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DIKSHA SOOBARAH
Diksha Soobarah est étudiante de première année en Affaires et Société à l’Université York. Elle a grandi à l’ile Maurice et est arrivée au Canada en juin 2004. Elle est issue d’une famille indo-mauricienne.
Bien que l’anglais et le français soient les langues officielles à
l’ile Maurice, Diksha comme la plupart, communique en créole avec ses
proches. Elle suit actuellement un cours au département d’Études
françaises qui explore les différentes facettes du monde créole aux
Antilles et dans l’Océan Indien et lui permet de questionner son
positionnement au sein du monde créole.
Diksha Soobarah is a first-year student in Law and Society at York
University. She was born and raised in Mauritius and has been in Canada
for only two years. Diksha comes from a Mauritian-Indian family and,
although the official languages in Mauritius are French and English,
she communicates in Creole in most circumstances. She is now taking a
course on Creole societies of the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. It
has become an opportunity for her to express her identity more
accurately, and position herself in relation to the other Creole people
of the world.
In Mauritius, which was owned by France from 1715 to 1810, French creole (Morisyen) is spoken as a first language by some 600,000 and retains its hold as a lingua franca, even though English is the official language and though a large part of the population uses an Indo-Aryan or Dravidian language at home. In the Seychelles, which were owned by France from 1768 until 1814, and in Réunion (originally L' île Bourbon), where French is still the official language, French creoles are still in widespread use.
In the Seychelles the language is called Seselwa.
Some French-creole speakers claim that creoles from other far-off regions are easily intelligible to them. Others contest this, however, pointing out that the creole used by educated speakers is often heavily larded with standard French on all but very informal occasions. Certainly, the linguist can easily discern similarities, especially in grammatical structure, that make the various French creoles seem more like each other than like standard French.
IMPARTING WISDOM & KNOWLEDGE : DR. CHATURBHUJ SAHAI JI
Ramashram Satsang was founded in 1923 by Paramsant Dr. Chaturbhuj Sahai Ji at Etah U.P. to propagate the teachings of Paramsant Sri Ram Chandra ji Maharaj of Fatehgarh who had evolved a novel but simple new method of imparting spiritual education (wisdom and knowledge).
At Etah, this work was continued by him with unbounded zeal upto 1950.
Thereafter considering the poor means of communication to Etah (which sometimes caused great inconvenience to the incoming visitors) he shifted his head-quarters and that of Ramashram Satsang to Mathura (U.P.).
FRIGHTFUL SHIPWRECK OF COOLIES — 260 LIVES LOST.
————————————————————————————
From the Friend of India, August 31, 1865.
If any other argument were wanted to prove the necessity of the Indian government giving earnest attention to the coolie emigration trade, it is to be found in the tale of horrors with which Calcutta has been occupied during the past week.
On Sunday, 19th August, the American built ship, Eagle Speed, Captain Brinsden, left Port Canning with 497 coolies for Demerara. Of these 300 were men, 93 women, 65 boys and girls under 10, and 39 infants—in all equal to 425 adult coolies. All the formalities attending the departure and the arrangements of an emigrant ship were duly observed. The crew was sufficiently strong as to numbers, being of the same strength as when they left England.
There were twenty-six sailors and officers, exclusive of cabin boys, cooks, and assistants. Captain Hoskins, the portmaster, appointed Mr. Vardy, one of the three Mutlah pilots, to pilot the vessel, and he himself, with the port doctor and three other Europeans, went down the river in her. He was aware that some of the crew were sick, but did “not know whether the number was over the average;” he knew that “three or four” were drunk, including the second officer and the boatswain, and they continued drunk the next day.
The Lady Elgin, Capt. Heath, which had been sent round from Calcutta, towed the ship down to Halliday's Island where she anchored for the night. On Monday morning she went on down the Eastern Channel. The barometer was low and the wind from the west ; and soon the sea rose so high, as the wind veered to the south that the ship feared the steamer would not be able to tow her.
At 4 in the afternoon, in sight of the Mutlah reef buoy, with the water low, the tide setting in and a fresh breeze blowing, the rope connecting the steamer and the vessel parted.
The sands were a mile off, and during the two hours spent in passing another rope, she drifted towards the sands, without setting sail, which was impossible ; or letting go the anchor which, Captain Brinsden confesses, it would have been better to have done. She struck at half-past 6 in 4¼ fathoms, and then the anchor was dropped, while the sea rolled in “very high.” After half-an-hour she went off to the southward, but with 19 inches of water in the hold. At 9 o'clock the machinery of the steamer became deranged, and the ship anchored at the western channel at 10.
The coolies had been at the pumps from the first, but the water increased, and at 3 on the morning of Tuesday, the 22nd, with darkness around and a heavy sea, the Eagle Speed signalled to the steamer that she was sinking. At 4 the steamer's boat reached the ship, and the steamer herself approached. But no attempt was made to pass ropes, though this could have been done by daylight, and she might have been at Halliday's Island by ten o'clock.
