Dear Editor,
I write in relation to the letter captioned ‘Diaspora column omitted significant details‘ by Sultan tabroek News of January 5, 2013. Mr Mohamed’s letter is in response to Alissa Trotz’s column on Guyanese-born centenarian, Mr Randall Mohan Butisingh, who passed away in the USA on December 9, 2012.
Mr Mohamed’s letter begins with the statement “In the Stabroek News Diaspora series co-ordinated by Ms Alicia Trotz.” First and foremost, common courtesy would dictate that a person gets the correct spelling of the name of the person about whom he/she is writing. For the record, the name of the referenced individual is Alissa Trotz, not Alicia Trotz and she is a highly respected academic with a doctorate from one of oldest and most prestigious universities in the world.
After reading this letter I am wondering what is its purpose. The letter states that Mr Butisingh, Pandit Sama Persaud (who died in Guyana) and Mr Rampersaud Tiwari (now living in Canada), among many others, fled Buxton in the 1960s and then mentions that Ms Trotz’s column was inspired by Mr Eusi Kwayana who “was a well-known regular visitor to many Buxton Indians’ homes prior to the outbreak of the racial animosities in the 1960s.”
I wonder what is the insinuation when, in the next paragraph, Mr Mohamed writes “The tribute to the esteemed gentleman is not complete when important details are left out.” When one looks at Dr Trotz’s column, one finds a very long and glowing tribute to a wonderful human being. In fact, the length of that column most likely tested the tolerance of the editor of Stabroek News. To put into perspective this perceived “significant” omission, Mr Butisingh’s autobiography on his weblog, under the caption ‘My Story,‘ spans 29 chapters.
I lived in Annandale in the 1960s. I knew Mr Butisingh and Pandit Sama Persaud very well. I was a regular visitor to the home of the latter and I taught for a short while under the former then taught three of his children at the Annandale Government Secondary school. I also know Mr Tiwari very well and we are close friends in Toronto.
Despite their relocation to Annandale in the 1960s, these men always considered themselves as Buxtonians and they maintained a life-long friendship with Mr Kwayana. This should inform us in any assessment of the 1960s.
Mr Mohamed next gives his own spin on Dr Trotz’s column when he writes “Mr Butisingh is portrayed as an original nurtured Hindu but then Christian convert (Buxton) who later found nirvana in his original Hinduism (Annandale) only to find solace in Islam’s richness in Florida.” In fact, in her column, Dr Trotz quotes Mr Butisingh’s own words: “I was raised as a Christian from birth by Hindu parents and grew up in the Christian Church, in a village which was predominantly Afro-Guyanese. But eventually I separated from the church as I saw it as exclusive and divisive and I wanted to be involved in all mankind… when I came to the United States of America, I learnt to read and write the Arabic script together with my son-in-law who is a Muslim. Now I can read from the Holy Qur’an from which I memorised some of the short Suras (chapters)…I also read the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayan and I was attracted to their philosophy of Monism which sees God in everything, and their lofty concept of Brahman, the Absolute, the incomprehensible, sheer consciousness and bliss and I have written articles on it. I also studied Buddhism and found some of its teachings parallel to that of Christianity. You may call me a Universalist, if you like.”
I found Alissa Trotz’s column on Mr Butisingh an uplifting and fitting closure to a year, once again, of political discord and turmoil in the land of our birth. It is a great shame that Guyana’s politics is so poisoned with divisiveness that we tend to view “the other” with suspicion and fail to recognize the decency and humanity of someone who is of a different ethnicity. Dr Trotz gave Guyanese a chance to learn from and emulate the life of a great soul. In my view, her article is a step in the right direction.
Yours faithfully,
Harry Hergash
