Dear Editor,
Dr. Kean Gibson is known as a good many things to which we can now add professional linguist.
She’s claiming expertise in ancient languages, specifically Sanskrit. In the Kaieteur News of February 16 Gibson gives us her unique translation of the word “Dharma”.
Like all things Gibson, of course, her understanding of dharma is far removed from the universally held standard. She creates her own Sanskrit dictionary and in that she writes that dharma is a principle that eventually leads to violence.
Dharma creates a societal hierarchy, Gibson says, which in turn will lead to fighting among the lower and higher groups. Such is the way of an “ordered Hindu society”, she says, without pointing out where such a society can be found.
But Gibson then jumps directly to Guyana declaring, “The violence in Guyanese society would therefore be on two levels.” She is trying to link her private visions of a violence plagued hypothetical “Hindu Society” to modern day Guyana! Talk about taking a leap!
Guyana is a “Hindu Society”? That’s news to me!
In true Gibson fashion she does not say what criteria she uses to re-classify our secular republic as a Hindu one.
Kean then continues her apocalyptic vision: “There would be a high level of violence among East Indians themselves for who is the most privileged and thus at the top of the hierarchy. Having accepted the violence of inequality among themselves, they would then have no difficulty in mobilizing this ‘terror as usual’ on those who are outside of the group. The bottom line is that ‘dharma’ means ‘inequality.'”
Is this woman a professor or a prophet? Gibson is no expert in Hinduism, that’s for sure.
Dharma, by the way, cannot produce societal violence, despite Gibson’s fervent expressions. Dharma teaches that one should adhere to rules of righteous conduct and obey the laws as set down by society, laws that prohibit violence.
Incidentally, Dharma is a belief of ethical living held not only by Hindus but also by Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and other societies holding Eastern faiths. According to Gibson, all these societies should be ripping themselves apart, but that’s not happening. Her thesis should be thrown in the garbage.
Yours faithfully,
Lutchman Gossai
