“Voices from the Edge”: Historic Importance and Symbolism of Ram
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SATYENDRA PEERTHUM Historien, Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund (Aapravasi Ghat, Patrimoine mondial de l’Humanité), “ VOICES FROM Membre du Secrétariat du projet de la Route de l’Engagisme, “ Voix de la Marge ” Chargé de cours à temps partiel à l’ Université de Maurice. Importance historique et symbolique de la Ram Leela THE EDGE ” et de la tradition du Ramayana pendant et après la période HISTORIC IMPORTANCE de l’engagisme à Maurice (1870-1950) AND SYMBOLISM OF RAM History is both a form of memory LEELA AND THE RAMAYANA and a discipline that draws on memory as source material. Today some of the most productive TRADITION DURING THE discussions about the nature of history are pursued in this area… AGE OF INDENTURE AND Social memory or collective memory refers to the stories and assumptions of the past that AFTER IN MAURITIUS illustrate or account for key features of the society we know today… (1870 -1950) John Tosh ‘Memory and the Spoken Word’ in The Pursuit of History (5th Edition, 2010), p.303 288 289 Le Ramayana est l’une des deux grandes anciennes épopées en Inde; elle raconte la vie et l’oeuvre de Rama, roi d’Ayodhya et de sa famille. Les épisodes les plus fameux sont connus à travers des représentations théâtrales et folkloriques de la Ram Leela. Cet article analyse, principalement, la signification historique et le symbolisme de la Ram Leela, de la tradition du Ramayana dans la formation de la communauté, la vie sociale et culturelle des travailleurs indiens engagés et de leurs descendants à Maurice entre 1870 et 1950. Les autres thèmes abordés sont les traditions orales, l'histoire et les pratiques sociales chez les descendants de ces travailleurs dans la dernière phase de l’engagisme et la première moitié du XXe siècle. Cette approche a été largement négligée dans l’historiographie mauricienne jusqu’aux années 1990. Or, les 462 800 engagés indiens et non indiens qui ont atteint les côtes mauriciennes, et dont la plupart ont été enregistrés sur le site du patrimoine mondial d'Aapravasi Ghat, ont apporté avec eux leurs langues, leur culture, leurs religions, leur cuisine, leurs PAGE PRÉCÉDENTE histoires, leurs énigmes, leurs jeux populaires et leurs traditions. 1. Title obtained from Gyanendra Ram Leela illustre ce transfert de traditions culturelles de la Mère-Inde à Maurice. Cela Pandey, ‘Voices from the Edge: The fait partie de la « conscience et de l'héritage du Ramayana » qui existe à Maurice depuis le Struggle to Write Subaltern Histo- e ries’ in Vinayak Chaturvedi (Ed), milieu du XIX siècle. La Ram Leela et la tradition du Ramayana ont contribué à ce que Mapping Subaltern Studies and the le site de l'Aapravasi Ghat (anciennement connu sous le nom de dépôt d'immigration) Post-Colonial (India, 2012), p.281. ait, aussi, été reconnu par le Comité du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO 2 au titre de CI-CONTRE Patrimoine Immatériel de l’Humanité. 2. Satyendra Peerthum, ‘The Tradition of the Ram Leela and Ramayana (Ram Katha) in Mauritius during the Age of Indenture between 1870 and 1910’ (Conference THE HISTORIC IMPORTANCE OF THE RAMAYANA Paper presented at the International Indentured Labour Conference in TRADITION & RAM LEELA IN MAURITIUS Reunion Island, August 2018), pp.1-2; https://ich.unesco.org/ in a dispatch to Governor Sir Deep River, along with a delegation of 22 labourers, en/RL/ramlila-the-traditional-per- In early formance-of-the-ramayana-00110; John Pope Hennessy, John F. showed up at the Office of the Protector of Immigrants www.aapravasighat.org. November Trotter, the Protector of Immi- and filed a complaint against their employer. 3. Mauritius National Archives 1883, grants, reported that more than After a mediation by the Protector Trotter, Mr. R (MNA), PB 28, Letter from John F. one week earlier, almost all of the ouillard allowed his workers to take their day off, if Trotter, Protector of Immigrants, to Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy, 151 Indian indentured workers and some Indo-Mauri- they agreed to work for a whole day the following Immigration Depot, Port Louis, 4th tians on Deep River Sugar Estate went on strike in the Sunday 3. Immigrant Dharamsingh also played a key November 1883. district of Flacq. The main reason being that the Mr. role in negotiating this deal. He was a Brahmin Hindu 4. Mahashivaratree ou Grande Jean-Francois Rouillard, the estate owner, did not allow and a literate skilled worker from Bihar and, for many Nuit de Shiva est un festival hindou them to take a day off in order to celebrate Deepavali très populaire. Interview with the years, the leader of the contract workers on Deep River. Late Mr. Sanjay Dharamsingh, 85 or the festival of lights which is associated with the glo- Ever since the early 1870s, Dharamsingh promoted the years old and great great grandson rious return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya. The estate owner holding of the Ram Leela or “Ram’s Play” in the local of Immigrant Dharamsingh, 2013; The Dharamsingh Family Papers; refused because it was the start of the sugar harvest sea- estate camp and in observing important Hindu reli- Mahatma Gandhi Indian Immigra- son and would affect sugar production on his estate. gious days such as Deepavali and Mahashivaratree 4. tion Archives (MGIIIA), PE 1, Ship The following day, Dharamsingh, the Chief Sirdar of Arrival Register for 1826 to 1842. 