Centenary History of the East Indians in British Guiana: 1838-1938

Ruhomon, Peter, Centenary History of the East Indians in British Guiana: 1838-1938, Georgetown Demerara: Daily Chronicle, 1947.

The Ruhomons were born at Plantation Albion. Peter, born on August 2, 1873, is considered the first Indian intellectual in British Guiana. (…) Joseph’s brother, Peter Ruhomon, born in 1880, was a journalist. He wrote under the pseudonym “the Pandit” and he was a leading light in the Susamachar [Wesleyan] East Indian Young Men’s Society in the 1920s and 1930s. Peter Ruhomon was an intellectual in his own right and his book the Centenary History of the East Indian in British Guiana (1947), reprinted by the East Indians 150th Anniversary Committee, offers a wealth of information about the progress of Indians in colonial Guiana.

[Peter] Ruhomon grew up in, and became an integral part of, that period in our history that saw the flowering of East Indian intellectualism. He witnessed the formation of a number of organisations to oversee the welfare of East Indians, such as the British Guiana East Indian Association in1916, initiated by his elder brother Joseph; The East Indian Young Men,s Society (EIYMS) in 1919; and The Balak Sahaita Mandalee (child welfare society) in 1936. Just as important were the East Indian Cricket Club (1914); The Corentyne Literary and Debating Society (1937); and The British Guiana Dramatic Society. INDIAN OPINION, the official organ of The British Guiana East Indians Association, became the main tool of Indian intellectualism. And Ruhomon made good use of this outlet for his opinions.