Bollywood in Guyana
For a first-timer in Guyana, it would seem it is only Bollywood that defines India among its people. Hindi film songs blaring out from cabs, latest Bollywood film DVDs in shops, people raving about Shah Rukh Khan…
And that too in a country where people can’t even speak Hindi. There are over 325,000 ethnic Indians in Guyana and they comprise 43.5 percent of the country’s total population.
Most of them are descendants of Indians who had come in the 19th and early 20th centuries to work as indentured labour in the sugarcane plantations here.
Yet, they have to follow Hindi films only through subtitled prints.
But scratch the surface, and you will find that there is more to India than Bollywood in this country.
There is a growing interest among the people about Sanskrit and yoga.
When the Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) started a yoga programme, as many as 150 people registered in the first month itself. And these included not only Indo-Guyanese people but also Afro-Guyanese.
“Lessons on yoga are also regularly telecast in local TV here in Georgetown,” an official of ICC told an IANS correspondent.
He added that such programmes are also screened from time to time in TV stations in the Berbice and Essequibo regions of the country, where there is a substantial Indo-Guyanese population.
Yoga classes are also held in the Guyana University regularly. And along with yoga, people are taking to learning Sanskrit in a big way.
“A former yoga teacher here introduced Sanskrit and there was an amazing response from the people,” the ICC official said.
Today, the centre even holds Sanskrit exams through the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bhopal. “Students even come from Canada to appear for these exams,” the official said.
This apart, the centre has students enrolled for tabla, harmonium and Indian classical music.
The Indo-Guyanese might not speak Hindi but that does not stop them from celebrating major Indian festivals like Holi and Diwali.
“I think some of the festivals we celebrate here are not even observed in India,” said Radha, an Indo-Guyanese journalist. “We memorise Hindu religious chants for the sacred rituals like marriage.”
Memorise? How?
“We learn from our parents. These chants have been passed on from generation to generation by our ancestors.”
Do Indo-Guyanese yearn to go to India, the land of their ancestors?
“Of course we do but the long trip and high air fare is a deterrent. But tell me something, is life in India just like what they show in Bollywood films?” Radha asked.
— IANS
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