num_pages: 98
description: When the first East Indian intellectuals emerged in British Guiana at the end of the nineteenth century, most of their compatriots were still working as indentured or free labourers on the colony's sugar estates. Indians were conscious that they were looked down on as barbarous 'coolies' by other sections of the population. In response, the intellectual elite constructed a view of India, drawn from the writings of Max Muller and Tagore, which provided the Indo-Guyanese community with a sustaining sense of self-esteem. Clem Seecharan argues, though, that whilst the vision of 'Mother India' stimulated the community's cultural revival and hastened its entry into Guyanese political life, it also constrained the ways in which it thought about its role in Guyana
language: English
title: India and the Shaping of the Indo Guyanese Imagination, 1890s - 1920s
titlecomplete: India and the Shaping of the Indo Guyanese Imagination, 1890s - 1920s
places: India, Guyana
publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd