Shake this blind obeisance to foreign people and honour our own

I have confessions to make, and they all surround this startling development about renaming Middle Street after the global icon, Gandhi. My thoughts follow. The letters from Guyanese Elijay Bijay and Hamilton Green in SN’s Edition of October 6 caught me off guard, as I had never heard of any conversation and contemplation about renaming Middle Street to honour Gandhi. My second confession is the story of Middle Street, especially its place in slavery’s ghastly narratives, was also outside my range of knowledge, though I read prodigiously. As for Gandhi himself, his distinctive advocacies in South Africa for Indians, to the disadvantage of native blacks, was not his finest hour. Whether because of convenience or calculation or conviction or circumstances, he is both upheld and condemned by the record of his own words and postures. I think that in the context of his times and visions, he did what was best for his own. His own only. From the vantage point of time and distance, I think he erred, and it was not a little one. Was this his version of ‘all deliberate speed’? Or racial gradualism? Despite this stain, I think he still stands a great man on the world’s stage; one to be well-regarded for the sum of his works. I think he failed at a crucial hour; but I believe that he still towers as one of those noble, but all too human figures. That said, I have difficulty with this renaming.

If it originated with the learned Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, he transgressed. This is not maintaining that required inviolable distance from host country matters. It is a bit too self-serving for Guyanese, particularly those of African heritage. We do not need another controversy in this polarized society. And as much as I regard Gandhi highly, my position is simple: Not here! Not anywhere here. India has enough room for honouring the man, do it there. I wonder if I were to propose a street in India being renamed after Cheddi Jagan, how the Indians