Bombing out the light and national unity in Guyana

Bombs
"I had to give my dogs three valium" the animal lover tells me. "I don't think it will help, the valium not strong for them"

I feel bad, responsible, that my Hindu festival, Diwali, is the cause of distress for her animals.

That maybe, if , Burnham had not decided to give holidays to all religions as part of the post colonial unification project for Guyana, that Diwali would be a peaceful , religious festival for the Hindus and others who do not feel the need to terrify and disturb animals, children , others as part of their celebration. 

The joyful bombers are now throwing the squibs, fireworks, bombs at other people, in some people's yards. under vehicles.

There is nothing in the scriptures I have read that Diwali is associated with any bombs or fireworks to chase away any evil spirits. I have not read that Diwali is meant to terrorise anyone. I don't know if the people who sell and trade and use the bombs and fireworks know the prayers to Mother Laxmi and understand the meaning of Diwali.



The social media feed has the pictures of Diwali Greetings, Diwali lights, diyas, sweet meats.

And the stories of dealing with the bombs and fire crackers. The pseudo-war zone. One woman wrote she had to go home early as she could not enjoy the lights as one was thrown at her. 

Guyana's madness , that it is important to disrupt any quiet celebration or space.



Competition, collaboration, devotion
Diwali morning. The pandit concludes his message with an  urging to the followers, as they light their diyas, not to be in competition with their neighbours. To understand that there is an inner light which must shine more than any external light. That the more lights the better.

I think yes, Devotion is not competition. It is personal and communal.

Rangoli competition, Motorcade competition, heck even Sari/beauty competition (maybe one day the men who organise this will do a dhoti competition too).  That sometimes in the urge to popularise the festival, to widen the scope, to make the thing National,  to make the thing national, that we let go of the original meaning and worry instead about the spectacles of the lights, the Rangoli, the clothes and not think of the light stripped of all of those things.

And that the devotion that would have gone into lighting and making a few mud diyas is not in competition with anyone who has resources to use thousands of diyas and electric lights.


Talking with, rather than observing
One Diwali night, 9pm. Diyas have blown out in the beautiful breeze. A group of teenagers are lighting squibs and bombs, trying to kill the quiet.

I am ready to fight, it is terrifying. I go out, ask them if they know that Diwali is a peaceful festival. Try to manage the anger. Realise that they are all young, some Hindu.

It seems they didn't really know that. That years of social studies and Diwali programmes and messages from the political parties and others, that a lot of people think Diwali is some kind of Hindu Christmas (and for many Hindus it could be that kind of celebration).

 One of the youths makes fun of me. A few of them are apologetic. I walk away as one last bomb is fired by the youth who did not take me seriously.

I am shaking a bit.Other people who have tried to ask the bombers to stop have not had such good results.

They stop though, and I hope that talking with them might have left some idea of seeing Diwali differently.

I don't know if those who set up music sets and Bar b Q grills outside the mandirs would consider that Hindus don't eat BBQ or would want to wine down or so on Diwali night.



National Unity
But we don't talk with people really about festivals and so on. There might be some observations, listening without being able to question and to understand.

In 2005 or so, a group of Hindu organisations had a Diwali fair on the Camp Street avenue , towards the southern end. Diyas were painted on the avenue as a kind of rangoli. Some Christians objected. Somebody or bodies painted over the diyas. One devout Christian told me that this was the public space being invaded. (There was never any objection to the Christmas trees and so on the road). 

The painting over of the diyas, like the Bombing out of the meaning of the lights.. gives tone to the lie which we keep hoping about National Unity and any serious effort at understanding and sharing the nation.  The inability of the customs and the police to stop the bombs gives lie to any serious effort at wanting to nurture peace.

A group of Hindus plan to protest the Police in Berbice for their failure to protect the Diwali festival.
Do the police themselves understand the meaning of Diwali? And the aspiration of the celebration of light, rather than noise ?



Light

People have written letters before, about the noise, about Diwali events which are not about God, about rethinking the beauty pageants, that Diwali is not about "unmarried, attractive women' having to compete for any cultural reason, and about the new cultural events which want seem to want to dim the light. About the futility of hoping that no alcohol would be present during the Diwali activities like the motorcades.
Another Diwali passed.

One letter concluded that "
Sanatan Dharma is eternal. Diwali’s message of light can be from Maulana Rumi, the great mystic in the Islamic tradition:

“The lamps are different, but the light is the same; It comes from beyond.
If you keep looking at the lamp,
Thou art lost.
For thence arises number and plurality.
Fix your gaze upon the Light.”
That light is what could unite us.

 "