Kayman Sankar

Kayman Sankar
Member of the
National Assembly of Guyana
In office
1986–1992
Preceded byBissoondai Beniprashad-Rayman
Personal details
Born3 June 1926
Cornelia Ida, British Guiana
Died11 February 2014 (aged 87)
Hamptoncourtpolder, Guyana
Political partyPeople's National Congress

Kayman Sankar (3 June 1926 – 11 February 2014) was a Guyanese businessman, philanthropist, and member of parliament. He helped to establish the rice industry on the Essequibo coast, and rose from a labourer to "Guyana’s most successful rice farmer".[1]

Sankar was born at Cornelia Ida, on the western bank of the Demerara River (in what was then British Guiana, but is now in Guyana's Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region). He was the oldest of five children born to Dukhnee and Sewsankar Boodhoo, both of East Indian extraction.[2] Owing to his family's poverty and his mother's illness, he discontinued his education at the age of nine, initially selling milk and later working as a labourer on the sugarcane fields at Cornelia Ida, where his jobs included weeding, cutting, loading, and manually fertilising the fields with manure.[3] Nicknamed "Polo" as a young man for a perceived resemblance to actor Eddie Polo,[4] Sankar eventually saved enough to purchase two acres at Windsor Forest, having supplemented his income by making jewellery and driving a taxi.[3] By 1956, he was farming on Essequibo's Atlantic coast, at Bounty Hall, Dunkeld, and Perth (all now in the Pomeroon-Supenaam region). Sankar subsequently went into partnership with his brother and nephew, purchasing uncleared land between Dunkeld and Perth.[5] He had earlier travelled as far west as the Pomeroon River, searching for land suitable for rice cultivation.[3]

Despite initial failures, in 1966 Sankar was able to purchase 1,556 acres (6.30 km2) at Hamptoncourtpolder with his first rice crop harvested two years later.[5] The land was expanded further in 1975, when Kayman Sankar & Co. Ltd. (KSC) was first registered, with rice mills, a rice sheller, and a length grader installed in 1984. The Hampton Court facility was later further expanded to include drying facilities (replacing the earlier method of sun-drying), and increased storage, with Sankar eventually becoming Guyana's largest miller,[1] exporting rice to other Caribbean countries and the European Union.[2] He later expanded his business interests beyond rice, with KSC and another company, Kayman Sankar Investments Ltd. (KSIL) eventually combining to form the Kayman Sankar Group of Companies (KSG).[1] In 1986, Sankar was nominated to sit in Guyana's National Assembly as a member of the People's National Congress (PNC), filling a casual vacancy left by Bissoondai Beniprashad-Rayman.[6] He served until the 1992 election (which he did not contest), and was known as an advocate for the interests of rice farmers and other agricultural workers.[7]

A keen cricket enthusiast, Sankar was the inaugural president of the Essequibo Cricket Board, an affiliate of the Guyana Cricket Board. He sponsored local players and tournaments, and also established the Kayman Sankar Cricket Ground in Hampton Court,[8] which often hosted the Essequibo cricket team and also several matches for the Guyanese national side.[9] He was a noted philanthropist, and often helped poorer workers fund marriage ceremonies and funerals.[8] Sankar died at his Hampton Court residence in February 2014, aged 87.[5] He and his wife, Seraji (née Ramnauth, known as Mavis or Mae), had wed in Cornelia Ida in January 1945, when he was 17 and she was 13, in a coupling arranged by Seraji's aunt.[10] The couple, who lived apart for the first two years of their marriage, had two daughters, Sita and Sattie, and a son, Beni, who played first-class cricket for Essequibo and later took over the running of KSG.[2][11] Sankar was a devout Sanātanī Hindu throughout his life, and paid for several overseas swamis to visit Guyana.[8]

  1. ^ a b c (13 February 2014). "Kayman Sankar, rice magnate, dies" – Kaieteur News. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  2. ^ a b c (15 February 2014). "Rice magnate Kayman Sankar hailed a “true patriot”" – Kaieteur News. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  3. ^ a b c (5 May 2012). "Kayman Sankar – bringing life out of God's earth" – Guyana Chronicle. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Kayman Sankar" Archived 2014-12-21 at the Wayback Machine – Horizons (April 2006), p. 40. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  5. ^ a b c (15 February 2014). "Rice magnate Kayman Sankar laid to rest" Archived 2014-12-18 at the Wayback Machine – Guyana Times. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  6. ^ (27 February 2014). PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FIRST SESSION (2012-2014) OF THE TENTH PARLIAMENT OF GUYANA UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CO-OPERATIVE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA HELD IN THE PARLIAMENT CHAMBER, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, BRICKDAM, GEORGETOWN – Parliament of Guyana. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  7. ^ (15 February 2014). "Granger hails Sankar as an extraordinary businessman" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine – Guyana Times. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  8. ^ a b c "Kayman Sankar – Humantarian (sic) and supporter of sports" – Kaieteur News. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  9. ^ Kayman Sankar Cricket Ground, Hampton Court – CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  10. ^ Yannason Duncan (27 January 2009). "Kayman and Seraji Sankar celebrate 64 years of marital bliss" – Kaieteur News. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  11. ^ Beni Sankar – CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 December 2014.