Sandew Hira

(Suriname, 1955) is the pen-name of economist and writer Dew Baburam. He published twenty books and numerous reports and articles on the recent history of Suriname, the position of migrants in the Netherlands and the Hindu diaspora. Hira is among others things author of the book Eddy Jharap. Vertrouwen in eigen kunnen (Eddy Jharap. Confidence in One's Own Abilities (2007), the story of a poor boy who succeeds in becoming managing director of the Surinamese state oil company. Hira developed the Historic Database Suriname, with data of Hindu, Javanese and Chinese contract workers. Right now he's working on a global database on Hindu's and a thirty volume encyclopedia on the colonial history of Suriname. Dew Baburam is the brother of John Baburam, one of the victims of the December murders. On this black page in Surinamese history he wrote the book Balans van een coup (Balance of a Coup, 1983). Hira writes regularly in the Dutch media and together with Ivette Foster made historical documentaries on Suriname.