290 291 three successive Pro- that during last years and decades of the Age of Inden- 3 and it is important to remember that in December Between 1883 Letter written and signed tectors of Immigrants ture, on the sugar estates and in the emerging villages, in Telugu by Immigrant 2005, the former Director-General of UNESCO, Koï- and until the end reported at least ano- was the period when the Old Indian Immigrants, the Rungassamy, Job Contractor, chiro Matsuura, proclaimed 43 new Masterpieces of ther 13 complaints new indentured immigrants, and the Indo-Mauritians 5. MNA/PB 30, Letters and Reports to Mr. Henri LaHausse, owner the Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity, inclu- of intdenture of the Protector of Immigrants to of Beau Vallon Sugar Estate, and incidents where were going through the process of community forma- other Government Departments and requesting that the Indian ding traditional Indian performances of the Ramaya- Hindu, Muslim, and tion. During this period, they were purchasing, selling, the Colonial Secretary for 1883 to Indentured Workers be allowed na, the Ramlila 11. in 1910 1885 to PB 54, Letters and Reports to observe Deepavali and other Christian Indian wor- and leasing land, leaving the sugar estates, became of the Protector of Immigrants to other Hindu religious fesitvals in 1875 Recently Pandit Arun, the Chairman of the Ramaya- kers and Indo-Mauritians under contract, on and off skilled and semi-skilled workers and entrepreneurs, es- Government Departments and the Co- (Rugassamy Family Collection/ na Center explained in Mauritius, ever since the late lonial Secretary for 1909 to 1911. Courtesy of the Rugassamy Family) the sugar estates, in the emerging villages, and in Port tablished hamlets and villages and also achieving some 19th century, the popular enactment of the Ram Leela Louis, refused to work during the harvest season be- measure of social and economic mobility by thousands 6. Ann Laura Stoler, Along the “ have been a constant source of inspiration and strength Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties cause of their need to observe their sacred days of their of individuals. As a result, they were reasserting their to the Indian Diaspora, in particular amidst Indians who 5 and Colonial Common Sense (Prin- religions . It is from the letters and petitions that some religious lives and cultural activities which gradually ceton University Press, USA, 2009), were lured away to the colonies, such as in Mauritius, in of the Indian immigrants either signed or which were led to the emergence of several small Hindu religious pp 19-53;Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 3 Silencing the Past: Power and the An extract from a Ramayana text the nineteenth century to work in the sugar cane field. It written by themselves or on their behalf, their com- groups such as the Arya Samajis, Sanathanists, Pura- Production of History (Beacon Press in the Kaithi script from northern allowed them not only to face the harsh conditions but 9 plaints, and the actions they took as active agents in nics, and Brahmo Samajis . Books, USA, 1995), pp.1-31. India which was brought by Im- also to keep their culture alive. This Ramayana conscious- order to exercise greater control on their lives, that we migrant Gopal Ram in 1871. He 7. MNA/RA 1561, Letters and was a literate sirdar from Bihar ness continues to this day among Mauritian Hindus”. can recover their voices from the edge of the archival Reports of the Stipendiary Magis- and it describes the beginning of records and history 6. Almost half His Excellency Kailash trates to the Governor and Colonial Lord Ram’s 14-year exile. It is evident that Pandit Rajendra Arun, a naturalized Purryag, the former Secretary for 1860 to RA 2562 (Courtesy of the Gopal Ram Family Mauritian citizen originally from India, accurately des- for 1880. In addition, between the early 1860s and the early a century later, President of the Repu- Collection) cribes the impact which this ‘Ramayana conscious’ has 1880s, collective group actions such as group protests blic of Mauritius, made 8. Prabhu P. Mohapatra, ‘ had among Hindu Indo-Mauritians. After all, for more and strikes frequently took place on the sugar estates, in January 2013 an emotional and histo- “Following Custom:”? Representa- than a century and a half, it has endured and prospered in Port Louis, and emerging villages, such as the one tions of Community among Indian ric trip to his ancestral village in Bihar, India.