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From Our Own Correspondent: Guyana and India

Guyana and India

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Guyana and India

Insight, wit and analysis from Sarah Grainger in Georgetown and Justin Rowlatt in Varanasi

Owen Bennett Jones presents insight and wit from BBC correspondents abroad. Sarah Grainger reflects on Guyana's elections and its British inheritance; Justin Rowlatt visits the Ganges' cremation ghats

Owen Bennett Jones introduces wit, insight and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition: Sarah Grainger reflects on Guyana's elections and its British heritage, while Justin Rowlatt learns why the cremation business is booming in the funeral ghats of the River Ganges.


A remnant adrift from the rest of its continent?

Think South America and you're likely to think automatically of the Spanish language -- or at of the special kind of Portuguese spoken in Brazil. But there is a country there with a British rather than Hispanic history. 

Guyana is a former British colony:  the capital, Georgetown, not only has a very English name but also cricket pitches and a statue of Queen Victoria. And much of its current political landscape has also been inherited from the colonial period - not always for the best. Sarah Grainger, normally based in Venezuela, has paid its smaller neighbout a visit.


Express way to heaven?

Globalisation may sometimes seem to be making the world more homogenous – it can appear that there's a Starbucks and dozens of McDonald's in every big city across the world. But there are also counter-trends. 

Justin Rowlatt has been to sacred funeral ghats of Varanasi, on the River Ganges, and learned that India's booming economy is fueling a corresponding rise in cremations at one of Hinduism's holiest sites.

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