ABSTRACT
Although political independence for the Caribbean states has not led to economic emancipation, a level of cultural decolonization has been attained even in those teritories that remain political dependencies. This chapter focuses on the specific issue of ethnic identity, in this case the integration of the East Indian inhabitants of the Caribbean and of Suriname in particular. The beliefs arid rites of Hinduism vary by geographical location, time, and social group. In the Caribbean, different caste beliefs and practices fused into a single unitary religion. The negative side is that the market dictates that authors write in the Dutch language, and this generates feelings of disorientation and estrangement, feelings that so long have influenced culture in Suriname and the Caribbean. This ambivalence will continue to characterize Surinamese and Caribbean culture in the 1990s and beyond. Surinamese poets Dobru and Shrinivasi (M. Lutchman), the first person to write a poem in Sarnami, have illuminated the identity issue in two well-known poems.
