The Mystic Masseur Part 22

It was he who introduced the walk-out to Trinidad and made it popular as a method of protest. The walk-out was no sudden inspiration. It had crude beginnings. At first he simply lay flat on his back on the Council table and refused to move. Policemen had to lift him up. Acts like this caught the public imagination and in no time at all Ganesh became popular throughout the South Caribbean. His photograph appeared constantly in the newspapers. Then he discovered the walk-out. In the beginning he just walked out; later, he walked out and gave interviews to reporters on the steps of the Red House; finally, he walked out, gave interviews, and addressed the crowd of beggars and idlers from the bandstand in Woodford Square. Often the Governor pa.s.sed a weary hand over his forehead and said, 'Mr Ramsumair, what have we done to offend you this time? Please don't stage another walk-out.' And the invariable concomitant of a headline announcing the pa.s.sing of a bill was GANESH STAGES A WALK-OUT. GANESH STAGES A WALK-OUT. Later this was shortened and a typical newspaper headline was: Later this was shortened and a typical newspaper headline was: LAND R RESETTLEMENT B BILL P Pa.s.sEDGanesh Walks Out They made a calypso about him which was the second road-march at the Carnival in 1947: There is a gentleman of the opposition Suffering a sort of legislative constipation.

Everybody moving bills for so, But with this gentleman nothing can go.

The reference to Profitable Evacuation Profitable Evacuation was clear. But even before the calypso, Ganesh had begun to find his mystic career an embarra.s.sment. Certain paragraphs of was clear. But even before the calypso, Ganesh had begun to find his mystic career an embarra.s.sment. Certain paragraphs of What G.o.d Told Me What G.o.d Told Me had often been read out in the Council Chamber; and in November 1946, just four months after he had published it, he suppressed had often been read out in the Council Chamber; and in November 1946, just four months after he had published it, he suppressed The Years of Guilt, The Years of Guilt, as well as his other books, and wound up Ganesh Publis.h.i.+ng Company Limited. as well as his other books, and wound up Ganesh Publis.h.i.+ng Company Limited.

There was no doubt that at this time Ganesh was the most popular man in Trinidad. He never went to a c.o.c.ktail party at Government House. He never went to dinner there. He was always ready to present a pet.i.tion to the Governor. He exposed scandal after scandal. And he was always ready to do a favour for any member of the public, rich or poor. For such favours his fees were never high. He always said, 'You must give only what you can afford.' People like Primrose and the Christian had high fixed rates, went to every c.o.c.ktail party at Government House, and wore dinner-jackets. You couldn't say that either of them really represented his const.i.tuency. The Christian, as a matter of fact, now owned most of his; and Primrose became so wealthy he had to be knighted.

In Colonial Office reports Ganesh was dismissed as an irresponsible agitator with no following.

He had no idea that he was on the road to the M.B.E. M.B.E.

This is how it happened.

In September, 1949, a wild strike ripped through some sugar estates in South Trinidad. It was the most exciting thing since the oilfield riots of 1937. Strikers burnt cane-fields and policemen beat up strikers and spat in the mouths of those they arrested. The press thundered with threats and counter-threats. Sympathy for the strikers was high and people who had never thought of striking themselves cycled past the pickets and whispered, 'Keep it up, boys!'

Ganesh was in Tobago at the time, investigating the scandal of the Help the Children Fund. He made a vague speech about it but the n.i.g.g.e.rgram at once spread a story that he was going to mediate. The sugar estates said they knew nothing about it. Ganesh told a Sentinel Sentinel reporter that he was going to do all he could to bring about an amicable settlement. The estates denied that they had ever consented to having a mediator at all. Ganesh wrote to the reporter that he was going to do all he could to bring about an amicable settlement. The estates denied that they had ever consented to having a mediator at all. Ganesh wrote to the Sentinel Sentinel that whether the estates liked it or not he was going to mediate. that whether the estates liked it or not he was going to mediate.

In the few days that followed, Ganesh was at the peak of his popularity.

He knew nothing about the strike except for what he had read in the newspapers; and it was the first time since he had been elected that he had to deal with a crisis in South Trinidad. Hitherto he had been mainly involved in exposing ministerial scandals in Port of Spain. His whole approach to the strike was so thoughtless that we can perhaps as he himself said later see the hand of Providence once more in his career.

