historian Walter Rodney, Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul, and C.L.R. James, author of one of the great books of the 20th century, Beyond a Boundary.
About the Author
Clem Seecharan is an emeritus professor of history at London Metropolitan University, where he was head of Caribbean studies for nearly 20 years.