The Indian Arrival Com-mittee (IAC) is rejecting what it describes as the “myth of Indian docility,” as presented at the recent Guyana Indian Heritage Association (GIHA) symposium on ethnic violence.
In his presentation at the symposium, Swami Aksharananda noted that docility among Indians dated back to the days of indentureship.
At the same forum, ROAR leader, Ravi Dev had asserted that Indians had an “existential fear of being wiped out,” which he said influenced them to huddle together under the PPP for protection.
But the IAC, in a press statement, said it rejected such assertions and accused both Dev and others of “propagating such outrageous myths of Indo-Guyanese docility and fear of Afro-Guyanese.”
The IAC, although acknowledging that Indo-Guyanese persons did feel that the disciplined forces were generally unsympathetic to their concerns, noted that this was largely due to the ethnic composition and historical role of these forces rather than open racial hostility.
IAC recognised that there were divisions which separated the Indian and African races, and noted that in the quest for national unity these divisions needed to be understood and ameliorated, “in order to mitigate ethnic tensions which are extremely unhealthy in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic state like Guyana.”