Who was this Adrian Cola Rienzi? An eager student of history in the first instance who read very widely and had enquired extensively about his own ancestry. And so he had carefully written names of people and places and incidents in India which meant little to him but which I could explain because of my own familiarity with those places and with the history. Rienzi’s grandfather, Chaithnath Tiwari had fled from Bihar, offering himself for indentureship in order to escape British vengeance for his participation in the Revolt of 1857. In Trinidad he had indentured himself on the Palmyra estate just to the East of San Fernando. There he met and married Lakshmin whose grandfather had also fought valiantly for Indian freedom as a general in the army of Babu Kuarsingh one of the leaders of the Revolt. Cola Rienzi clearly remembered his grandfather as an old man, now a priest, well-versed in Hindu scriptures, wandering from village to village conducting yagnas. Rienzi’s father Deonarine Tiwari apparently squandered the ample patrimony left to him by Chaithnath Tiwari. In such straitened circumstances, Deonarine, his wife and surviving son were forced to move from Palmyra to Lakshmin’s shop on Coffee Street, San Fernando. Deonarine Tiwari was not even able to support his son’s attendance at Naparima College which meant that Krishna Deonarine (later A.C. Rienzi) had to leave that school in Form 3. Forced to fend for himself as a teenager Krishna Deonarine obtained employment at the firm of the lawyer J.C. Hobson on Harris Promenade, San Fernando.

The years in Hobson’s office opened up new vistas for the young Deonarine. Hobson encouraged him to read and lent him books wherefrom he learnt about Cola di Rienzo who became a major exemplar. Here too, he came under the influence of an English magistrate Adrian Clarke who would pick him up on evenings, spending hours of discussion with the young law clerk. Krishna Deonarine was so impressed by Adrian Clarke that when, in 1927 he decided to change his name “Adrian” was the first word. But why Cola Rienzi? Cola Di Rienzo (1313-1354) was an Italian patriot and activist and close friend of one of the originators of the Italian Renaissance, the poet and publicist Petrarch (1304-1374).

But even before this name-change, the young law clerk had stepped onto the public stage. In 1921 at the youthful age of 16 he found himself in the company of much older men discussing the implications of the expected visit of Col. E.F.L. Wood who had been mandated to test the preparedness of the colony for elective membership in the legislature. The group to which Rienzi belonged strongly advocated for the introduction of the elective principle. A similar stance was adopted by a number of other peoples’ organisations and Wood supported this position. As a consequence the elective principle was accepted by the British government and in 1925 voters in Trinidad and Tobago were for the first time allowed to elect 7 out of the 25 member legislative council. Four years after this first entry into public life, Rienzi at 20 was elected as the first president Southern Section of the Trinidad Workingmen’s Association. Between 1925 and 1929 he organized branches of the TWA in the new settlements which were being formed around the oil industry in the deep South. This was the base for Rienzi’s later popularity in the oil belt. At the same time one notices his deep interest in India and the anti-imperialist struggle there. He identifies closely with Indian officials and intellectuals who visit the colony during the Twenties. The visit of Rev. C.F. Andrews for example was a high point in Rienzi’s early career. Andrews was Gandhi’s emissary to the Caribbean who came to examine the viability of a new system of Indian immigration to the region after the end of indentureship in 1920. Rienzi was particularly adamant that the system should not be introduced and this apparently was the advice which Andrews relayed to the Mahatma. In the event, the idea was quashed. When the Indian intellectual Mehta Jaimini came here in December 1928, Rienzi waxed warm on the influence of his scholar. “Mehta Jaimini” he wrote in the East Indian Weekly (22/12/1928) “had laid the foundation for the awakening of the creative genius lying dormant in the East Indian people”. This, he hoped, would enable them to make their distinct contribution to civilization and to humanity. Whilst working for the betterment of the wider community through the TWA, the young visionary was equally concerned about building capacity within the Indian community. Thus he was a founder of the East Indian Friendly Society and a constant supporter and office holder in the East Indian National Association which had been founded in 1886 in Princes Town. Rienzi, from the beginning of his career, saw no problem in moving from his Indian world into his West Indian space.

