Dear editor,
NOT many Guyanese know of Baleshwar Agrawal and his contributions to relations between India and Guyana and other parts of Indian diaspora. Baleshwar Agrawal, whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year (born in July 1921), is an unsung hero who made incalculable contributions in India’s relations with Guyana and in promoting India’s soft power — religions, literature, music, art, and other aspects of culture. Through his efforts and that of others, the investment made by India in Guyana has helped our country’s economic growth and development and allowed thousands, including President Irfaan Ali, to get post-secondary education.
It was the work of Baleshwar that helped change the way India saw overseas-based Indians. He committed more than 50 years of his life to developing friendly relations with overseas territories where Indians had resided for decades. He travelled to Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, Fiji, Mauritius, and other Indian diaspora territories meeting prominent community and political leaders offering support for and encouraging linkage with Mother India. He met Dr. Jagan, Pt. Reepu. Yesu Persaud, Swami Aksharnand, Ravi Dev, and a host of prominent personalities.
Those of us who met Baleshwar and knew of his work will always remember his outstanding service and efforts towards consolidation of relations between India and Guyana and her widespread diaspora. He is a source of inspiration for others, regardless of ethnicity and faith, to follow. Those who benefitted from his work remember him well. Although I also studied and worked in educational management in India, I was not a direct beneficiary of his activism, but I remember him well through others who benefitted.
Baleshwar advocated for and encouraged the Indian government to grant scholarships in language, culture, music, and religion to study in India, making it possible for so many Guyanese to obtain tertiary education. He advocated for Indian scholars under the ICCR program to be sent abroad to teach Indian history and culture at national public university. Several came to UG and to UWI St Augustine and Mona campuses – paid for by the government of India. He also championed Indian financial assistance to developing countries in the Caribbean, Latin America, Pacific, Asia, and Africa, with Guyana being a major beneficiary. Aside from Afghanistan, Guyana is the largest recipient of aid from India. African countries are also major beneficiaries receiving billions in American dollars annually from India’s generosity.
Baleshwar was most impressed with Indo-Caribbean people, especially our cultural and name retention in spite of the adversity of colonial rule and experiences with racism post-independence. He tried to strengthen India’s cultural and economic relations with countries where Indians were settled. He encouraged trade with Guyana and other diaspora countries. He recognised that a powerful flow of trade and investment benefits economies hugely, sustaining jobs and creating wealth while linking India with other diaspora countries.
He encouraged overseas Indians to study in India. He arranged for their scholarships and even for their stay. Several Guyanese received scholarships to study in India through his intervention. He would check up on the welfare and comfort of foreign students in India that had come from the PIO countries and even took them out to historic sites to enjoy the beauty of Mother India. Pandit Bharat Singh of West Coast relates his encounter with Baleshwar. “I met him twice and he did everything to make me feel at home when I was in Delhi on a scholarship to study Hindi. He was very warm, friendly, and pleasant, a fatherly figure. There were Indians from Fiji, Mauritius, and African countries and other places. He was good to all. He organized for us to visit Jammu. He was a very kind, generous man. I can never forget him”.
Baleshwar also initiated the idea of a gathering of parliamentarians of Indian descent that was first held in 2000 in Parliament Annex, Delhi. A second such summit of global Indian parliamentarians, championed by Ravi Dev and myself at a 2017 parley of Indian scholars hosted by the Modi government, was held in January 2018 in Delhi at which two dozen Guyanese MPs were guests with all expenses paid by the Modi government.
Ravi Dev also remembers Baleshwar from a meeting they had in Bangalore around 1997. Baleshwar talked of his interest in holding a global summit of parliamentarians of Indian descent that would be held in 2000. “He was among the nicest people I met. He was very smart, bright, scholarly with a deep interest in affairs of the Indian diaspora. I was not aware at the time of his enormous role in linkage with the Indian diaspora. But he was familiar with Guyana and he had written a book on Indians in Guyana as well as similar books on Indians in Suriname, Trinidad, and Fiji. They were good pioneering works.”