In the first place he went South in a lounge suit. He took books, but they were not religious books, only the writings of Tom Paine and John Stuart Mill and a large volume on Greek Political Theory.

The moment he got to Lorimer's Park, a few miles out of San Fernando, where the strikers waited for him, he sensed that something was wrong. So he said later. Perhaps it was the rain the night before. The banners were still damp and their denunciations looked half-hearted. The gra.s.s had disappeared beneath the mud churned up by the strikers' bare feet.

The strike-leader, a short fat man in a striped brown suit, led Ganesh to the platform. This was nothing more than two Morris car crates; smaller boxes served as steps. The top of the platform was wet and muddy. Ganesh was introduced to the half dozen or so members of the strike committee and the man in the brown suit immediately set to work.

He shouted, 'Brothers and sisters, you know why the Red Flag red?'

The police reporters scribbled conscientiously in longhand in their noteboooks.

'Let them write it down,' the leader said. 'Let them write down in their dirty little black books that we ain't fraid them. Tell me, we fraid them?'

A short stout man came out from the crowd and walked to the platform. 'Shut your tail up,' he said.

The leader insisted, 'Tell me, we fraid them?'

There was no response.

The man below the platform said, 'Cut out the talk and say something quick.' He was rolling up his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves almost up to his armpits. He had powerful arms.

The leader shouted, 'Let we pray.'

The heckler laughed. 'Pray for what?' he shouted. 'For you to get fatter and burst your suit?'

Ganesh began to feel uneasy.

The leader unclasped his hands after his prayer. 'The Red Flag dye with we blood, and is high time for we to hold up we head high high in the market-place like free and independent men and command big big armies in heaven.'

More men came out from the crowd. The whole crowd seemed to have moved nearer the platform.

The heckler shouted, 'Cut out the talk. Go back to the estates and beg them to take back the bribe they give you.'

The leader talked on, unheard.

The strike committee fidgeted in their folding chairs.

The leader slapped his forehead and said, 'But what happening? I forgetting that all you here to hear the great fighter for freedom, Ganesh Ramsumair.'

At last there was some applause.

'All of you know that Ganesh write some major book about G.o.d and thing.'

The heckler took off his hat and waved it up and down. 'Oh G.o.d!' he screamed. 'But it making stink!'

Ganesh could see his gums.

'Brothers and sisters, I now ask the man of good and G.o.d to address a few words to you.'

And Ganesh missed his cue. Stupidly, completely missed his cue. He forgot that he was talking to a crowd of impatient strikers as a man of good and G.o.d. He talked instead as though they were the easy-going crowd in Woodford Square and he the fighting M.L.C. M.L.C. and nothing more. and nothing more.

'My friends,' he said (he had got that from Narayan), 'my friends, I know about your great sufferings, but I have yet to give the matter further study, and until then I must ask you to be patient.'

He didn't know that their leader had been telling them the same thing every day for nearly five weeks.

And his speech didn't get better. He talked about the political situation in Trinidad, and the economic situation; about const.i.tutions and tariffs; the fight against colonialism; and he described Socialinduism in detail.

Just when he was going to show how the strike could be the first step in establis.h.i.+ng Socialinduism in Trinidad, the storm broke.

The heckler took off his hat and stamped it into the mud. 'No!' he shouted. 'No! Noooh!'

Others took up the cry.

The leader waved his hands about for silence.

'My friends, I '

The heckler stamped on his hat again and shouted, 'Noooooh!'

The leader stamped on the platform and turned to his committee. 'Why the h.e.l.l black people so ungrateful?'

The heckler left his hat alone for a while and ran to the platform and tried to seize the leader by the ankles. Failing, he shouted, 'Nooooh!' and ran back to stamp on his hat.

Ganesh tried again. 'My friends, I have '

'Ganesh, how much bribe they bribe you? Noooh! Noooh!'

The leader said to his committee, 'If I live for a million years I ain't going to lift up my little finger to do a thing for black people again. Talk about ungrateful!'

The heckler was still stamping on his hat. 'We don't want to hear nothing! Nothing! Nooooh!' He was so enraged he was in tears.

