गयाना का इतिहास
विकिपीडिया, एक मुक्त ज्ञानकोष से
गयाना एक ऐसा दक्षिणी अमरीका का देश है जिसकी शासकीय भाषा अंग्रेज़ी है। यहां हिन्दी भी बहुत प्रचलित है। ५० प्रतिशत से अधिक लोग मूल भारतीय हैं। हिन्दुओं की अनुपात लगभग ३५ प्रतिशत है।
गयाना का इतिहास यहां के मूल निवासी इंडियन लोगों से अरम्भ होता है। स्वत्न्त्रता १९६६ में मिली। पहले प्रधान मन्त्री छेदी जगन थे। उनकी पत्नी जेनट जगन भी प्रधान मन्त्री बनी। १९९९ से भरत जगदेव राष्ट्रपति हैं।
जब 1834 में गुलामी वर्जित की गयी , अफ़्रो गुयानी लोगों ने वेतन के लिये कार्य करने से मना कर दिया . इस से कई बागान बंद हो गये हज़ारों मजदूर भारत , पुर्तगाल तथा चीन से खेतों में काम करने के लिये लाये गये .
This provided the basis for the racial tension that was encouraged and manipulated later, at the point where Guyana made its bid for independence, and to the present day. However, Guyanese culture is in many ways homogeneous, due to shared history, intermarriage, and other factors.
Despite the recruitment of West Indian, African and Portuguese and other European labourers, this did not help very much to ease the labour shortage of the 1830s. After the West Indian islands placed restrictions on emigration, the sugar planters in Guyana began to look further afield to obtain a large labour force. One of them, John Gladstone, the father of the British statesman, applied for permission from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to recruit Indians to serve in Guyana for a five-year period of indenture.
Gladstone's proposed venture was supported by a number of other sugar planters whose estates were expected to obtain some of the Indians to be recruited. By this time Indians were being taken to Mauritius to work on the sugar plantations and were proving to be very productive. Gladstone's request was granted and he, Davidson, Barclay and Company, Andrew Colville, John and Henry Moss, all owners of sugar plantation in Guyana, made arrangements to recruit 414 Indians. Of these 150 were "hill coolies" from Chota Nagpur, and the remainder were from Burdwan and Bancoorah near Calcutta. (The word "coolie", a corruption of the Tamil word "kuli", referred to a porter or labourer).
To transport these Indians, two ships, the Whitby and Hesperus were chartered. The Whitby sailed from Calcutta on 13 January 1838 with 249 immigrants, and after a voyage of 112 days, arrived in Guyana on 5 May. Five Indians died on the voyage. The ship immediately sailed to Berbice and 164 immigrants, who were recruited by Highbury and Waterloo plantations, disembarked. The ship then returned to Demerara and between 14–16 May the remaining 80 immigrants landed and were taken to Belle Vue Estate.
Of the total of 244 Indians who arrived on the Whitby, there were 233 men, 5 women and 6 children.
The Hesperus left Calcutta on the 29 January 1838 with 165 passengers and arrived in Guyana late on the night of the 5 May, by which time 13 had already died. The remaining 135 men, 6 women and 11 children were distributed between the 8-10 May to the plantations Vreedestein, Vreed-en-hoop and Anna Regina.
By 1899, the British forcefully marked the Guyana borders with respect to Venezuela. It included some lands that Venezuela still claims up to this day.
The British stopped the practice of importing labor in 1917, by which time around 250,000 people had settled in Guyana. Many of the Afro-Guyanese former slaves moved to the towns and became the majority urban population, whereas the Indo-Guyanese remained predominantly rural. A scheme in 1862 to bring black workers from the United States was unsuccessful.
A fall in sugar prices in the late 19th century led to an increase in logging and mining.
अनुक्रमणिका |
[बदलें] Lead up to independence
Guyanese politics occasionally have been turbulent. The first modern political party in Guyana was the People's Progressive Party (PPP), established on January 1, 1950, with Forbes Burnham, a British-educated Afro-Guyanese, as chairman; Dr. Cheddi Jagan, a U.S.-educated Indo-Guyanese, as second vice chairman; his American-born wife, Janet Jagan, as secretary general and Lionel Jeffries (no relation to the British actor of the same name) as Treasurer. The PPP won 18 out of 24 seats in the first popular elections permitted by the colonial government in 1953. Dr. Jagan became leader of the house and minister of agriculture in the colonial government. However, Jagan's Marxist views caused concern in Washington.
