This paper focuses on the relationship between Guyana and the Islamic World from 1948 to 2008, and it brings to light the two track relationship, government to government and people to people with the Islamic World. Guyana has a significant Muslim minority, who forged strong bonds with the umma before the country gained independence in 1966.

Guyana, unlike other Caribbean countries has had strong ties with the Islamic World because of religious and political ties with the Islamic World which dates back to the 1700s when Islam reached the shores of Guyana through the African slave trade, and again with the coming of the Hindustani Muslims from India between 1838 to 1917.

Modern Guyana’s political history started with the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), a left wing party, founded by Dr. Cheddi Jagan in the 1950 who forged strong ties with nationalists in Ghana, Iran, Indonesia, Syria, and Egypt. The party’s lofty goals, anti-colonialism, socialism and nationalism were analogous with Nasserism. Former Guyanese President, Dr. Cheddi Jagan travelled to Syria and Egypt in the 1960s and identified with the Iranian’s nationalist movement under the leadership of Dr. Mossadegh. A CIA covert operation let to the illegal removal of Dr. Jagan from power in the 1960s and the Peoples National Congress (PNC), the other political party came to power in Guyana and continued the same Jagganite foreign policies. Libya, Iraq, and Egypt opened embassies in Guyana and in the 1990s the Government of Guyana established diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Kuwait.

And in 1998 Guyana became a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) which brought it permanently close to the Islamic world. In 1996, Dr. Jagan made an official visit to the Middle East which included visits to Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

My dream mosque Queenstown

Across Bourda garlanded in her green dome

A century and more

Your soul stretched far beyond your shore

Imams and scholars graced your pulpits clenched

Cricket in fury your young devotees racked

Ustads with canes eager minds whacked

Your teachings remained pristinely packed

Love you instilled on those worn green mats

The Ramadan daily feast made us generous doormats

Under the front mango tree our Faith refreshed

Your sweet Azan scintillates my slumber unabashed

Qurbani a sacrifice rush

Quarrels over the share popped by a hush

Like the rapids of Orinoco

You call and your sons be there faster than bows with arrows

Your roof sheltered the entire globe

Kings and paupers all adore at your porch

When the world would've departed, a song on their lips sung

She was a tower of Faith regardless who presided.

(as published in the Guyana Chronicle on June 26th 2006)

Address:        Queenstown Jama Masjid
                    295 Church Street,
                    Georgetown, , GUYANA
Phone:         592-227-1657
Directions:    One block north of the Botanical Gardens located on Vlissengen Road                     and four blocks west on Church Street.

The Queenstown Jama Masjid Building Committee yesterday turned the sod for the building of its new masjid on its premises on Church Street.

The programme commenced with the invocation of Allah’s blessings and this was shortly followed by a presentation on the project.

Chairman of the Building Committee, Mr. Sattaur Gafoor, said the committee was selected to build a place of worship and as such the initiative was undertaken to construct a new building, as the present one, more than 100 years old, cannot accommodate the congregation.

The foundation of the Masjid has also become weakened.

The new two-storeyed building which is expected to be completed within a year at a cost of US $2M, will be equipped with air conditioning units and a stand-by generator among other items. The top flat will be occupied by women, while the bottom flat will accommodate the male worshippers.

Not only will the masjid provide a place of worship, but the complex will also provide space for sports, recreation and relaxation.

Meanwhile, the chairperson, Mr. Naeem Nasir, in his address, told the gathering that the new structure will be built to offer people a place to get closer to God.

The Queenstown Jama Masjid was the first Muslim place of worship to be built in Guyana back in 1895. It remains the principal masjid in the capital city, and in Guyana.

as reported by Guyana Chronicle on November 10th 2007

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/ARCHIVES/archive%2010-11-07.html

Autobiography of an Indian Indentured Labourer:  Munshi Rahman Khan (1874-1972)
Shipra Publications.
Pages 271. Rs 495

Large-scale emigration of unskilled labourers from British India took place in the 19th century. These labourers, who were hardly making both ends meet and living in extreme poverty here, found work on much better wages in South America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean (islands situated in the sea between the West Indies and Central and South America). They worked in mines and plantations and were able to help their families back home in India financially, in addition, of course, to meeting their own personal needs of food, clothing and shelter. They led a comparatively happy and contented life in the countries of their adoption.

Between 1832 and 1924, about five lakh Indians left for the Caribbean and started working there, mostly in Trinidad, Jamaica and Surinam. There is almost no written information about the lives and experiences of these indentured labourers, and the vicissitudes through which they passed, particularly in Surinam. The present translated autobiography by Munshi Rahman Khan, written originally in Hindi (Devnagari script), is indeed a very informative and valuable document throwing light on his and his co-workers’ and admirers’ lives in that country. Though a devout Muslim, he was fairly a good scholar of Hindi and the Ramayana, both of which he taught with great zest and devotion. His narration presents a vivid picture of the social intercourse and ethnic relations that existed in a colonial society among the indentured labourers in Surinam. Both subject matter and style of his narration is quite stirring and gripping, as he alternates prose with interesting verses, which shows that he was deeply religious soul.

Munshi Rahman Khan

Though Munshi Rahman Khan was a devout Muslim having unshakable faith in Allah, the Almighty and His Quran, there isn’t a tinge of any communal feeling in his heart or his deeds. He loves to teach Hindi and preach the Ramayana, something unusual for a Muslim. Urdu in his time was not associated with the Muslims only, and they freely and happily used Hindi. Rahman Khan was proud of his liberal education, which put him on the same pedestal as the upper caste educated Hindus. Munshiji was born in a Pathan family. Migrating from the region now known as Afghanistan, his ancestors further travelled into the interior of India and settled down in Bundelkhand in Utter Pradesh. His father, Mohammad Khan, finally made his home in the village of Bharkhari, where Rahman was born and educated. While remaining a staunch Pathan, he had integrated the Hindu pantheon with the Muslim prophet and other revered Muslim saints.

