Ancestorland

A young Guyanese filmmaker rediscovers her roots through a documentary on her ancestry in Bihar, a land her foreparents had left 170 years ago.

By Yatish Yadav

I have Hindustani blood—no matter that I was born abroad," says Shundell Prasad, a young Indian-Guyanese-American filmmaker. Once More Removed: A Journey Back to India is a 52-minute documentary that explores the Indian diaspora.

It's a form that began with the filmisation of Alex Haley's Roots—revisiting Prasad's journey from New York to Guyana and from there to the remote villages of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, where her mother came from, to Azamgarh, her father's ancestral home. The documentary has Prasad trying to capture the emotions of the family that she met more than a

century after her foreparents left for other shores. Prasad, whose family spoke in Bhojpuri and she in what is loosely known as Brooklynese, brought along an interpreter. Her foreparents had been taken to Guyana as indentured labour to work in the sugarcane fields. Guyana was the first sugar colony to have received Indian indentured labourers in the Caribbean; in all, more than 416,000 Indians disembarked there between 1838 and 1917. The Indians who arrived in the Caribbean were hardly homogenous: they came from different regions and carried a legacy of diverse Indian cultural traditions, customs, religious practices, languages, art forms, and foods.

Most of the families stayed back in Guyana and the broken families led their own lives—till the film. Prasad is present during the reunion, of course, and the bonding is understandably intense, the linguistic void between notwithstanding.

She says, "I started the project because I wanted to know why I looked like an Indian. Back in Guyana, we knew we were Hindus, but I didn't know anything about India. I wanted to know why my family had to leave Guyana, why they had migrated again to America, and why there is no history about me. My roots became topmost priority of my life: If I'm an Indian, where is my country? Why am I in the USA?"

Prasad quit her job at the mega film house HBO (Home Box Office). "In my university days, they taught us American history, but being an Indian I wanted to know about my homeland's history, its society and how I shifted to other countries," she says.

She found ship records at the National Archives in Georgetown. The records gave her all the information necessary to trace back the spoor to her roots, including the name of an ancestor, Situl Prasad. She had to sort through the early lists of indentured labourers that were compiled haphazardly, and the descriptions of age, caste and religion were often unreliable. Still, certain patterns became clear: in short, precisely who were being recruited for the colonial labour plantations in the Caribbean.

Her research led her to an important understanding—that she was not alone. Her family belonged to 20 million people called the "global Indian diaspora". Guyana and other Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago are teeming with people of Indian origin—not the least famous of whom was V S Naipaul—and are relatively affluent. They speak Hindi, for the most part, and worship Indian gods and goddesses.

Says Kries Ramkhelawan, a famous Surinamese singer, "Our forefathers left India with the Gita, the Ramayan, the Qur'an, the dholak and the harmonium. We have been brought up in a very vibrant, enlightened Indian atmosphere. Although lots of people haven't seen the Ganga-Yamuna, we have kept them alive through our songs. India lives in our very breath."

"When I traced back my ancestors to India after my family's migration over 100 years ago, I didn't know what to anticipate," says Prasad. "I was told that people would want money from me, or that they would be apprehensive of me, thinking that I would want a share in property. However, when I went to India, I realised the true

wisdom of 'family'. People warned me before coming to India that even if I met my family, I would have to shell out dollars, but surprisingly no one asked for it. I think even in such poverty, their self-importance is quite high. I just wanted to belong to my history, my own family. I went to Kolkata, from where the ships had left with my ancestors who were landless labourers. It was so overwhelming to come face to face with this family of mine, who were poor and cut off from us for many years. When I met my distant relatives, they weren't frightened of me. They knew I wasn't lying; in fact, when I was leaving, they started to cry."

Once More Removed… was screened in Guyana, the US and India. Prasad now plans to stay in India for some time to explore the richness of its "cultural values". She is also learning Hindi in order to communicate with her family back in Muzaffarpur. She says, "Colouring oneself in tricolour requires more maturity and openness. One cannot expect California in Mumbai." So, she plans to do similar documentary diaspora stories.

