Social Semiosis in Moses Nagamootoo’s Hendree’s Cure

Indo-Guianese writing is characterized by a central tension, that between the desire for cultural separation and the opposing urge toward creolization, both of which are different psychosocial responses to the same historical event; the loss of India and, consequently, the absence of home. Moses Nagamootoo’s Hendree’s Cure is an attempt to recreate the past of the early Madrasi Indians by a Guiana born writer whose parents were the first generation offspring of Indian emigrants. This paper tries to explore the cultural syncretism of the early Madrasi plantation workers in the then British Guiana through the process of social semiosis.