From this early history of Rienzi’s life, one can discern the broad outlines of his evolving philosophy. His Hindu background had imbued him with a world-view in which the adherent is enjoined to see the whole world as one family. The ancient Sanskrit scholars called this Vasudevam Kutumbakan. The good Hindu must not see the world in terms of individual nationality or ethnic affiliation. Further, the Arya Samaj leader, Mehta Jaimini had in 1928 drilled into the young man’s head the Aryan dictum namely Krinvantu Vishvam Aryam (Make the whole world noble) and that appears to have become a part of his evolving credo. If you want to properly understand why people act in the particular ways in which they do, you have to understand the mind of that people since our actions are always reflections of how the mind is working. This is as true for the East Indian in the Caribbean as it is for all of us from various diasporic communities which have settled here. That understanding and the empowerment which would follow from that knowledge is one of the sure ways of forging national unity in this world on an island. Another early influence on Rienzi was the successful outcome of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The early success of the Soviets was a source of deep inspiration to all those who wished, like Omar Khayyam, to grasp this sorry scheme of things entire and then re-mould it nearer to the heart’s desire. Rienzi, in his later years, waxed Wordsworthian in his praise of that Revolution. Bliss was it, he reminisced, to be alive but to be young was very heaven.

Rienzi’s years abroad were characterized by the same frenetic activity. His first stop was Dublin where he entered Trinity College in order to obtain matriculation for law school. This he obtained in a year and a half but one wonders at this achievement in view of the full programme of political activity in which he engaged whilst in Dublin. He immediately joined the Irish branch of the League Against Imperialism (LAI) and spoke at many public venues, including the Mansion House, Dublin. The Irish newspaper An Phoblacht (the Public) is a valuable source of information for these meetings. In its issue of 13th September 1930, for example, we are told that “Thousands of republicans attended a monster Aeridheacht Mor on the slopes of Lough Leane, near Collinstown West Meath last Sunday to meet the Indian Nationalist, Rainzi”. This Indian nationalist had brought greetings from “350 million of his countrymen who were engaged in a life or death struggle to free not only India but to help liberate the other downtrodden nations of the world”. Two weeks later Rienzi was at the Mansion House leading a delegation of four Indian men and one Indian woman and again delivering the main address. Again An Phoblacht reports on the size of the crowd: “the Round Room was packed until not even standing room was available, while an enthusiastic overflow meeting took place on the street outside”. (4 Oct. 1930). After Rienzi’s speech a resolution was passed expressing the solidarity of Republican Ireland with the Indian masses in their struggle against British Imperialism. One week after this meeting Rienzi had another successful tour of Cork and its suburbs. Before leaving Dublin, Rienzi applied for permission to visit India but on the advice of the British Secret service which had been reporting all these activities, Rienzi was refused a visa. Had he gone to India he would have probably become so involved in that challenging struggle that he might have stayed. After all, he had the example of two of his contemporaries who had left Trinidad and gone to the Orient for a similar purpose and had stayed. Inderjit Bahadursingh (1912-1978) had gone from Curepe to Oxford to India where after Independence he became a distinguished Indian ambassador. Similarly Eugene Chen of San Fernando had left in 1912 to join the Chinese nationalist movement where he later became Foreign Minister in the Kuomintang government. This was a period when trans-national contacts between Africa and the Caribbean and between Asia and the Caribbean were very strong.

Denied a visa to visit India, Rienzi entered the Middle Temple in the autumn of 1931, from whence he was called to the Bar in 1934. But as in Dublin, he became actively involved in political activity. In London he was strongly influenced by Shapurji Saklatvala (1874-1936) a red-hot Indian socialist who had settled in England. Who was Saklatvala? Born to one of India’s wealthiest families – the Tatas – Saklatvala was educated at Bombay’s prestigious St. Xavier’s School (and College) and spent his early years prospecting for iron ore, coal and limestone. During this period, he came to appreciate the poverty of the Indian masses and was deeply touched by the manner in which they shared their “meagre hospitality” with him. This intimacy with labour conditions in India was the spur of his subsequent lifelong concern with labour conditions worldwide. In 1905, the year of Rienzi’s birth, he was sent to England as manager of Tata’s Manchester Office. Here his major pre-occupation became the task of improving working conditions for the English poor rather than his managerial role. From this time he embarked on a career of trade unionism and left-wing politics, moving from the Labour Party to the Communist Party where he felt most comfortable. His greatest wish, he said, was to “spread socialism from one end of the world to the other”.

Adrian Cola Rienzi returned to Trinidad in June 1934 and immediately applied to be admitted to the Bar. But that was not to be if the Trinidad administration was to have its way. All of Rienzi’s previous activities were now brought forward as the basis for refusal of his application. He was now described as a rabid communist, an agitator with political ambitions and a serious threat to the stability of the society. The business community, particularly those in sugar and in oil, gave the colonial government no ease in their warnings against “Communist agitators” of the Rienzi type. In the event, Rienzi had to appeal to Sir Stafford Cripps who had signed his original Call Papers in England and who was then Chairman of the Socialist League. It was only after such intervention and after Rienzi had signed an undertaking to desist from political activity that he was finally admitted in September 1934. Rienzi of course had no intention of obeying this last restriction and immediately plunged, once more, into this dual mode of assisting the East Indian population (so recently emancipated) and of reaching out to the larger, national working class.