The crowd stepped nearer the platform.

The heckler turned to them. 'What we want, man? We want talk?'

The whole crowd answered. 'No! No! We want work! Work!'

The heckler was right below the platform.

The leader panicked and shouted, 'Keep your dirty black hand off the white people box! Look, move away quick sharp now '

'My friends. I cannot '

'Keep your tail quiet, Ganes.h.!.+'

'If you ain't move away quick, I calling the police and them over there. Look, haul all your tail away, you hear.'

The heckler tore at his hair and beat his fists on his chest. 'All you hearing that fat-a.r.s.e man? You hearing what he want to do?'

And somebody shrieked, 'Come, man, let we done with this d.a.m.n nonsense.'

The crowd flowed thickly forward and surrounded the platform.

Ganesh escaped. The policemen took care of him. But the strike committee were badly beaten up. The leader in the brown suit and one member of the committee had to spend some weeks in hospital.

Later Ganesh learned the whole story. The leader had of course been bribed; and what he had started as a strike was nothing more than a lock-out during the slack season.

Ganesh called a Press conference at the end of the week. He said Providence had opened his eyes to the errors of his ways. He warned that the labour movement in Trinidad was dominated by communists and he had often unwittingly been made their tool. 'From now on,' he said, 'I pledge my life to the fight against communism in Trinidad and the rest of the free world.'

He expanded his views in a last book, Out of the Red Out of the Red (Government Printer, Trinidad. Free on application). It was left to Indarsingh to note the 'capitalist mentality inherent in the t.i.tle'; and he wrote an article for a weekly paper blaming the violence at Lorimer's Park on Ganesh, since he had cruelly raised the workers' hopes without having anything to offer them. (Government Printer, Trinidad. Free on application). It was left to Indarsingh to note the 'capitalist mentality inherent in the t.i.tle'; and he wrote an article for a weekly paper blaming the violence at Lorimer's Park on Ganesh, since he had cruelly raised the workers' hopes without having anything to offer them.

Ganesh never walked out again. He went to c.o.c.ktail parties at Government House and drank lemonade. He wore a dinner-jacket to official dinners.

In the Colonial Office report on Trinidad for 1949 Ganesh was described as an important political leader.

In 1950 he was sent by the British Government to Lake Success and his defence of British colonial rule is memorable. The Government of Trinidad, realizing that after that Ganesh stood little chance of being elected at the 1950 General Elections, nominated him to the Legislative Council and arranged for him to be a member of the Executive Council.

Indarsingh was elected in Ganesh's old ward, on a platform of modified Socialinduism.

In 1953 Trinidad learned that Ganesh Ramsumair had been made an M.B.E. M.B.E.

EPILOGUE.

A Statesman on the 12.57 IN THE THE SUMMER SUMMER of 1954 I was at an English university, waiting for the results of an examination. One morning I got a letter from the Colonial Office. A party of Colonial Statesmen were in Britain for a conference, and would I be willing to entertain a statesman from my own territorry? It was the vacation and I had much time on my hands. I agreed. It was arranged that I should be host for a day to G. R. Muir, Esq., of 1954 I was at an English university, waiting for the results of an examination. One morning I got a letter from the Colonial Office. A party of Colonial Statesmen were in Britain for a conference, and would I be willing to entertain a statesman from my own territorry? It was the vacation and I had much time on my hands. I agreed. It was arranged that I should be host for a day to G. R. Muir, Esq., M.B.E. M.B.E.

The day of the visit came and I was at the railway station to meet the 12.57 from London. As the pa.s.sengers got off I looked among them for someone with a nigrescent face. It was easy to spot him, impeccably dressed, coming out of a first-cla.s.s carriage. I gave a shout of joy.

'Pundit Ganes.h.!.+' I cried, running towards him. 'Pundit Ganesh Ramsumair!'

'G. Ramsay Muir,' he said coldly.

Also by V. S. Naipaul

NONFICTION

Between Father and Son: Family Letters

Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples

India: A Million Mutinies Now

A Turn in the South

Finding the Center

Among the Believers

The Return of Eva Peron (with (with The Killings in Trinidad The Killings in Trinidad)

India: A Wounded Civilization