Wednesday 14 July 2010

Our People, Our Asset

Political freedom is the mother of all freedoms. Only free peoples can develop and use their inherent capacities and natural resources in their national interests.

The history of developing countries have shown that unless a people is independent it can seldom take unfettered decisions. In the absence of freedom, real development, which is rooted in fundamental social and intellectual challenge, eludes the people: aggregates of goods are produced but there is little impact on society.

Our new nation was born on the 12th March 1968, the day when our struggle for independence culminated in glory to the toiling masses.

Nothing has since remained untouched by the creative drive and determination of our people: our national genius has flowered in several successful endeavours in an atmosphere of heightened sensibility and increased self-confidence, the most dramatic being our economic revival. The last eight years have seen levels of growth and prosperity unparalleled in our time.

At the time of independence, however, the Mauritian economy was confronted with a high level of unemployment, low rate of economic growth and increasing population.

The national pride and self-confidence generated by independence has enabled Mauritius, with limited land and capital resources, to take up the challenge of breaking the spell of stagnation and transforming a colonial economy into a dynamic and forward looking economy inspired by social justice.

Departing from the conventional path, Mauritius decided to adopt a new concept of development rooted in those basic values of humanism and social justice that had provided the vital force of our struggle for political freedom over four decades.

The targets set out in the first Plan for social and economic development in respect of employment and income-growth were considered, in some quarters, as being over-ambitious. All those doubts and apprehensions have been proved wrong. Most of our targets have been exceeded particularly in the area of job creation, the very core of the silent social revolution which has changed the face of the villages and towns and given the people faith in the future.

The Second Plan (1975-1980) formulated in the new atmosphere of confidence and hope and inspired by a humanist philosophy seeks still wider vistas of growth and larger rewards for all sections of the community.

We are determined to achieve higher levels of excellence in technology, skills, investment, techniques, and social services so as to extend further the frontiers of progress. In employment, for instance, we not only want more jobs but jobs of higher productivity and greater satisfaction.

This is a people's Plan for it is designed for their benefit and offers opportunities to everyone to contribute to the increasing prosperity of Mauritius. Its basic objective is to further improve the quality of life of our people.

I do hope that this summarised version of the second Plan will find a receptive audience especially amongst our young people who constitute our best investment for the future.

Preface to A Call For Action, a summarised version of the 1975-1980 Plan, 2nd October 1976.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh

Saturday 17 April 2010

Renga is No More

If you want an illustration to support the popular saying that when death strikes it strikes blindly you can take the case of Renganaden Seeneevassen. He was a man, intelligent and cultured, kind and friendly, who combined honesty of purpose with wise statesmanship. Yet in the thick of his activities, working for the uplift of his people he has been removed from life by that invisible, mysterious but deadly hand of what some of us would call fate.

The death of Seeneevassen leaves a yawning gap in the life of this country. It will not be easily filled for some time to come. At the bar, in the Labour Party and in the Ministry we do not find, at least for the moment, anyone to replace him. His death is therefore an irreparable loss. The bar has lost one of its most eloquent members, the Mauritius Labour Party has been deprived of one of its pillars and the Government has lost one of its most capable Ministers. And Mauritius has lost one of its most distinguished sons.


At the bar, Seeneevassen was a name to be conjured with. His eloquence was proverbial and his integrity known far and wide. His profound knowledge of law coupled with his analytical approach to any given situation made of him a very successful lawyer. His willingness to help and advise his younger colleagues of the bar and the poise and self-confidence with which he would tackle any situation earned him the respect and admiration of his profession as a whole.


In the death of Seeneevassen the Labour party loses one of its top leaders. He was indeed a very able and popular orator who could captivate an audience for any length of time. He was accessible to everybody, high or low, and his friendly way of greeting friend or foe did much to keep his prestige and that of his party always high. Next to Rozemont he was the most popular Labour leader in Port Louis. It is to be wondered now how the Labour Party meetings will look like without him.


Undoubtedly, Seeneevassen was one of the greatest parliamentarians of his time. His marvellous way of speaking, the flowery and forceful language he would use, his subtle sarcasms, his constant desire never to strike below the belt and his readiness to consider the other man's views are the great oratorical qualities he had. The way he steered the passage of the new Education Code in the Assembly revealed his detailed knowledge of and faith in parliamentary practice.


As a Minister, Seeneevassen did his best to shoulder the responsibilities of as large a department as the Education Department. Some aspects of his policy may not have pleased everybody but it will be conceded that it is not always possible to satisfy everybody at one go. Seeneevassen brought to his office the rich experience of a great legal mind unsoiled by the mean desire of pleasing one community or group at the expense of another.

Another aspect of Seeneevassen's impressive personality was his versatility and his broad cosmopolitan outlook. He was at home at any level of any society. Whether he was in European society or Indian society it was all the same to him. He was one of those rare, brilliant Indo-Mauritian intellectuals who in spite of having imbibed a good deal of Western ideas and ideals, still continued to stick to their own culture and traditions.


