| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 08-May-01 02:26 AM
Dr. Glenn Mitrasingh is a FOURTH generation Nepali presently living and working in Holland. He was born in Surinam -- the tiny
South American country as a desccendant of Nepali plantation workers. Recently, he gave a presentation at Martin Chautari in Kathmandu about his unique family history.
Around 1860, his (Bahun) ancestors (from what is now Taplejung in Eastern Nepal) left for what is now Calcutta to look for
work.
There, together with a few other Nepali families and 1000s of other Indian families, they were recruited by the Dutch-run West India Company to work as indentured servants in Gyuana in South
America.
So, they left -- on a boat -- for the Dutch Gyuana (now known
as the country of Surinam), and ended up in South America in the late 1860s -- almost 170 years ago.
Glenn said that his Nepali ancestors faced much discrimination
and much hardship in Surinam. [There are presently about 100 or so people of Nepali origin in Surinam].
Originally Hindus from Nepal, the ancestors converted to Christianity, and were then taunted as Christian coolies by the Hindu Indians and the Muslims Indonesians of Surinam. All the
Nepalis and their descendants knew one another and sort of
by and large stuck to another for marriages and so on. None of them now speak Nepali though they all speak Hindi. There are
very little written records, and Glenn is looking into ways of putting together a history of his family.
Glenn's grandparents, born in Surinam, were both of complete Nepali origins. His father, however, married a Dutch woman,
and Glenn is a half-Nepali.
Glenn talked about growing up in Surinam in the late 1960s and early 1970s, amidst political uncertainties and amidst policies against foreigners (i.e against NON-Latin American people). He left for Holland (Surinam's colonial power) for higher studies and is now a medical doctor in Amsterdam. His father died in 1997 in Surinam.
Glenn -- who can easily pass off as a Nepali and a whole lot of other nationalities -- speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Hindi and ali-kati Nepali. At present, he helps run a Dutch NGO that has done some medical work in Nepal.
Glenn himself is married to a Dutch woman, and joked that his young son -- who has blond hair and blue eyes -- has a family
name Mitrasingh, and that makes people quizzical all the time.
At a time when vicious nationalism is sadly surging ahead in Nepal, it was refreshing to meet Glenn -- who's, to borrow the words of Nobakov, a salad of genes -- and hear stories about
his family.
With people, including Nepalis, traveling all over the world, and interacting with people everyehere, the world may be turning into a giant melting pot.
But living and working in Nepal, sometimes this place can feel like a 'tiffin carrier' -- with each group occupying a distinct hierarchy atop another.
oohi
ashu
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| ashu |
Posted
on 08-May-01 03:00 AM
>So, they left -- on a boat -- for the Dutch
>Gyuana (now known
>as the country of Surinam), and ended up in
>South America in the late 1860s -- almost 170
> years ago.
Please read it as "almost 140 years ago"
|
| Biswo |
Posted
on 08-May-01 03:22 AM
Dear Ashu:
I had read a novel by sir VS Naipaul, I guess "Area of Darkness"
or sth like that, in which the writer details how the indentured
labors from Northern India ended up in the sugarcane farms of
carribean countries. It is difficult to imagine that Nepalese
also went there with the Indians, because we didn't allow Britons
to come to Nepal to recruit laborers those days. I guess the only
viable way to join such diaspora for Nepalese of that time was
from their sojourn in India (either as a Lahure or as a
Tirthayatri).
Incidentally, last year, I met a guy who was the chief guest on
Martin Luther King's birthday speech in Auburn. He was a former
professor in Princeton, Northwestern and London University.He
also gave break to Sir Naipaul when he was working for BBC in 50s.
The professor was from Surinam, (and was a passionate socialist).
When my brother went to him and told him he was from Nepal, the
old man became enthusiastic, disregarded deans and other bigwigs
of Auburn who were with him, and talked to my brother, and also
invited both of us to breakfast the next day.
Later, I found out that he had a great amity with one Nepalese guy
in 1940s (his school roommate actually), who later joined Gurkha
army in Britain.(my report may be not-very-precise. He might
have just joined some British army organ.) I guess the president
of Surinam was one India origin guy last year. After talking to
him, my impression was the prof was impressed by his Nepali
friend.
Such feelings, as it is evident, was not reciprocal. But I was
happy to share my ideas with an old (80+ yrs) and respected prof
about immigration and politics.
It was good to hear about some Nepalese coming back to Nepal
to share their and their ancestors experience. If we can learn any
lesson from such experience,then it should be in promising not to
let such kind of discrimination in our land happen. Every human
deserves humane treatment, wherever he is, whoever he is.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 08-May-01 04:23 AM
Hi Biswo,
At the Chautari presentation, some members of the audience said
that in their travels abroad, they have met people of Nepali origins who have long been living in Trinidad and other
Carribean regions.
Apparently, much like Naipaul's ancestors, those Nepalis' ancestors too somehow ended up as indentured plantation in
those regions workers more than 100 years ago.
oohi
ashu
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