The Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) in extending best wishes and greeting to all Guyanese during this holiday season called for peace to prevail.
The organization, in its Youman Nabi message said it was pleased to join with Muslim brothers and sisters in commemorating the festival. “This auspicious occasion, not only marks his birth anniversary but also the sacrifices and challenges that the Holy Prophet Muhammad encountered in spreading Islam to the world,” a release said.
It said the lesson of the festival teaches, in practical ways, understanding each other’s religion and moral values adding that it is not propagation but the permanency of his message that deserves and is practiced throughout the world.
The IAC also extended Phagwah greetings to all Guyanese especially those belonging to the Indo and mixed Indo-Guyanese communities and more so to those who are guided by the philosophical teachings of Sanatan Dharma.
The release said that Phagwah (Holi) is a festival of Bharat (India) that has its roots in antiquity and celebrates the coming of a new spring season and the dawning of a new year. The exuberance of this festival, the organisation said reflects the collective hope of the people or progress and prosperity and the concomitant betterment of their lives.
“Even though the cultural landscape in Bharat has changed from time to time from the introduction of the Negroids followed by the Proto-Australoids, Dravidians, Mongoloids, Caucasians, Persians, Greeks, Shakas, Kushanas, Huns, Abrabs, Turks, Mghans, Mughals and Europeans, the festival of Holi emerged, survived and flourished in Bharat, the world’s first melting pot.”
The release said that Holi was brought to British Guiana by Hindus who arrived here as indentured labourers to work on sugar plantations 167 years ago and was sustained by the majority of the approximately 239,000 Bharatiyas who arrived on these shores between 1838 and 1917.
The festival, it added was transplanted from a large sub-continent characterised by the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, to Guyana a small, South American land of dry and rainy seasons and even though global warming is creating climatic havoc, the symbolism of Holi must not be lost.
The IAC called on all seasons of “this multi-cultural land of Guyana to regard this great festival which celebrates life and hopes regardless of demography or geography always as a focus for national unity.
IAC also sent out Easter greetings to numerous denominations of the Christianity adding that the organisation recognizes the importance of the teachings of Jesus Christ, the humanitarian, social reformer and proponent of the doctrine of non-violence who preached about the brotherhood of man and disseminated the universal message of peace and goodwill among men.
The release said the organisation recognizes that Jesus Christ was a carpenter by trade who co-operated with fishermen and therefore was a member of the working class and that he pursued higher philosophical studies in Bharat (India).