His narration of the history of Hindustan stops with his migration to Surinam in 1898 at the age of 24. He carries the Hindustan of his youth to Surinam with all its fond memories and associations. Clearly the moment he boards the ship in Calcutta to cross the kala pani, Rahman Khan disassociates himself from the history of the people who were so near and dear to him and from a country of which he was so proud. The title of Munshi Rahman Khan’s Autobiography in Hindi is Jeewan Prakash. It has four chapters (which he calls volumes) in addition to an introduction in which he gives the essential events of the History of Hindustan. In the first volume, he narrates his family history and lineage, while the second volume deals with his life and work in Surinam. The third volume continues with so many other interesting experiences. In the fourth volume, Munshiji tells the readers how ultimately he succeeded in building a large house in a place called Dijkveld in 1931, where he lived very comfortably in a joint family along with all his five sons. He also painfully describes the growing rift between the Hindus and the Muslims—the two communities that had lived in perfect harmony till 1929. But now, with the coming to the fore of the hardliners, particularly the Aryasamajists (as he alleges), relationships soured. The old peace, love and harmony evaporated. Naturally, therefore, he was now emotionally a broken man. This was the beginning of the degeneration of communal brotherhood both in India and Surinam that he saw with his own eyes.

The conclusion is that good and well intentioned people can create a heaven on this very planet, whereas the vile and vicious can easily convert it into a hell. Munshiji was indeed a noble soul.

In his foreword, Mr Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid has emphasized the role of the two sisters, Mrs G.A. Wahab and Mrs H.A. Hakam, who faced trials and tribulations in the post-partition period in Calcutta and then in former East Pakistan during the traumatic days of 1970-71.

Justice Zahid pays tributes to them and to the writer Begum Akhter Jahan Khan for their perseverance, dedication and commitment to the cause of Pakistan and humanity.

It is indeed amazing that despite a conservative and conformist background as could have been expected from the Muslim society of pre-partition India, these two ladies demonstrated their scholarly knowledge, intellect, humility and the zest for a cause dear to their hearts.

Both of them were born in British Guiana, South America and were widely known for their simple living without any false starts or pretensions. They lived like dervishes leading an austere life. Their most outstanding qualities were warm affection, helpful sympathy and dedication to the cause of human happiness.

(this is taken from the Pakistani Daily Newspaper, Dawn.)

May 19, 2008

RAYMOND S. CHICKRIE and DEEN AMEERULLAH

Abstract

This is the first paper to deliberate on the overseas Hindustani Muslims of British Guiana and more significantly, the role they played in the creation of Pakistan in 1947. In doing so, the debate about Muhammad Ali Jinnah the founder of Pakistan has been inescapably revived; a more rational, progressive and non-communal image emerges especially since India’s know communalist, L.K Advani labeled Mr. Jinnah a secularists during a visit to Pakistan in 2005, debunking decades of myths. However, the central focus of this paper is the role that the Hindustani Muslims of British Guiana played in the creation of Pakistan. The bloody division of the subcontinent in 1947 did lead to subtle Hindu/Muslim tension in British Guiana. This paper asserts that the Muslim leadership of the former British Guiana, now Guyana, solidly supported the creation of Pakistan and vilified India. This is apparent because the largest Islamic organisation, the Sad’r Anjuman-E-Islam acquiesced to the two-nation theory, or the division of India along religious lines. However, a smaller Islamic group, the Islamic Association of British Guiana (IABG). Not long after in 1949, the IABG merged with the Sad’r Anjuman-E-Islam and support for Pakistan was greater and more cohesive. From the print media and the rhetoric from all side- Hindus and Muslims, it’s evident that the Sad’r -E-Anjuman not only supported the state of Pakistan but became the voice of Pakistan in British Guiana. Prior to this, Muslims were oriented to the motherland, Hindustan. While the average Muslims saw themselves as Hindustani, they supported the state of Pakistan and began to identify with Pakistan. The legendary Gool Mohammed Khan whose daughter, Husanara became actively involved in the Pakistan movement demonstrate this intricate connection between the founding of the state of Pakistan and the Muslims of Guyana. Mrs. H. A. Hakam was an exemplary citizen for all humanity. Born in obscurity in British Guiana, entered the world stage in India, and actively participated in formation of Pakistan.

The British Guianese Muslim leadership instilled consciousness among local Muslims to look at Pakistan as the motherland, and they referred to Pakistan and its leaders as “our country and our leaders.” Their moral, political and financial support to the state of Pakistan is documented in this paper, and case is made that Pakistan replaced India as the motherland. As well, the state of Pakistan took the responsibility of “mothering” the Muslims in British Guiana by offering theological aid, scholarships, political and moral support.

In the history books very little attention has been given to Muslims whether they were slaves, indentured laborers from India, or citizens of Guyana. The conclusion may be made that writers and historians consider the history of Muslims insignificant. In some books there are isolated references to Muslims, for example, Reverend Dale Bisnauth (1993) offers only a token recognition of just six pages to the Muslims in his book “History of Religions in the Caribbean.”  He merely states in six pages the dogmas and rituals of Islam. However, he affords extensive treatment to the introduction and spread of Christianity in the Caribbean.

Within the past decade, there have been attempts by Muslims to publish articles dealing with the history of Muslims in Guyana. Raymond Chickeri (New York) published on the internet his articles on Muslims with a bias towards Indian immigration in Guyana. This is a commendable effort. In 1995, on the occasion of its centenary, Queenstown Jama Masjid published a magazine, and in it was an article “A Short History of Muslims in Guyana.”