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Reply to "How about a National Hero for East Indians ? Please keep this thread clean."

VishMahabir posted:
D2 posted:
Zed posted:

The question underlies basic issues. Is there a national consensus about what constitute a national consciousness or a national understanding?  Another issue is how was Cuffy selected as the National Hero? Was there national consensus on his selection? Is Cuffy's stature as a national hero tied up in some way with the Burnham dictatorship and what it meant for a significant section of the population?

before D2 gents into a rant, no, I do not believe in having national heroes based on ethnic requirements. Nor do I believe that Balram Singh Rai could be a likely candidate.

Kofi was selected as a liberation symbol. Compared to him no other person so successfully motivated the entire society to resist the might of a empire.

Balram Singh Rai was a segregationist and colonial pawn not a national hero. His position to head a party was to act as a wedge to resistance against the colonials.

Compared to him no other person so successfully motivated the entire society to resist the might of a empire.

To be fair...there were no other races (except Amerindians and whites) in Guyana at the time..NO?

Cuffy (Kofi..same person??) was a hero to Africans because he liberated them from slavery. He is a symbol...just as Walter Rodney was a symbol of resistance to all Guyanese.

However, when ethnic groups consider people like Jagan and Baliram Singh as their heroes but others tell them NO, that is where the problems develop.

Who is making the judgment call? AND, who are we to tell others that the person they consider a hero is NOT a hero. By the same token, there are people who want to revive Burnham, the Kabaka, to revise history and make him a hero to all. You and others should not have a problem with this except to point out Burnham's fallacies.

 Gandhi is a hero to most Indians (1 billion plus) but there are Africans removing his statues throughout Africa because they have some issues with him. Should Indians not condemn Gandhi and reevaluate his weaknesses and strengths?

My point: We need to be sensitive how we define our heroes. By this logic, if most Indians (the largest ethnic group) continue to see Jagdeo as a champion of their cause at this time, who are we to tell Indians that they are misguided? 

 

 

 

Vintage D2

 

Nice to read your posting again

Vish M
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