In order to appreciate the enormity of Rienzi’s contribution to the Trade Union movement, we must pause briefly to survey the state of labour organisation in the colony in 1936. The Colonial Office on the one hand was urging colonial administrators to open up avenues for trade unionism, if only as a brake to the outbreak of serious disturbances. On the other hand, the colonial administration, under pressure from vested interests, was reluctant to open up the portals. Such legislation as they allowed was calculated to render trade unionism toothless. For example, a 1932 ordinance which allowed for the formation of trade unions, denied them the right to picket or protection against actions in tort. For this reason, in the period up to 1936 there were no more than 5 so-called unions. Among these were the Trinidad Condensed Milk Association, Trinidad Commodities Association, Trinidad Commission Agents Association and the Trinidad Tenants National Union which was concerned about sickness benefits and loans for its members. Using the groundswell generated by the disturbances of 1937 Rienzi successfully pressed for liberalization of trade union regulations after which he organized and registered the Oilfield Workers Trade Union on the 15th of Sept. 1937 and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade Union on the 24th of November 1937. The successful launching of these unions in oil and sugar became a signal for the opening of the floodgates. From a total of 5 so-called unions in 1936 the number rose to 20 by the end of 1940. Rienzi was now eagerly summoned to the North to assist in the formation of the All Trinidad Transport and General Workers Trade Union (8th June 1938), the Railway Workers Trade Union (25th July 1938), the Civil Service Association (25th March 1939). All of this heightened activity of course led to the formation of the Trinidad and Tobago Trades Union Council in 1938, from which year until 1944 Rienzi was the President.

What was the role of Butler in all of this? Butler was as essential for the growth of trade unionism as Rienzi. What we have to understand is that these two leaders played different but necessary roles. Here we are talking about the dichotomy between the Romantic and the Pragmatist. In the process of Italian unification, for example, Mazzini or Garibaldi was as essential as Cavour. But whereas Mazzini and Garibaldi were essential in whipping up mass support which led to successful revolts against established authority, neither of these had any appetite for the boring bureaucratic work which was necessary if the revolution was to succeed. That was Cavour’s job. In a similar manner Mahatma Gandhi was the visionary, the charismatic leader who could bring together India’s disparate millions into a revolution from which the then mightiest Empire had to flee. But then the task of organizing the nation into a maze of systems and structures had to be done by supreme Pragmatists such as Nehru and Patel, neither of whom could have galvanized the masses. Butler was the motivator who through religion and humorous demagoguery could gather the crowds and threaten the state whilst Rienzi was the meticulous organiser, remaining behind to pick up the pieces and blend them into a coherent whole. Both these leaders recognized their mutual interdependence and it was under this joint leadership that this country saw its richest period of Afro-Indian unity out of which the trade union movement was born and later in 1946 there was the achievement of universal adult franchise.

What is not so well known is that upon Butler’s incarceration in 1937, Rienzi, knowing full well that the striking workers had no money to pay for Butler’s defence, appealed to the West Indians in New York for funds. Upon Rienzi’s urging a West Indian Defence Committee (USA) was organized in New York under the leadership of Joseph Morris, Counsellor at Law in New York City. Let me quote a letter from Morris to Rienzi dated 17th November 1937:

Thanks for your letter of November 9th. It presented the most clear-cut, detailed and comprehensive statement of the situation in Trinidad from a legal aspect, yet received by us.

Morris then went on to say that he had cabled $100.00 and they were in the process of raising an additional $1,200.00 which was half of the anticipated cost of the defence. As we know, Butler was initially found guilty but subsequently acquitted on a technicality. Through sources such as these Rienzi was able to raise sufficient funds for the defence of the others accused of affray in the disturbances. It is no wonder therefore that Butler could say in 1939 after his release from prison and after a falling out with Rienzi that:

You praise and honour me for what I have done, but I assure you [that] you owe more praise to Bonnie Prince, the Honourable Adrian Cola Rienzi, your president and leader, who risked his profession, his life in building a solid structure on the foundation which I so humbly laid (The People. 13 May 1939).

