Guyanese who have served their country with distinction can once again look forward to being recognized. National awards to three persons, Bryn Pollard and Llewellyn John, the latter a vintage politician going back to the 1940s, and Hamilton Green, a politician from the 1950s with a controversial past, revive the possibility that distinguished service given in the distant past by those ignored by the PPP can still be recognized. I refer to Fenton Ramsahoye and Balram Singh Rai, of the same era as the above three, but this article is about the latter. The atmosphere may now be more conducive and the time opportune to raise the issue of Rai.
Balram Singh Rai has remained an iconic political figure in Guyana’s political history, even though the last political event in which he was involved, the general elections of 1964, occurred fifty years ago. A book, Against the Grain, by Baytoram Ramharak, was published in 2005 about him. Although sympathy for Rai drips from its pages, it indicates the considerable interest that his name still evokes. His great successes and enormous contribution as well as the respect in which he was held across the board, come out clearly. Apart from Cheddi Jagan, no other leader of that era has been subject to such academic scrutiny.
Fully contextualized is his Hindu faith of the Arya Samaj persuasion, which was probably the cultural and religious foundation for his anti-communism and defence of Indian interests against the PPP’s ‘communism.’ At that time, among some circles in the PPP, intolerance was high for
