Ryhaan Shah is an Indo-Guyanese writer born in Berbice, Guyana. She is active in Guyanese public life as the President of the Guyanese Indian Heritage Association (GIHA).[1]

In November 2009, Shah was chosen one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims as a novelist, despite criticism for race baiting in Guyana's 2015 election.[2]

The GIHA aims to promote Indo-Guyanese culture. The organization competes with the Indian Arrival Committee, which is aligned with the People's Progressive Party. GIHA seeks to maintain a distinct Indian identity, and is against assimilation or creolization into the greater Afro-Guyanese community.[1] She has described Guyana as a stop-over point for Indians, seeking better, safer places abroad.[3]

Shah lived outside of Guyana from 1976 to 1997 in the US, Britain and Grand Cayman.[4]

Books

Shah's first novel, A Silent Life (Peepal Tree, 2005), won the 2007 Guyana Prize for Literature First Book Award.[5] combines strong social themes in the context of memories of 20th-century Guyanese history from the point of view of Muslim women of South Asian extraction, with a narrative that explores mythic patterns through elements of the other-worldly.[6]

Her second novel, Weaving Water, (Cutting Edge Press, 2013),[5] deals with Guyanese history in a comparable way, but from a Hindu point of view and with a more chronological treatment.[7]

She is also a columnist for the Guyana Times.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Kruijf, Johannes Gerrit de (2006). Guyana junction: globalisation, localisation, and the production of East Indianness. Rozenberg Publishers. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-90-361-0058-8. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  2. ↑ "Ryhaan Shah". The Muslim 500. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  3. ↑ Chabrol, Denis (2017-03-04). "Indentureship Centennial hears rallying call for East Indian Uprising". Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  4. ↑ "Q&A: Ryhaan Shah". Stabroek News. 2020-01-05. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  5. 1 2 "Ryhaan Shah's second novel published in London". Stabroek News. Georgetown, Guyana. 25 May 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Pirbhai, Mariam (2013). "Recasting Jahaji-Bhain: Plantation History and the Indo-Caribbean Women's Novel in Trinidad, Guyana and Martinique". In Mahabir, Joy Allison Indira; Pirbhai, Mariam (eds.). Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature. Routledge research in postcolonial literatures. Vol. 41. Routledge. pp. 25–47. ISBN 9780415509671. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Birbalsingh, Frank (12 July 2014). "Ryhaan Shah's Weaving Water". Guyana Times. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  8. ↑ GTIMES (2017-11-05). "Guyana Times columnist Ryhaan Shah's car hijacked at gunpoint". Guyana Times. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
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