Seeneevassen honoured his family, his profession and his country. And he would have continued to do so. The country was expecting a lot from him. he has died too soon. Be it as it may, tomorrow when that body of his which was so full of life and vitality would have been reduced to ashes on the funeral pyre and when the crowd of mourning friends would leave the Vallee des Pretres crematorium, they would perhaps say to themselves:
"His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world "This was a man!"
Mauritius Times, Friday 6th June, 1958.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh 

Sunday 28 February 2010

Maiden Speech

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise with some trepidation to make my contribution in this debate designed to help towards the solution of some of the problems facing the country. I have read carefully the Speech of His Excellency the Governor and my general impression of it is that it constitutes an admirable blueprint which will guide this House in its deliberations in the first session of this Third Legislative Council.

I personally feel that in this House we should devote our attention to the problem of the country in two directions. First, we must try to ensure that the present standard of living of the people does not fall. Secondly, we must provide for a rapidly increasing population.


Honourable Members speaking before me have laid stress, they have emphasized the ravage being done by unemployment, but so far none of them have suggested or tried to find out what are the causes of unemployment.


We, in the Labour Party, know fairly well that there are problems at dispensaries: lots of people are queueing up there and perhaps not having treatment in time. We know that in schools sometimes we are short of space. All these problems are there. We know quite well. But we are doing our utmost to tackle those problems and I think in this Address from His Excellency the Governor there are enough suggestions to meet the requirements of this country. We know that to maintain the present standard of living, one thing is essential: we should provide for more wages to the workers. That is why I request our friends, the Ministers, to give priority to the establishment of a Wages Council because Trade Unions are signing agreements with the employers on terms which are very unfair to the workers in general and also, because there is no appropriate trade union machinery, the workers have no other means of settling their problems. That is why I think Government should give priority to the establishment of a Wages Council. This is one of the means of maintaining the present standard of living of the workers.


Going through the Report of the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture I find that the small planters produce less sugar per arpent than the millers. I do not quite know what are the reasons for this discrepancy. It is a large discrepancy of about twelve tons per arpent and I would suggest that the Minister of Agriculture should look into the matter and see to it whether by means of subsidy or some technical advice we could help them increase their production.


The next direction in which this House should give its attention is the population problem. I do not want to overemphasise this problem but still, I think, if we really are to provide, if we want to tackle the unemployment problem, we should pay some attention to the increasing population because I have a feeling that the progress that we will make through the Fiver-Year Plan will be easily nullified by the increased population.


Sir, I am in agreement with His Excellency the Governor's suggestion that we should not fritter away our energy and efforts. But, to my surprise, in this House, the Hon. Member for Rose-Belle spent a lot of time just criticising the programme. Personally, I feel that in a democracy we should allow, we should give everybody the latitude of criticising: but there are criticisms and criticisms. It is no use coming to this House and saying that this bad and that is worse without even suggesting how to bring about a solution to the problem.


It is my belief that at this juncture of our history, we should show more responsibility in dealing with the problems confronting the country. It is one thing to sit back and criticise and quite another thing to be inside and to run the whole show. I mean to say, Sir, that we expect constructive criticisms and not simply criticisms which are meant to destroy.


Maiden Speech in the Legislative Council, Tuesday 12th April, 1959.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh

Thursday 21 January 2010

Mohammad Iqbal

I consider it a great privilege and honour to be associated with this function organized to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of the late Sir Mohammad Iqbal. He was one of the great poets, philosophers and seers of our time. Like all great and creative poets and thinkers, Iqbal has a perennial appeal which transcends all barriers of time and geography. His message of firmness in faith, ceaseless striving and his all-embracing universal love belong to the heirloom of mankind. His faith in the dignity of the common man was unshakeable and constitutes the cornerstone of his life and work.

He laid much stress on love as a factor in the development of the human personality. This is what he said and I quote:
"The luminous point we term human individuality is the life spark beneath our dust
By love it becomes more lasting, more living
More burning, more radiant."
I believe that the original concept of khudi, the self, in Iqbal's poetry and his efforts to reconstruct the religious thought of Islam to bring about a happy synthesis of science and spiritual insight, have special significance and relevance to the new nations which have just become free and which are struggling to catch up on years of lost opportunities. Iqbal believed in the unity and brotherhood of man which is above race, nationality, colour or language. He had a clear perception of the difference in approach between the West and the East. He sets the comparison beautifully well in the following words:
"In the West, intellect is the source of life.
In the East, love is the basis of life.
Through love, intellect grows acquainted with reality
And intellect gives stability to the work of love.
Arise and lay the foundation of a new world
By wedding intellect to love."
Iqbal's philosophy formulated in his Persian Asrar-i-Khudi and subsequently developed in Ramoof-i-Bekhudi is based on the teachings of Islam and other sages of the East. Ethically the word khudi has lots of meanings. It can mean self-respect, self-confidence, self-preservation even self assertion in the futherance of life and the power to adhere to the cause of truth, justice and duty. Such behaviour is normal as it helps in the integration of the conflicting pulls of the ego thus hardening it against the forces of disintegration and dissolution. Once again, let Iqbal himself say it:
"Exalt thy ego so high that God Himself will consult
Thee before determining thy destiny." 
The development of the inner resources of his individuality enables man to transcend his limitations and rise to greater heights and then he becomes the architect of his own destiny. Viewed thus, Iqbal's philosophy becomes a real and significant entity which is the centre and the basis of the entire organisation of human life. The movement toward the achievement of profounder individuality opens up before us possibilities of unlimited growth and freedom.

