Selwyn Ryan, a Trinidadian scholar who now teaches at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, has written a massive volume that may well be a landmark in the study of Caribbean politics. Certainly it is a vital contribution to the sparse literature on the problems of decolonization in small, racially fragmented states. His main concern is the historical interplay between race and politics in Trinidad and Tobago, the extent to which this has influenced the larger struggle toward nationhood, and how it has affected political and socioeconomic development and change.
The book is organized chronologically into four main parts. The first treats the rise and collapse of the old colonial order (1797-1955). The second traces the rise and electoral success of Dr. Eric Williams and the Peoples National Movement (PNM) in 1955-1956 and details the party’s organizational and ideological structure. Part three (1956-1962) is an analysis of the problem of political rivalry between the black-dominated PNM and the East Indian-controlled Democratic Labor Party, which brought the country close to racial conflict during the election of 1961. Finally, Ryan evaluates the performance of the nationalist government in politically independent Trinidad and Tobago and offers an assessment of the various radical groups that have risen to oppose it.
Ryan contends that, aside from the country’s obvious economic, cultural, and ideological dependency on Britain, the early nationalist movement in Trinidad and Tobago (1919-1955) was impeded by the large numbers of unassimilated East Indians, who feared “domination by an assimilationist creole majority [which] committed as it was to a universalistic majoritarian ideology, neglected to recognize and gratify the special and legitimate needs of the Indian minority” (p. 492). Together with the loyalist Europeans and the British-oriented local elites and colored middle classes, the East Indians obstructed the efforts of the black working class for political reform. Ryan characterizes the nationalist movement in this period as a broad one that sought nothing more than legal and constitutional concessions from the colonial office. It was not an “anti-colonial” offensive against British rule. He puts forward the controversial idea that British rule in Trinidad and Tobago was never harsh enough to prompt nationalist desires for a complete constitutional break. Consequently, he challenges the anti-imperialist arguments of some Caribbean intellectuals and politicians—Eric Williams, C. L. R. James, and Cheddi Jagan primarily—which provide an emotional outlet for the frustrations of many contemporary West Indian nationalists. Less controversial perhaps is Ryan’s suggestion that nationalism among the black masses was always motivated more by hostility to the excessively privileged white minority than by anti-imperialist arguments per se.
Another strong argument advanced by Ryan is that under the constitutionally restricted quasi-ministerial system of 1950-1956 more was achieved than is usually conceded by latter-day nationalists. That period, deemed worthy of only one brief paragraph in Eric Williams’s History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago (1962), has been little researched by scholars. Ryan, in addition to correcting certain misconceptions about that supposed barren episode in local politics, points out that many of the policies adopted by the PNM in both the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy after 1956 were initiated under the quasi-ministerial system. Ironically, many of the problems of the PNM government since then have stemmed from its reluctance or inability to improve on those policies.
As Ryan views it, established colonial attitudes and institutions have remained firmly entrenched, despite almost two decades of rule by the nationalist government. These colonial legacies frustrate real advances in administration, impede economic and educational progress, and encourage the persistence of the racial factor in politics. In a general way, these conditions have fostered the rise of a new generation of “radicals” who have been trying to bring down the government by force since 1970. Curiously, their demands are practically the same that Williams and the PNM made in 1956: social integration, participatory democracy, and firmer national control of economic resources. Though quite in agreement with the desires of the radicals, Ryan is opposed to their tendency to use revolutionary violence as a tactic. Instead he urges the implementation of a broader participatory political movement that can direct the energies of the dispossessed masses into constructive and economic pursuits. (Possibly he might yet see the implementation of some of his ideas since he was a member of the Constitution Commission, which submitted its report and the draft of a new constitution to the government in January 1974.)
West Indians who read this book cannot fail to be stimulated by some of its broader conclusions. Briefly these are: the frustrations of the early nationalist movement cannot be blamed solely on the machinations of the imperial power; political independence is meaningless unless accompanied by real economic independence; the emergence of black political leaders from the middle class has been one of the most positive aspects of Trinidad and Tobago’s political development over the past 25 years; the nationalists have gone full circle and are now despised by the masses and supported by the business corporations, local whites, and the new black bourgeoisie; widespread social and economic frustration will continually enhance the possibility of friction between the masses of dispossessed East Indians and Blacks.
This book may be criticized for scarce reference to events in Tobago and failure to detail the criteria by which decolonization should be measured. But these are minor irritants. The significant issues in the recent history and politics of the country are treated in detail and with proper perspective. This study (the outgrowth of a dissertation presented in 1966) complements other monographs on political history and society in Trinidad and Tobago that have appeared in the last few years (among them those by James Millette, Ivar Oxaal, Donald Wood, A. N. R. Robinson, and Yogendra Malik). But Ryan’s will remain a standard reference for some time. There is no comparable study.