I learned about Baleshwar-ji through Pandit Ramlall of Skeldon who studied Hindi in India under a government of India scholarship in 1971. Baleshwar had visited Guyana to learn about the diaspora and Pandit Ramlall met him about promoting Hindi and culture. Ramlall told me that Baleshwar made his stay in India comfortable. “I was at a guest house sharing a room with another student. He was a non-veg and I could not stand the smell of meat. I brought it to the attention of Baleshwar-ji and he rectified the problem. Through his intervention, I was shifted to another room.”
My encounter with Baleshwar was similar to that described by others. I knew Baleshwar through Chaman Lal, International Director of Vishawa Vibhag (World Division) of the Sangh Parivar, who I had met in Delhi several times in 1985, 1990, 1995, and almost annually thereafter, sometimes two or three times a year. (I also met Baleshwar at the PBDs in 2003, 2004 and 2005 – parleys to recognise and celebrate Indian achievements abroad). Chaman Lal was while Baleshwar was interested in the welfare of Indians abroad. President Jagdeo was Chief Guest at PBD in 2004. Chaman Lall and Baleshwar were collaborators in bettering relations with Indians in the diaspora; Baleshwar was more interested in promoting culture and language while Chaman Lal was more involved in promoting Hinduism. They were not competitors but had similar missions and aided each other in the goal of their organisations. They both had the support of then PM Atal Vajpayee and Deputy PM Lal Krishnan Advani, both of who interacted with Guyanese in New York and in Delhi.
Pt. Vikash of West Coast also had pleasant memories of Baleshwar-ji visiting him in his office reminiscing about Guyana. “He was a great man. He was very encouraging and helpful to foreign students. Many saw him and Chamal Lal as God-sent. You won’t find those kinds of characters anywhere. They answer your requests.”
Swami Aksharnand also stated he had pleasant, fruitful encounters with Baleshwarji who he recollects visited Guyana around 2001 and early 1980s.
Yesu Persaud, then Chair of DDL Holdings in Guyana, said he remembers meeting Baleshwar around 2001 when he come as a member of a delegation from then Prime Minister Vajpayee to discuss India-diaspora relations that would lead to the holding of the first PBD in 2003 and annually thereafter. “He was very a cool, well-mannered Indian gentleman. He spoke very well about wanting to see closer economic and cultural relations between Guyana and India. He was a very respectable and honorable man”.
Baleshwar also visited New York and met with the Guyanese diaspora. Pt. Ravi-ji Maharaj said he also has fond memories of Baleshwar-ji. “I met him several times. I was stationed in Benaras for several years –1972 to 83. I would come to Delhi often and I would meet him and Chaman Lal in separate meetings. They facilitated me and they were very hospitable. I seem to recall Baleshwar-ji had some kind of affiliation with Friends of India Society International and that he would later found ARSP. He would organise meetings and seminars. He was very passionate about his work for overseas Indians.”
It was through the work of Baleshwar in India and his travels overseas that India has deepened ties to the diaspora. Guyana and other diaspora countries are different today from the time when Baleshwar visited. Today, India provides dozens of scholarships annually, several to study Hindi, to Guyanese. India is closer today with her diaspora thanks to the work of Baleshwar-ji. And Guyana is a beneficiary of India’s generosity of his work as well as that of people like Ravi Dev, Swami Aksharnand, and myself, all of us who championed for greater financial assistance and loans from India.
Shri Baleshwar Agrawal, who became the founder and secretary-general of Antar-Rashtriya Sahayog Parishad (ARSP or Indian Council for International Cooperation), was a source of inspiration for many. He helped to make the Indian diaspora proud of who they are as a people. He has reinforced the importance of the philosophical idea of giving back to community and how to be a better person. For this, the diaspora and the Guyanese people, including her diaspora, remain indebted to him.
Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram
