there were some from punjabi land, luknow, ect... ect... yes lots od madrasi and south Indians as weell... so i won't be too quick to label all of them Bhajpuri and inquire why they lost their mother tongue, you out of all people asking??? while you're at it, you should ask how and why the africans lost their tongues too... also the chinese...
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The inquiry was about why, and when, they lost their language but kept other aspects of their culture like music and dance and their religions like Hinduism and Islam. The Africans were slaves who were forced to give up everything - culture, religion and language. The Indian though only lost only their language for the most part.
[quote author=Snoopster link=topic=65303.msg410135#msg410135 date=1334257741] The inquiry was about why, and when, they lost their language but kept other aspects of their culture like music and dance and their religions like Hinduism and Islam. The Africans were slaves who were forced to give up everything - culture, religion and language. The Indian though only lost only their language for the most part.
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They are also losing their religion and culture, the younger generation knows nothing about hinduism or islamic, they johovah witness is rampant in Guyana.
Language is probably the hardest to keep up with, expecially when it's not practised,our great grandparents didn't go to school in guyana so they were able to hold on to their respected language until their kids went to english school... u know how... me hable explain to you... actually my aunt who is now 84, knows her grand parents who came from india, and they spoke hindi, they didn't know any other language.
Maaaaan, meh nah taak bout this generation. Meh taak bout back then. And how come those coolies in Mauritius and Fiji still speak dem bhojpuri even after a 150 years?
another thing, I don't know why you would think that the coolies had more privileges than the slaves, when coolies arrived in Guyana, they africans were already rebelling, therefore, they had some sort of power, i think by then white man gain somoe knowledge to implement the golden rule of a 5 year contract, but don't let the 5 year contrat fool you, Im pretty sure the same policies applied to them as if though they were slaves... remember we had the masters and another tribe to deal with... coolies were probably the bottom feeders...
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