On October 9, 1953, five months after his election, the British suspended the constitution and landed troops because, they said, the Jagans and the PPP were planning to make Guyana a communist state. Among the troops sent were the 2nd Battalion of the Scottish regiment, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), who arrived in 1954. Their unusual regalia and their bagpipe music made them quite conspicuous.
These events led to a manipulated split in the PPP, in which Burnham broke away and founded what eventually became the People's National Congress (PNC). Colonial interests, which hoped to thwart the Guyanese independence movement, instigated conflict between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese. The PPP, which was a multi-ethnic, nationalist party, was depicted as a vehicle for the majority Indo-Guyanese population, and the PNC posed as an alternative for Afro-Guyanese. Lionel Jeffries, the PPP Treasurer who was half Afro-Guyanese and half Indo-Guyanese emigrated with his family to Britain. This ethnic divide in politics continues to this day.
Self rule was achieved on 26 August 1961. The Premier and a Cabinet of Ministers had authority over internal matters only. The British Governor had veto powers over the elected legislature. The bi-cameral House of Assembly consisted of a lower house, the Legislative Council and an upper house, the Senate. The Legislative Council was elected in a First past the post system. The Senate was made up of a majority of members from the Government, Opposition representatives, and two nominated members chosen by the Governor after consultation with various groups.
From the latter part of 1963, through the early part of 1964, came the period euphemistically called "The Disturbances" by the British. The governments of The UK and the USA joined forces to destabilize the Guyanese political landscape, with the U.S. providing intelligence and infiltration (through the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD)), while the British brought in brute force. AIFLD operatives instigated a 90 day strike of primarily urban and Afro-Guyanese unions, which brought the nation's economy to a halt; the strike was also the occasion for outbreaks of racial violence, as it was used to pit the predominantly Indo-Guyanese government against the predominantly Afro-Guyanese service unions. The British alternately moved to crush the altercations, or to simply allow them to run their course. During this period, PPP leaders such as Jagan, Brindley Benn, and the man who came to be regarded as Guyana's poet laureate, Martin Carter, were frequently imprisoned and harassed by the British. Around 200 people died in the riots.
At a Constitutional Conference in London in 1963, the British agreed to grant independence to the colony, but only after another election in which proportional representation would be introduced for the first time. It was widely believed that this system would reduce the number of seats won by the PPP and prevent it from obtaining a clear majority in parliament. The December 1964 elections gave the PPP 45.8 percent, the PNC 40.5 percent, and the United Force (TUF), a conservative party, 12.4 percent. TUF threw its votes in the legislature to Forbes Burnham, and he became Prime Minister.
[बदलें] Independence
Guyana achieved independence on May 26, 1966, and became the Co-operative Republic of Guyana on February 23, 1970 - the anniversary of the Cuffy slave rebellion - with a new constitution. From December 1964 until his death in August 1985, Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana in an increasingly autocratic manner, first as Prime Minister and later, after the adoption of a new constitution in 1980 (declaring Guyana to be in transition from capitalism to socialism and allowing an elected President and Prime Minister appointed by the president), as Executive President. During that time-frame, elections were viewed in Guyana and abroad as fraudulent. Human rights and civil liberties were suppressed, and two major political assassinations occurred: the Jesuit priest and journalist Bernard Darke in July 1979, and the distinguished historian and WPA Party leader Walter Rodney in June 1980. Agents of President Burnham are widely believed to have been responsible for both deaths. Burnham also nationalised many industries, such as sugar and bauxite, and fostered links with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.
In 1974 the Guyanese government allowed the religious group the Peoples Temple, led by the American Jim Jones, to build a 300-acre settlement (called Jonestown) in the north-west of the country. Following increasing concern about abuses at Jonestown, US Congressman Leo Ryan agreed to conduct a fact-finding mission to the settlement, accompanied by concerned relatives and media persons, on 14 November 1978. Whilst boarding a plane, the company was fired upon; several people, including Ryan, were killed. This was then followed by the mass-suicide, at Jones's instigation, of all 900 people at Jonestown.
