Comments on: Suriname’s Linguistic Khichri

By: Virender Singh

Virender Singh — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:24:58 +0000

It is intersting to interact with the surinami Indians.I have a very old friend from Netherlands.We got introduced as penpals long back ,alomost thirty three years ago and have had a very tumultuous affairs but never the less we remained very much in touch with each other. after thirty years of our friendship, we finally met three years back. I visited her in Netherlands-Den Hague.It was a very sentimental visit. Her whole family knew me. they had great celeberation for me. Sarnami Indian are very warm, affectionate and great hosts.I lived with them for ten days pampered by the affection ,care and attention showred upon me.My friend’s husband , her both children took very special care of me. I enjoyed listening their sarnami-similar to Bihari Bhojpuri dialect and get very nostalgic about the visit and wish to be with them again and again. Viren. India.

By: Vikram

Vikram — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:17:03 +0000

Hi, Does anyone know of private education institutes in Suriname? I couldn’t find a single one on the internet.

By: Parag Chotai

Parag Chotai — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:52:25 +0000

This is a more general one in that I am married to a lovely Surinamese woman. We are based in London but she feels isolated and even though there are alot of Dutch people she would reaaly like to meet other Surinamese Hindu's in London. If anyone out there knows of anyone or you are based in London please let me know as it would be great for my wife to meet up and make some new friends.

Also are there any Surinamese restaurants in London. We have every cuisine under the sun but yet to see a Surinamese!

Parag

By: Indie Bong

Indie Bong — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:29:09 +0000

I stand behind my assertion that Indo-Caribs are more laid back than DBDs simply because of Afro-Carib cultural influence.

Ya just cyan't carry on with anal-retentiveness around black folk for too long! LOL.

By: zuni

zuni — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:05:44 +0000

Culture through food: Here is a lovely foodblog from Guyanese: http://www.tasteslikehome.org/

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:59:10 +0000

Well, as an Indian man I'm just wary of being stereotyped as a violent alcoholic! It makes me wince.

I also get wary when people stereotype Indian women as either gold-digging superficial materialistic neurotic bitches, as some Indian guys do, or as submissive docile dusky exotic maidservants, as I've seen white and black men do. I just wonder why and where people get off stereotyping like that. It makes me feel icky to be honest. And I don't like it when black men are stereotyped as feckless, violent and irresponsible 'baby fathers', or black women are stereotyped as feisty sexually manic wild-childs. I wonder what we bring to ourselves in terms of self-loathing when we indulge in this kind of thing. I notice that about the only group that doesn't indulge in this phenomenon are white people themselves. A bad relationship with a white man or woman doesn't lead to white men and women saying 'I'm never dating another white boy / girl again!'

Maybe it's just a condition of being a minority.

Anyway, Nandini, I've just ordered this book, looking forward to reading it, looks great.

Mobilizing India: Women, Music, and Migration between India and Trinidad

By: Nandini

Nandini — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:11:58 +0000

I was at a literature conference on caribbean identity a couple of years back. During the break after a talk on creolization and douglarization a few of us began chatting. An indo-trinidadian woman maybe 30 years my senior told me that her mother advised her and her sisters when they were young not to marry an indian, and that none of her siblings (she is 4th child of 6) are presently married to indians. This is significant because her mother would have said this at a VERY different time from what we are living. But it wasn’t her mother’s warning that led her to her husband, she said that the legacy of domestic violence and alcoholism that were her experience of Indian men naturally attracted her to different men. She was never attracted to an indian man. Interestingly, only one of her own children was dating an indian – her son. Maybe it is the perception (as bobby says) that the grass will definitely be greener on the other side, or maybe it is that your past experience will frame how you experience the world. I like the latter idea because its based on individual experiences rather than group stereotypes. Not all indian men are violent alcoholics and not all non-indian men aren’t.

By: NYC Akshay

NYC Akshay — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:32:18 +0000

I wonder if other non-caribbean desis have experienced this before. For some reason, many people (including afro/indo-caribbeans) often assume I am from the caribbean, though I’m actually from India. I gave some money to a homeless woman during my evening commute a few days ago, and even she assumed I was Trini. I haven’t quite figured out what it is that makes me appear Caribbean, but I can be sure it doesn’t involve the rather shameful spectacles in which I’ve engaged with soca blasting out of the speakers…

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:23:11 +0000

Hmmm, there goes another stereotype (assuming this is true). Sounds similar to what some white men say about east and southeast asian women: that they want to marry whites because they treat them better than their own men.

Well I've heard the same stereotype and sentiment expressed by black women about why they prefer to date white men, because, apparently, they treat them better than black men do. Either the grass is always greener on the other side, or people are just full of stereotypes and inter racial relationships are fraught with generalisations.

By: Vyasa

Vyasa — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:13:48 +0000

Nandini:

I'd also argue (though i lack any real evidence) that there are proportionately more indian-african marriages in Trinidad than in many other places. There is an interesting paper on the subject by Dr. Sheila Rampersad who did her PhD thesis on douglarization in Trinidad and Tobago. I vaguely remember something about a belief that black men treat indian women better than indian men which i think is part of this paper

Hmmm, there goes another stereotype (assuming this is true). Sounds similar to what some white men say about east and southeast asian women: that they want to marry whites because they treat them better than their own men. BTW, at least two afro- caribbean world famous cricketers have had flings with Bollywood stars: Gary Sobers got engaged to Anju Mahendru during a cricket tour of India and Viv Richards had a child with Neena Gupta. I have read that when the West Indies goes on a cricket tour to Sri Lanka their players are swamped by local female groupies.

Indian inter-marriage rates are probably the lowest of any race in the world whether it is in the caribbean, the pacific islands, africa or europe. In the UK for example, afro-caribbeans intermarry heavily with the native whites and to a lesser extent so do immigrants from Africa. But south asians have miniscule inter-marriage rates.

In the caribbean it seems that the chinese have much higher intermarriage rates with afro-caribbeans than do indians.