On this point Captain Hoskins evidence is clear—“Under the circumstances, it would have taken two hours to pass hawsers, they would have readily passed by daylight. Suggesting that the wind was favourable and the sails were set, the steamer could have towed the vessel to safe anchorage in four hours. She would have been at 10 a.m. at Halliday's Island.”
Now we come to the tale of mismanagement, inhumanity and horrible sacrifice of life. Three of the Eagle Speed's boats were launched, manned by the crew, and commanded by Captain Hoskins, by the pilot at Captain Brinsden's request, and by the second officer, the first being ill. Including the coolies, who threw themselves into the water on hencoops, the boats saved 169, and all the Europeans.
Captain Hoskins' boat made five trips, but the others were soon smashed ; one of them had at half-past 12 brought off the captain, whom his own crew refused to help.
The steamer's boat was also smashed after one trip. Her two large boats were never launched. Captain Hoskins said, “Had the steamer anchored ahead, and a raft been made, many more lives might have been saved,” but there was no material to make a raft of, and Captain Brinsden in vain “asked the steamer to anchor on the bow or astern, and pass lines, in order to keep up a quicker and safer communication.”
Before the captain left, the boatswain had deserted the compounder and some topasses had broken into the brandy-closet, the interpreter was not to be found, and the pilot, who knew the language, did not return to the ship. “From the first to last the crew acted badly. There was some difficulty in getting them to man the boats latterly. They were shamed into it by the passengers.”
(continued, see below).
Lexique du créole à dominante tamoule
par
Firmin Lacpatia
Azalées éditions
160 pages | 14 x 21 cm | 209 g
Dépôt légal | 1er semestre 2005
Numéro ISBN | 2-9520832-5-8
Firmin Lacpatia recense les termes et les expressions
du créole réunionnais qui sont d'origine tamoule ou qui ont transités
par l'Inde.
Plus précisément, cet ouvrage se concentre sur l'apport
lexical Indien dans les deux langues réunionnaises, français et créole.
Des apports qui ont donné par exemple : carry volaille,
rougail, goni ou caria.
Ce livre sera d'une grande utilité pour les férus de linguistique
comparée.
Nouvel éclairage
sur les
noms d'origine indienne
La galaxie des noms malbar
par
Jean-Régis Ramsamy-Nadarassin
Azalées éditions
1er semestre 2006
Numéro ISBN | 2-915923-15-9
Dis-moi ton nom et je te dirai d'où tu viens, cette
maxime, séduit par son esprit d'universalité.
Elle s'adapte entièrement aux Indiens.
Lors des rendez-vous familiaux,
il n'est pas rare de voir ce sujet retenir l'attention des convives. On
se souvient des racines ancestrales, parfois on ré-interprète
l'histoire familiale, à défaut de posséder de réels souvenirs.
Les recherches portent aussi bien sur les libres de couleur, les engagés ou certains esclaves et s'accompagnent souvent d'éléments historiques des régions d'origine des indiens. Le nom est un marqueur identitaire fort pour les Réunionnais d'origine tamoule. Ils se questionnent souvent en privé ou en public sur leurs patronymes.
L'élaboration de ce mémoire est le prolongement d'une
passion généalogique qui anime l'auteur depuis plusieurs décennies.
L'ouvrage qu'il réalise avec un étudiant chercheur est cohérent, riche
en données inédites.
INDIAN / NON-INDIAN... NO BIG DEAL !
That is one of the reasons I am so proud of my Jamaican heritage. Attached are two pictures of my daughter and myself taken at our family reunion in July 2006
Kindly contributed
by Margaret Dalley-Johns.
A picture of my parents on their wedding day in Jamaica. As you can see, my mom is not Indian, and guess what? This was not a big deal in Jamaica in the 1950's!
We are not as hung up about this race thing... people are people.
I did grow up with
my father's Indian culture,
And I am very proud of it.
But I also respect and
I am very proud
Of my mother's non-Indian side.
BOOKS TO PERUSE
© photos courtesy Margaret Dalley-Johns. Special thanks.
Zendien enmé chabine! (a Guadeloupean saying)
The sari of our women and the choga and turban of our men defy comparison as regards beauty in dress. The tight dresses cannot approach in loveliness the loose ones that fall in natural folds. - Vivekananda.
Since the first set of East Indian
Indentured Labourers arrived in Jamaica between 1845-1917, Indian music, art and dance
have been an integral part of the Jamaican culture. The Raja Sarangie Group was found by
the late Johnny Mykoo in 1974 to promote and
sustain Indian folk music and dance in Jamaica. 