I have Hindustani blood—no matter that I was born abroad," says Shundell Prasad, a young Indian-Guyanese-American filmmaker. Once More Removed: A Journey Back to India is a 52-minute documentary that explores the Indian diaspora.

It's a form that began with the filmisation of Alex Haley's Roots—revisiting Prasad's journey from New York to Guyana and from there to the remote villages of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, where her mother came from, to Azamgarh, her father's ancestral home. The documentary has Prasad trying to capture the emotions of the family that she met more than a century after her foreparents left for other shores.

Prasad, whose family spoke in Bhojpuri and she in what is loosely known as Brooklynese, brought along an interpreter. Her foreparents had been taken to Guyana as indentured labour to work in the sugarcane fields. Guyana was the first sugar colony to have received Indian indentured labourers in the Caribbean; in all, more than 416,000 Indians disembarked there between 1838 and 1917. The Indians who arrived in the Caribbean were hardly homogenous: they came from different regions and carried a legacy of diverse Indian cultural traditions, customs, religious practices, languages, art forms, and foods.

Most of the families stayed back in Guyana and the broken families led their own lives—till the film. Prasad is present during the reunion, of course, and the bonding is understandably intense, the linguistic void between notwithstanding.

She says, "I started the project because I wanted to know why I looked like an Indian. Back in Guyana, we knew we were Hindus, but I didn't know anything about India. I wanted to know why my family had to leave Guyana, why they had migrated again to America, and why there is no history about me. My roots became topmost priority of my life: If I'm an Indian, where is my country? Why am I in the USA?"

Prasad quit her job at the mega film house HBO (Home Box Office). "In my university days, they taught us American history, but being an Indian I wanted to know about my homeland's history, its society and how I shifted to other countries," she says.

She found ship records at the National Archives in Georgetown. The records gave her all the information necessary to trace back the spoor to her roots, including the name of an ancestor, Situl Prasad. She had to sort through the early lists of indentured labourers that were compiled haphazardly, and the descriptions of age, caste and religion were often unreliable. Still, certain patterns became clear: in short, precisely who were being recruited for the colonial labour plantations in the Caribbean.

Her research led her to an important understanding—that she was not alone. Her family belonged to 20 million people called the "global Indian diaspora". Guyana and other Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago are teeming with people of Indian origin—not the least famous of whom was V S Naipaul—and are relatively affluent. They speak Hindi, for the most part, and worship Indian gods and goddesses.

Says Kries Ramkhelawan, a famous Surinamese singer, "Our forefathers left India with the Gita, the Ramayan, the Qur'an, the dholak and the harmonium. We have been brought up in a very vibrant, enlightened Indian atmosphere. Although lots of people haven't seen the Ganga-Yamuna, we have kept them alive through our songs. India lives in our very breath."

"When I traced back my ancestors to India after my family's migration over 100 years ago, I didn't know what to anticipate," says Prasad. "I was told that people would want money from me, or that they would be apprehensive of me, thinking that I would want a share in property. However, when I went to India, I realised the true wisdom of 'family'. People warned me before coming to India that even if I met my family, I would have to shell out dollars, but surprisingly no one asked for it. I think even in such poverty, their self-importance is quite high. I just wanted to belong to my history, my own family. I went to Kolkata, from where the ships had left with my ancestors who were landless labourers. It was so overwhelming to come face to face with this family of mine, who were poor and cut off from us for many years. When I met my distant relatives, they weren't frightened of me. They knew I wasn't lying; in fact, when I was leaving, they started to cry."

Once More Removed… was screened in Guyana, the US and India. Prasad now plans to stay in India for some time to explore the richness of its "cultural values". She is also learning Hindi in order to communicate with her family back in Muzaffarpur. She says, "Colouring oneself in tricolour requires more maturity and openness. One cannot expect California in Mumbai." So, she plans to do similar documentary diaspora stories.