Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 7

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 124

Hinduism in Trinidad
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eval India. D. W. D. Comins mentioned this group in his report published in 1893, besides the Kabirpanthis, Augharpanthis and Shivanarayanis. 6 Later the reforming sect of Arya Samaj founded in India by Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1875 was made familiar to the Hindus of Trinidad by Bhai Parmanand of the Sangathan Movement of India around 1910. Much later the insignificant sub-sects like the Vedic Aryans wer developed.
From the very beginning the Hindu immigrants were looked down upon as Christianity was the only religion known to the Trinidadians so far. John Morton, the famous prestyterian missionary who came to preach among the Indian immigrants in Trinidad in 1868 thought like the Utilitarians of England that Hinduism was a 'sinister', 'unclean' faith which could bring in degraded morality. The Trinidad press owned by the Christians often criticised Hindu manners and customs and attacked idolatry, castesystem, etc. The Hindus were jeered at not only in Trinidad but in Jamaica and Guyana for their dress, daily bath. offer of water to the sungod and so on..
Moreover, there was a great pressure for conversion to Christianity.? Some did get converted for the sake of jobs, social prestige, etc, but the vast majority of the Hindus retained their intellectual, metaphysical and ritualistic traditions. They did not want to be swamped by the western influences and even avoided the educational institutions for fear of conversion. In any event they wanted to retain their identity.
That the Hindus of Trinidad, like their counterparts in Guyana and Surinam, Fiji and Mauritius, could retain their religion was surprising. The main reason for the retention of religious practices was the increasing number of the immigrants and their offsprings. Secondly, the fundamentals of their religion had a certain vitality and their rituals and festivals gave it a popular base.
Hinduism had already survived innumerable challenges like foreign invasions in the Indian subcontinent. In Trinidad the Hindus were
6.
D. W. D. Comins, Note on Emigration from India to Trinidad, Calcutta, 1893, Diary, p. 11 : The number of Kabirpanthis in Trinidad who believed in one God was 150. A Sadhu (ascetic) told Comins that the Augharpanthis and Shivanarayanis ate and drank everything. “The clergy of Trinidad considered the non-Christians as simple targets for conversion...." D. Wood, Trinidad in Transition, London, 1968, p. 39.
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