In this book an attempt is made to probe more carefully the processes by which social and ethnic problems, as these pertain to Caribbean countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, are conveyed to the political arena and the mechanisms by which they determine critical outcomes. The authors of this book have accordingly distinguished between predisposing factors and what are described as triggering mechanisms. The factors that trigger dramatic changes will differ between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. In short, while in some respects these societies are similar, in others, there are dramatic differences in their respective histories and political developments. This study begins with a survey of the literature on race relations and their connections with politics; it then proceeds to examine the context for the insertion of the two major groups into these societies, the emergence of ethnic groups, and their relationships with political organizations. The nature and politics of the leaders are then analyzed along with the political structures with a view to identifying what factors were responsible for the differing political experiences of both countries.

This book examines the experience of post-colonial territories and their attempts to manage ethnic communities within their countries. The study focuses on Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and Fiji. This project looks at the mechanisms, which vary from legislation to political structures, systems, and institutions that have been introduced to allow for greater integration by these communities, and assesses their strengths and weaknesses.

"This book deals with British colonial strategy in its colonies of Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana/Guyana to deal with an East Indian threat to the political order it desired in the run up to independence for Trinidad and Tobago in the 1960's and the threat of Communist subversion in Guyana in the 1950's and 1960's. In both instances the British strategy called for the creation of a racist political order that destroyed the East Indian threat in Trinidad and Tobago and placed a minority race in power through successive fraudulent elections until the decade of the 1990's in Guyana. The British legacy in both instances is a racist social order premised upon racist hegemony."

Winner of the 2019 Gordon K. & Sybil Lewis Book Award In 1833, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire led to the import of exploited South Asian indentured workers in the Caribbean under extreme oppression. Dave Ramsaran and Linden F. Lewis concentrate on the Indian descendants' processes of mixing, assimilating, and adapting while trying desperately to hold on to that which marks a group of people as distinct. In some ways, the lived experience of the Indian community in Guyana and Trinidad represents a cultural contradiction of belonging and non-belonging. In other parts of the Caribbean, people of Indian descent seem so absorbed by the more dominant African culture and through intermarriage that Indo-Caribbean heritage seems less central. In this collaboration based on focus groups, in-depth interviews, and observation, sociologists Ramsaran and Lewis lay out a context within which to develop a broader view of Indians in Guyana and Trinidad, a numerical majority in both countries. They address issues of race and ethnicity but move beyond these familiar aspects to track such factors as ritual, gender, family, and daily life. Ramsaran and Lewis gauge not only an unrelenting process of assimilative creolization on these descendants of India, but also the resilience of this culture in the face of modernization and globalization.

Hinds presents a useful guide at large for understanding the problem of governance, democracy, and society in ethnically divided countries and how to create a framework aimed at solving the problem.

Volume 1 outlines the nature and structures of illicit drug trafficking in the Caribbean. It discusses the escalating levels of social violence, crime and grinding poverty all linked to the illicit drug trade.