Press Release

The Indian Action Committee (IAC) in collaboration with the Regional Democratic Council of Administrative Region No. 2 organized and successfully held a program of activities on Friday, September 29, 2017, at the Hampton Court Primary School to commemorate the 145th Anniversary of the Devonshire Castle uprising in which five Indentured labourers were shot and killed by colonial police.

The IAC recognizes that this was the very first instance of sugar workers being killed by the authorities and those five are collectively known as the Devonshire Castle Martyrs.

The IAC invited Mr. Tota C. Mangar MA, Historian and former Deputy Vice- Chancellor of the University of Guyana who gave a detailed account of the events that lead up to the martyrdom of Maxidally, Kaulika, Beccaroo, Baldeo and Auckloo.

The IAC presented its recent findings of research conducted on the Devonshire Castle uprising and the organization will be submitting these findings to the National Trust of Guyana, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Cohesion and the Department of Culture, Youth and Sport; and the National Archives of Guyana in Georgetown.

The IAC was pleased to have at this event prominent Essequibians such as former Regional Chairman, Mr. Isahack Basir CCH; Prime Minister representative, Mr. Karan Chand Ghasi; Regional Vice Chairman, Mrs. Juliet Coonjah; Deputy Regional Executive Officer, Roop Kumar Persaud; and councilMayor and Town Council representative, Ms. Shakeela Briglall .

This IAC-organized event was successfully concluded with an impressive march to the martyrs monument site at Cabbage Dam Devonshire Castle led by Grade 5 and 6 students and teachers of the Hampton Court Primary School.