Lecturer: Never forget the Hosay massacre

AT a time when the “sari skit” seems to have had the effect of polarising the society along political and ethnic lines, history lecturer Jerome Teelucksingh is calling on people to remember the Hosay Massacre and learn the lessons of unity it tells.

Of all the disturbances, including attempts to suppress the Canboulay celebrations, “The incident in October 1884 was the bloodiest in this nation’s history,” Teelucksingh said. Twenty-two East Indians were killed, and hundreds injured. “Yet, unfortunately, this event has been marginalised in the history of TT, and the Caribbean.”

As he addressed the San Fernando Social and Educational Committee (Sansec) at Naparima College on Saturday evening, the UWI lecturer said he cannot understand why an event which brought together a fragmented immigrant society is not properly recognised and commemorated.

“It seems reasonable to ask, why is the Hosay Massacre of October 30, 1884 not properly incorporated in the national history of TT? Why should an event which, in a fragmented immigrant society, brought Hindus, some Muslims, Christians, Chinese, Portuguese, Indians and Africans – all our peoples – together in a constructive and dynamic unity which seems sadly lacking even today in the Caribbean, not be properly recognised and commemorated?”

Teelucksingh said that historic day, when semi-literate, illiterate and poverty-stricken people defied the British Empire and lost their lives in the process to ensure democracy and freedom would not be compromised, must not be forgotten.

“It was these martyrs who, through their bravery, planted seeds of nationalism which would be reaped by future generations. This is something that all citizens should acknowledge and cherish.”

Teelucksingh called for the martyrs of that massacre to be remembered and immortalised in a Heroes Park in San Fernando, for a monument where some of those who died in the procession were buried and the marking of the routes they took on that fateful day in October 1884, as a tourist attraction.

In addition, he said, “We must delve into our past and commemorate events and preserve sites during slavery which need to be remembered and events before slavery such as the Arena Massacre among the indigenous peoples.

“We need physical reminders of sites where innocent blood was shed and forgotten tears fell during colonialism. Today it is important to acknowledge the value of the spirit of unity among the martyrs of the late 19th century and its implications for our time. The nationalism and patriotism of 1884 was a powerful force,” he said in his lecture titled, Citizens Must Remember the Hosay Massacre.

Drawing a link between that event 134 years ago and present-day TT, Teelucksingh said the tendency to subvert attempts at ordinary working people coming together in racial solidarity have been repeated in North, South and Central Trinidad in the well-known labour protest of July 1934, the riots of June 1937, in 1970 during the Black Power revolution and later Bloody Tuesday in March 1975.

“The late Makandal Daaga, political leader of the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), contended that it is ‘a national scandal and disgrace’ that the society is ignorant of the Hosay Massacre.

“For some persons, the death of 22 Indians and wounding of more than 100 persons in 1884 might not be considered a tragedy worth remembering.”

One of the reasons for this apathy, Teelucksingh argued, is that “for the past six years, the annual murder rate in TT is more than 350. Many have become desensitised to murders. We have become passive citizens as we accept not only crime but also flooding and traffic.”