Structural Arrangements of Indo-Guyanese Family: An Assessment of the Assimilation Hypothesis

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCENearly 150 years ago the Indians from South Asia (also known as East Indians) entered the Caribbean as indentured agricultural laborers. Today they are not a "beleaguered minority" as there is no formal discrimination against them, but neither are they integrated into the 'Creole' way of Ufe (Cross, 1980, p. 3). The Indo-Caribbean people remain culturally distinct in more ways than one. According to Klass, who studied the Indians in Trinidad, "the whole way of life of the [Indo-Trinidadians] is that of an Indian community and not that of a West Indian community " (Schlesinger, 1968, p. 153). The Indo-Caribbean people are a numerical minority in the Caribbean, with the exception of Guyana. Thus, they remain a minority group in the Caribbean from both a numerical and cultural standpoint.The Caribbean refers to a heterogeneous group of islands, situated in the Caribbean Sea from the north coast of Venezuela in South America to the south coast of Florida in the United States and consists of ethinically diverse people due to the history of British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonialism. While most countries have gained independence, some still remain as French and American colonies (Baptiste, Hardy, Lewis, 1997), and the 15 countries comprising the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, BeUze, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Surinam, and Trinidad & Tobago. These countries are politically independent of each other but there is a high rate of intra-regional migration. The cultural landscape of the Anglophone Caribbean (a term used to describe the EngUsh speaking countries of the Caribbean) is influenced in part by the British-European culture given their colonial history. The Afro-Caribbeans are beUeved to have adopted more aspects of the British-European culture than the Indo-Caribbeans. A unique combination of the BritishEuropean orientation and significant remnants of West African and East Indian traditions, constitutes the cultural landscape of Guyana.The largest concentration of persons of Indian origin is in Guyana (43.5%), which is foUowed by Trinidad (41%) and Surinam (35%). They comprise below 5% of the population of Jamaica, Guadeloupe, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Grenada (Bureau of Statistics, 2002; CIA World Fact Book, 2002). Despite their minority status in the Caribbean, researchers observe that Indians have tried to hold on to their socio-cultural baggage (Pitsch, 1999). A closer examination.of the literature, however suggests that it is not clear whether the Indians have remained an ethnically separate group or have blended into the dominant Creole culture of the Caribbean. Some scholars have observed cultural continuity among the Indians who Uve in the Caribbean (Klass, 1961; Niehoff & Niehoff, 1960; Rauf, 1972), while others argue for acculturation through the phenomenon of Creolization1 (Angrosino, 1976; Nevadosky, 1980; Smith & Jayawardena, 1959).Current theories of assimilation and continued efforts to strengthen ties with their original homeland, would suggest that the Indian family patterns are dynamic and continue to evolve. Although the period of indentureship caused a disruption of the traditional Indian family system, many of the traditions like joint family, dowry, caste system, caste endogamy were revived by the twentieth century (Mohammed, 1997). On the contrary others argue that modernization influences have led to a mitigation of cultural differences in Guyana (Jeffrey & Baber, 1986). Limited quantitative empirical data on Indians living in the Caribbean, however, make it difficult to make precise assessments and predictions about the nature of their family patterns. Nonetheless, we cannot continue to ignore the racial and ethnic distinctions in family patterns and relationships in the region because race and ethnicity are fundamental to our identity both as individuals and as families. …