Career
Rajkumari was the first published Indian woman from the Caribbean and although she never wore the term "feminist," her life"s work contributed to this movement in her hemisphere of the world, in addition to her advancement of a national Guyanese culture of integration while still upholding Indian culture within this new mold. Her iconic poem, "Per Ajie," epitomizes the journey of Indians to the Caribbean, through the eyes of an Indo-Caribbean visualizing her paternal great-grandmother making the voyage on one of the historic migratory ships headed for Guyana. lieutenant was written in a Shakespearean style of language, in order to elevate the topic of Indian indentureship into circles of serious literary critique.
Another of her poems "Deepavali," is a picturesque piece documenting Diwali rituals in the Caribbean.
Rajkumari was also a dramatist whose work has been described as lively and polemical. Her essay "I am a Coolie" takes a word which at first connoted something negative and turns it into a concept of positive cultural identity.
In the 1970s, she founded The Messenger Group, a Guyanese literary collective created to foster and nurture Indo-Caribbean artists and writers. Those mentored within this group include Mahadai Das, Rooplall Monar, Henry Muttoo, and Gushka Kisson, among others
In fact, Das" poem "They Came in Ships" relays the immigrant message of "Per Ajie."
Also a broadcaster on Radio Demerara, Rajkumari wrote several radio plays and on-air programs for "Broadcast to Schools."
Rajkumari hailed from and proliferated a lineage of arts and activism.
Her father was Doctor Jung Bahadur Singh, O.B.E., a politician, doctor, and philanthropist involved in various groundbreaking institutions and movements in Guyana around a critical time before the nation gained independence. Rajkumari"s granddaughter, Sharda Shakti Singh, is a playwright.