08/08/2002 15:57:20
PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH THINKING
European civilization is
no doubt suited for the Europeans, but it will mean ruin for India if
we endeavour to copy it. This is not to say that we may not adopt and
assimilate whatever may be good and capable of assimilation by us, as
it does not also mean that even the Europeans will not have to part
with whatever evil might have crept into it.
The incessant search for material comforts and their multiplication is such an evil; and I make bold to say that the Europeans themselves will have to remodel their outlook if they are not t o perish under the weight of the comforts to which they are becoming slaves. It may be that my reading is wrong, but I know that for India to run after the Golden Fleece is to court certain death.
Let us engrave on our hearts the motto of a Western philosopher, Plain living and high thinking. Today it is certain that the millions cannot have high living and we the few who profess to do the thinking for the masses run the risk, in a vain search after higher living, of mission high thinking.
Harold Sonny Ladoo : Nulle douleur comme ce corps, Editions Les Allusifs.
Grandiose et triste à la fois, cet ouvrage d'un auteur caribéen mort trop tôt, comme un chien. Nous sommes au début du 20ème siècle, dans une des îles à sucre anglophones de la Caraïbe ou des enfants indiens, descendants des pauvres hères dits coolies qui remplacèrent les esclaves, s'étripent et se font étriper par leur père inconsistant, dans une saga faite de souffrance et de colère omniprésentes, en se confrontant avec une rage de survivre en s'accrochant...
C'est le partage de cette noirceur de vie du début du vingtième siècle sous ce soleil féroce des Antilles; d'une existence misérable, rythmée par l'eau de la pluie, la rizière, les cris, les larmes; de l'énervement et de l'agacement de ces petites gens écrasées par le malheur, qui cultivent le riz nourricier mais souffrent l'alcoolisme intempestif d'un père bagarreur et mari incompétent, de la violence des éléments, de l'étroitesse du groupe humain aussi.
Harold Sonny Ladoo n'y va pas de main molle. Il l'a connue, la douleur explosive, mal contenue du corps humain, du corps sociétal, et celle évidemment qu'il porta dans son corps écœuré d'auteur. L'univers est en guerre contre l'homme, les éléments sont sans pitié. Vent, pluie, rizière en crue, désespérance intérieure aboyante, tout concourt à générer entre les personnages une archaïque douleur de vivre et une infantile phobie de l'écrasement - les bêtes, diables, dieux et bon dieu, esprits maléfiques étant aussi omniprésents dans ce vacarme.
Nulle douleur comme ce corps sera pour beaucoup la révélation d'un aspect brûlant et trop méconnu : la cruelle existence, la folle épopée des descendants d'engagés indiens dans les plantations des Caraïbes... Entre autres raisons de cette carence en témoignages sur la vie indienne dans la littérature caribéenne, citons en deux - l'omniprésence de la plainte inexpurgée de l'esclave noir au prétoire de l'histoire, et la timidité de l'indien caribéen quant à extravertir sa propre souffrance, lui réputé surtout contemplatif et productif face au malheur et à l'outrage, et réservé par décence envers ceux qui ont souffert comme lui, avant lui.
Une vie comme celle brève et intense d'Harold Sonny Ladoo lui-même, dont le nom indien, laddhu, ironie du sort, désigne une boulette de sucrerie indienne très prisée. Né à Trinidad en 1945, il émigre comme tant de milliers d'autres avant et après lui, fuyant une vie médiocre sans grand lendemain, pour commencer une autre existence au Canada. Là, sa vie d'écrivain se doublera de celle d'un père qui doit travailler la nuit pour faire vivre sa famille. Mais tenté par on ne sait quel démon du retour, Harold Sonny Ladoo repart pour Trinidad où il se fait assassiner et jeter dans un caniveau en 1973.
Harold Sonny Ladoo nous laisse ainsi aux prises avec les inconnues intimes de sa motivation de romancier. La part du témoignage et de l'autobiographie, de l'interrogation sur le parcours sauvagement raccourci du percutant artiste peintre en lettres pèse sans nul doute dans Nulle douleur comme ce corps. La vie de ces êtres harassés, abandonnés des Dieux... la carrière de romancier inachevée, brisée par le malheur... le parallèle reste à explorer.
Par la simplicité sans cadeau d'un style sans complaisance ni pardon, Harold Sonny Ladoo pousse à fond la stupéfiante totalité de son regard dans l'abrupt abîme de cette épreuve de vivre, qui transparaît aussi dans celle de la traduction.
Nécessaire et courageuse entreprise pour commencer à combler l'ignorance du public francophone, surtout antillais, encore bien démuni sur un aspect incontournable de son histoire : la souffrance indienne dans les Caraïbes...
Jean S. Sahaï, Guadeloupe.
Nulle douleur comme ce corps • Harold Sonny Ladoo • Traduit de l'anglais par Marie Flouriot et Stanley Péan • Éd. Les Allusifs, Montréal • 2006 • ISBN 2-922868-38-9 • 13.00 €.
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