[बदलें] The PPP in Power
Following Burnham's own death in 1985, Prime Minister Hugh Desmond Hoyte acceded to the presidency and was formally elected in the December 1985 national elections. Hoyte gradually reversed Burnham's policies, moving from state socialism and one-party control to a market economy, industry privatisation and unrestricted freedom of the press and assembly. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Guyana to lobby for the resumption of free elections, and on October 5, 1992, a new National Assembly and regional councils were elected in the first Guyanese election since 1964 to be internationally recognized as free and fair. Cheddi Jagan of the PPP-Civic was elected and sworn in as President on October 9, 1992, the first time the PPP had won power since independence, reversing the monopoly Afro-Guyanese traditionally had over Guyanese politics. The poll was marred by violence however. A new IMF Structural Adjustment programme was introduced which led to an increase in the GDP whilst also eroding real incomes and hitting the middle-classes hard.
When President Jagan died of a heart attack in March 1997, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds replaced him in accordance with constitutional provisions, with his widow Janet Jagan as Prime Minister. She was then elected President on 15th December 1997 for the PPP. Desmond Hoyte's PNC contested the results however, resulting in strikes, riots and 1 death before a Caricom mediating committee was brought in. Janet Jangan's PPP government was sworn in on 24th December having agreed to a constitutional review and to hold elections within three years, though Hoyte refused to recognise her government.
Jagan resigned in August 1999 due to ill health and was succeeded by Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo, who had been named Prime Minister a day earlier. National elections were held on March 19, 2001, three months later than planned as the election committees said they were unprepared. Fears that the violence that marred the previous election led to monitoring by foreign bodies, including Jimmy Carter. Meanwhile a High Court judge ruled that the 1997 elections were invalid. In March incumbent President Jagdeo won the election with a voter turnout of over 90%.
Meanwhile tensions with Suriname were seriously strained by a dispute over their shared maritime border after Guyana had allowed oil-prospectors license to explore the areas.
In December 2002 Hoyte died, with Robert Corbin replacing him as leader of the PNC. He agreed to engage in 'constructive engagement' with Jagdeo and the PPP. Human rights, especially those of the Afro-Guyanese population,have often not been upheld by the predominantly Indo-Guyanese government.
Severe flooding following torrential rainfall wreaked havoc in Guyana beginning in January 2005. The downpour, which lasted about six weeks, inundated the coastal belt, caused the deaths of 34 people, and destroyed large parts of the rice and sugarcane crops.The co-ordination was badly managed by the PPP government. The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean estimated in March that the country would need $415 million for recovery and rehabilitation. About 275,000 people — 37% of the population — were affected in some way by the floods.
[बदलें] Governors-General
Following Independence the British monarch was represented as head of state by Governors-General. The position ceased to exist on the establishment of the President of Guyana. The Governors-General were:
- Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt (26 May 1966 to 16 Dec 1966)
- David James Gardiner Rose (16 Dec 1966 - 10 Nov 1969) (b. 1923 - d. 1969)
- Sir Edward Victor Luckhoo (acting) (10 Nov 1969 - 22 Feb 1970) (b. 1912 - d. 1998)
See also: Governors of British Guiana and Governors-General of Guyana.
[बदलें] References
- C.A. Harris and J.A.J. De Villiers (comps.), Storm van's Gravesande: The Rise of British , trans. from Dutch, 2 vol. (1911, reprinted 1967), extracts from his dispatches written between 1738 and 1772.
- Allan Young, The Approaches to Local Self-Government in British Guiana (1958), deals mainly with the 19th century.
- Brian L. Moore, Race, Power, and Social Segmentation in Colonial Society: Guyana After Slavery, 1838–1891 (1987), is a history of race relations.
- Thomas J. Spinner, Jr., A Political and Social History of Guyana, 1945–1983 (1984), provides an overview of recent events.
- Cheddi Jagan, The West on Trial: The Fight for Guyana's Freedom, rev. ed. (1972, reissued 1980), is a vivid account of preindependence turmoil by a former prime minister.
- Latin American Bureau, Guyana: Fraudulent Revolution (1984), takes a closer look at Burnham's government.
[बदलें] External links
Template:South America in topic Template:Caribbean in topic