At the same time that Rienzi is busily engaged in all of this national activity he is pressing for improvement of the conditions of the Indians. In 1936 he suggests to the government that it should appoint an advisory Board on East Indian matters. In 1937 the East Indian Advisory Board is appointed. He is one of the founders of the India Club and becomes its first President. He uses his position as First Vice-President of the East Indian National Association to press for the employment of more East Indians in the public service, the recognition of Hindu and Muslim marriages, the right to cremation and state recognition for non-Christian denominational schools. All of these were achieved during his lifetime. As a member of the Franchise Commission in 1941 he provided learned leadership to the fierce battle against a determined majority which sought desperately to exclude the East Indian community from the franchise through its insistence on an English literacy test. Because of his reputation as a fighter for all races, Rienzi was able to win substantial support from non-Indian trade union leaders and activists and the plot was scuttled by the intervention of the Secretary of State. In this regard we have to note the many letters which the Colonial office received from Rienzi’s international connections. It is the same across-the-board support which wins him four terms on the San Fernando Borough Council (1937-42) three of which he served as Mayor. Similarly he represented Victoria in the Legislative Council for 7 years until 1944, becoming a member of the Governor’s Executive Council in 1943. From the Executive Council he finally moved into the public service where he worked for about 10 years as Second Crown Counsel.

It was in these final years of his life that Rienzi changed his name once again, this time to Desh Bandhu (National Patriot). But this going back to roots was not geared to the inculcation of a blind loyalty to India. Rather it was an effort to use the Indian experience and ontology, both familiar spiritual motivators to Indians abroad, in order to develop a parallel devotion to the new janam bhoomi (place of birth). As early as 1928 Rienzi was sure that Indians of the diaspora should become Desh Bandhu to their homes. His admonition to Indian youths in the East Indian Weekly of 28th July 1928 is instructive.

In conclusion, I want to close my appeal to the Indian Youths of Trinidad by paraphrasing the eloquent and inspiring words of Subhas Chandra Bose, a noble Indian patriot, in asking them to take up the torch and set ablaze the whole Colony with the sacred fire of nationalism and patriotism. No power on earth would be able to quench that sacred flame.

Here was a truly national patriot who was seeking to direct a new nation in the making by using the example of how they did it in an ancient civilization. The 20th century, particularly the period after the First World War (1914-1918) has been characterised by the awakening of strident nationalisms, which, in the Caribbean, have significantly contributed to the creation of ethnic spaces throughout the region. Because of the newness of Caribbean civilization and the consequent absence of cultural traditions to which most of the immigrant peoples could subscribe, African peoples and Chinese and Indians in the Caribbean sought anchorage in the ancestral cultures. Among the African-Caribbean population there were many attempts to identify with continental Africa, particularly West Africa, through the Pan-African movement led by people such as Henry Sylvester Williams, George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, C.L.R. James and a host of other eminent black Caribbean activists. In fact, a number of West Indians returned to Africa to participate in liberation and re-construction of the then Gold Coast, Nigeria and Liberia. In similar fashion, Caribbean persons of Asiatic ancestry formed associations whose similar purpose was the forging of closer links with the ancestral cultures. Some of the bolder ones went to Asia to join liberation struggles there. We have already looked at Bahadursingh and Chen. As these Caribbean colonies moved towards Independence from the Sixties, the trans-national ties with ancestral places have, in fact, intensified as global travel and enhanced communication facilities have made contact more easily accessible to larger numbers of citizens. This increasing discourse has in its turn, fostered greater ethnification of the region’s population, with the consequent challenges to politicians and planners who must now make nations out of this conglomeration of races, religions, languages and cultures. This cultural plurality had emerged as a tremendous blessing – and a curse – to Caribbean society. The cultural diversity, this bringing together of the peoples of the world into one Caribbean space, offers enormous possibilities for cultural industries. Scholars, tourists as well as Caribbean peoples are excited by the co-existence between Carnival and Mohurram, Christmas and Devali. Easter and Eid-ul-Fitr. The same can be said for Caribbean cuisine, dress, architecture as well as the literary and creative arts. Sadly, this society has not had the time to work out the modalities of a cultural policy which would create a harmony out of this exciting diversity. At the national level, we have only to think of the self-confidence which can be generated through the knowledge of and appreciation for the African contribution to Caribbean civilization, Asiatic influences and European enlightenment. Adrian Cola Rienzi’s odyssey from Krishna Deonarine to Rienzi to Desh Bandhu symbolizes the eternal search in all of us to know who we are, where we came from and how much of the ancestry now remains, how much of it can be added to the pot of an evolving Caribbean civilization. At the individual level, the older we become, the more pressing these questions become as the bio-genetic memory increasingly demands closure on these issues. Rienzi therefore was both philosopher and activist who was able to move confidently between his Indian world and his West Indian environment. Perhaps there is a lesson in this for the rest of us.

Professorial Inaugural Lecture delivered by Professor Samaroo, on March 23 at the Engineering Room, UWI