| The Right Honourable Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam KT, GCMG, KCMG LRCP, MRCS |
|
|---|---|
| His statue in Patna Bihar, India. | |
| Governor General of Mauritius | |
| In office 28 December 1983 – 15 December 1985 |
|
| Prime Minister | Anerood Jugnauth |
| Preceded by | Dayendranath Burrenchobay |
| Succeeded by | Veerasamy Ringadoo |
| Prime Minister of Mauritius | |
| In office 12 March 1968 – 16 June 1982 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor General | John Shaw Rennie Leonard Williams Raman Osman Henry Garrioch (Acting) Dayendranath Burrenchobay |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Anerood Jugnauth |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 September 1900 Kewal Nagar, Mauritius |
| Died | 15 December 1985 (aged 85) Port Louis, Mauritius |
| Political party | Mauritian Labour Party |
| Alma mater | University College London Royal College of Physicians |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam KT, GCMG, KCMG, LRCP, MRCS (Hindi: सीवसगुर रंगूलम born on 18 September 1900 - 15 December 1985) is the first Chief Minister, Prime Minister and sixth Governor General of Mauritius.
He served as Chief Minister from 1961 to 1968, prime minister from 1968 until 1982 and lastly as Governor General from 1983 to 1985. He is known as the "Father of the Nation". As decolonisation swept the third world, he led Mauritius to independence from the United Kingdom in 1968.
He graduated from University College London, and attended lectures at the London School of Economics. Ramgoolam was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 12 June 1965.[1]
Ramgoolam was an ardent admirer of the late Mahatma Gandhi of India and followed in the footsteps of some Asian and African countries and worked ardently for his country to gain access to independence from the United Kingdom, making sure that there would be no bloodshed. He was finally granted independence on 12 March 1968 from since he was prime minister up to 1982 when Anerood Jugnauth took over the leadership of the country.
He is the highest respected personality of the county as he has various streets, public places such as gardens, government infrastructures, the national airport and his face on every Mauritian Rupee coins as well as on the highest note tender of Rs 2,000 equivalent to US$60.
He was a medical practitioner from London and hold a series of coalition governments from 1968 to 1982. He was leader of the Mauritian Labour Party from 1959 to 1982 as he took the leadership over from Emmanuel Anquetille and Dr Maurice Cure. He was defeated in 1982 general elections by the MMM-PSM coalition. He also lost his seat in his constituency .Sir Anerood Jugnauth became Prime Minister. In 1983, he joined hands with the MSM-MLP-PMSD coalition and was appointed as Governor General while Jugnauth continued as Prime Minister.
He died at the age of 85 in the Chateau of Reduit because of health complications. He handed the Labour Leadership to Sir Satcam Boolell who later passed it through his own son , Navin Ramgoolam who is incumbent prime minister since 2005.
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, also known as Kewal, was born with the century on 18 September 1900 at Belle Rive, Mauritius to Moheeth Ramgoolam, an Indian immigrant labourer who lived in the small village of Belle Rive, five miles away from Bel Air, in the Flacq district. Moheeth Ramgoolam married a young widow, Basmati Ramchurn, who had two sons, Nuckchadee Heeramun and Ramlall Ramchurn.
Kewal grew up freely as a child of nature, amidst plants, wild grass, flowers, the Camizard mountain which sent forth innumerable streams down the Belle Rive river, known as "Fourgett ke nadi" from where Kewal accompanied his father to catch fish and prawns in the flowing river. As a village child, he had lived and shared in the daily suffering of the oppressed Immigrant labourers. As a sensitive child who grew up as a kind, compassionate soul, Kewal must have vowed to wipe out the tears off the faces of his compatriots once he grew up to become the "governor" of this country.
He had his early grounding in Hindi alphabets and Indian culture and philosophy in the local baitka and at home. This was to flower into a broad culture of compassion, mutual understanding, non-violence, tolerance and love for his fellow human beings. Later, this broad Ramgoolam culture would find expression in the democratic principle of this country, combining the eternal values of the East and the West into a perfect blending that went into the shaping of our harmonious multi-cultural society.
The child Kewal joined the neighbouring R.C.A school under Madame Siris on his own without his mother’s knowledge. Later he left for Bel Air Government School, travelling by train from Olivia station until he passed his sixth standard.
In those hard days, life was shortened by all sorts of hazards, epidemics and threatening diseases, the plague, malaria, diptheria, typhoid, tuberculosis and Kewal was lucky to have been well looked after by his mother and his twenty-one year old step-brother, Ramlall, a fairly prosperous small planter and "marqueur" at Belle Rive estate. At the age of seven, Kewal lost his father and at the age of twelve, Kewal met with a serious accident in the cowshed that cost him his left eye permanently.
A studious and ambitious boy, Kewal was to continue his scholarship class at the Curepipe Boys’ Government School while he took up boarding at uncle Harry Parsad Seewoodharry, a sworn land surveyor, living at Bougainville street, Curepipe. There he would listen to the drawing room politics of the day carried by his uncle and his circle of friends. From there, he used to relish the talks given by the barber, Ratan, eloquent on the local political situation in Mauritius and the current passionate struggle for Indian liberation under Gandhi, Nehru and Bose.
Ratan was well informed about the articles written in Manilall Doctor’s weekly paper "Hindustani" and the current activities of the Action Libérale under Dr Eugène Laurent. That was his first lesson in politics, a taste which he was to nourish all his life. Later, after his studies, he would contribute to Fokeer’s "The Mauritius Indian Times" and revealed his personal interest in writing and journalism.
The scholarship classes helped Kewal to skip Forms I and II when he went straight to Junior Cambridge at the Royal College, Curepipe where he fell under the influence of the English tutors, Reverend Fowler and Mr Harwood. Early in life he was impressed by British culture and manners and he became a devoted lover of the English language and literature. But he also loved French literature and later, in Paris, he devoured the books of André Gide and André Malraux with whom he struck friendship. In London, he was to go deeper into English literature, listen to literary debates between George Bernard Shaw and G. K. Chesterton, make friends with the poets, Spender and T. S. Eliot.
After secondary schooling, Kewal worked for three months in the Civil Service, then a preserve of the Coloured bourgeoisie and firmly closed on the Asians.
When Kewal was young , both his parents died and he was indeed well looked after by his step brothers who did everything to help their young brother realise his dream of becoming the head of this country one day. In his turn, Kewal was deeply attached to his family and after the death of Ramlall, Kewal would look after his sister-in-law as a precious member of his family.
He also remembered how as a child he used to accompany the sick and suffering people, resigned to their fate, to the village hospital.
Kewal realised that the only way he could help mop up the suffering of the poor was by serving them as a doctor. And his brother Ramlall promised to help him through his medical studies in London.[2]
He was an Indo-Mauritian of Bihari descent.[3]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dayendranath Burrenchobay |
Governor General of Mauritius 1983 – 1985 |
Succeeded by Sir Cassam Moollan (acting) |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Office established |
Prime Minister of Mauritius 1968 – 1982 |
Succeeded by Anerood Jugnauth |
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