It is our mission to promote Caribbean Hindustani culture and this organization does so by engaging in numerous projects. These projects include but not limited to media initiatives, music and lyrical composition, translations, Caribbean Bhojpuri classes, production of literature, and research of cultural practices.
WHY THE NEED FOR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
What is Caribbean Hindustani?
Bhojpuri and Standard Hindi are similar but different; parallel to Portuguese to Spanish. A Bhojpuri speaker can understand Hindi; however a Hindi speaker may not understand Bhojpuri. One can easily learn Hindi from Bhojpuri and with a little practice the other way around. Hindi is a Sanskritised language that is based primarily on the Khariboli speech of Delhi and other nearby areas of Northern India that was standardized in and around the time of Indian Independence and Partition. Bhojpuri is often referred to as a dialect of Hindi because of its lexical similarities; however, it is indeed linguistically separate from Hindi. Furthermore, it is of greater antiquity. Bhojpuri has literary works dating to the 15th century by the Hindu saint Kabir Benesari Boli, a dialect of Bhojpuri. During this period the standard forms of Hindustani were Avadhi, attested to by Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas, Braj Bhasa as seen in Surdas and Meera Bai compositions.
The Role of Caribbean Hindustani in Religious Text?
When the Indian indentured immigrants came to their new the Caribbean, A standard form of Bhojpuri was developed for communication. The colonial masters who spoke English, Dutch, French looked down upon the beautiful language and culture of the Indians. Unfortunately, within the next generation, Bhojpuri was even looked down upon by her own sons; the Indians who moved up the social ladder be learning the language of their colonial masters, viewed their mother tongue as inferior, because it was not tool that for upward social mobility. Howbeit, if her own sons studied the history of the language of their colonial masters, they would have realized that this academic language also faced the very same problems.
In English history, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. A French King was crowned as the monarch of England lording over the Saxon, who spoke a Germanic language. Three hundred years later Middle English had evolved out of Anglo Saxon and French. Early Bible translators were burned at the stake for daring to translate the Bible in this common language, yet by 1539, Henry VIII required Bibles be available in each parish in what linguists call Early Modern English. At this point, their language became worthy of God, because even the English speaking world; Christ seemed to pray in it.
Similarly to English, Caribbean Hindustani has been looked down upon by her son’s oppressors and even her sons. However, like English she also has a right to be dignified. Caribbean Hindustani’s desires is to dignify Caribbean Hindustani language, to show her sons that she is sweet and worthy to express religious literature like the Bhagavad Gita, Koran, and New Testament. Krishna can speak to Arjun and Jesus can pray the Lord’s Prayer in Caribbean Bhojpuri as well. Therefore the Caribbean Indian diaspora can also use their language for religious purposes; because, Caribbean Bhojpuri is not inferior to Hindi, English, Dutch, French, and so on.
What is the Goal for Caribbean Hindustani?
Similarly, for Caribbean Hindustani the time has come for the language to rise above grandma’s stories, Indian homes or markets, it is now time to enter religious literature as did English. A great work for the evolution of Caribbean Hindustani is at hand, and this can be done by translating the Bhagavad Gita, Koran and New Testament as literal as possible to the original languages with a translation philosophy of formal equivalence. Such translations will formalize the language in spelling, usage, grammar, and preservation.