Again listen to the poet-philosopher himself:
"The force of individuality makes the mustard seed into a mountain.
Its weakening reduces the mountain into a mustard seed."
Iqbal's stay and studies in Europe had a profound impact on his sensitive and brilliant mind. He admired the vitality and the confident restlessness of the European way of life. He understood the unlimited possibilities opened up by science. But he was in no way blind to the debit side of Western political culture. Its rapacious capitalism, aggressive nationalism, blind racialism made him sound a vibrant note of warning:
"O dwellers of the cities of the West
This habitation of God is not a trading house.
And that which you regard as true coin
Will prove to be only a counterfeit."
Iqbal was equally concerned about the colonization of the minds of the young in the East. They had been content with uncritical admiration and cheap and blind imitation of European culture. He gently denounced the situation in the following words:
"The East imitating the West is deprived of its true self."
In his Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru has recorded an intimate and moving interview with Iqbal when the latter was on his deathbed. They had so much in common and they were both motivated by a kind of spiritual force. Although Nehru was an agnostic and Iqbal a staunch believer, their minds seem to meet in a highly idealistic conceptualisation of the kind of society which they wanted to fashion out on the basis of a synthesis of Eastern and Western values. This is what Nehru wrote in the Discovery of India:

"During his last years Iqbal turned more and more towards socialism. The great progress that Soviet Russia had made attracted him. Even his poetry took a different turn. A few months before his death, as he lay on his sickbed, he sent for me and I gladly obeyed the summons. As I talked to him about many things I felt that, in spite of differences, how much we had in common and how easy it would be to get on with him. He was in reminiscent mood and he wandered from one subject to another, and I listened to him, talking little myself. I admired him and his poetry and it pleased me greatly to feel that he liked me and had a good opinion of me."
I am of those who believe that the estrangement between Hindus and Muslims in India is nothing but an artificial wall which has been raised by imperialists and, what is worse, this estrangement has been, almost inevitably implanted in Mauritian society. And what is not often recognised is that for years local as well as foreign imperialists have ensured that Hindus and Muslims continue to hate each other. Iqbal himself had felt the need for a fresh look at the problem and he urged:
"Come, let us yet once more lift the veil of estrangement,
Unite those who have separated."
Believing as I do that Iqbal's message has a special relevance to the Mauritian situation, I wish that this evening's function will kindle greater interest in the life and work of Mohammad Iqbal. Although he belonged to Islam his message had a universal appeal and I for one cannot remain unmoved by this compelling injunction of his:
"The flame of life cannot be borrowed from others.
It must be kindled in the temple of one's soul
I commend this idea to you with all the sincerity at my command.

Speech at a Memorial Meeting at the Theatre of Port-Louis, 19th January, 1977.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh

Thursday 14 January 2010

African Ways to Development

First of all I wish to associate myself with the previous speakers who have paid glowing tributes to the efficiency with which this conference has been organised. We are also touched by the warm hospitality which has been so lavishly showered upon us right from the time we have landed in this beautiful city of Tunis Carthage. This is in the tradition of a city which has found itself at the crossroads of history at the very dawn of our present civilization and which remains until today a living incarnation of man's determination to fight injustice.

On behalf of my Party and in the name of the Prime Minister of Mauritius, I wish to thank you Mr. President and through you the Destourian Socialist Party for inviting us to participate in this important conference on Planned Development and African Ways to Socialism. We are also appreciative of the initiatives taken by your party under the dynamic leadership of H.E. President Habib Bourguiba who is today a source of inspiration and strength to all political fighters on the continent of Africa.

It gives us great pleasure to salute our comrades who are today representing the liberation movements of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. It is the cherished hope of one and all that soon they will take their rightful place in the comity of nations and begin the stupendous task of raising the quality of life of their peoples which has been decimated by years of oppression. Let them know that we are all one with them.

Since the opening of this conference we have listened with great interest to the statements of our friends describing their experiments in planned development. We have also enriched ourselves by sharing the knowledge of how they are chalking out their path to socialism on the African continent.

In Mauritius, Mr. President, the Mauritius Labour Party is the oldest and largest political party today and it is due to its determination under the leadership of its leader, our Prime Minister, that we have been able to achieve political independence in 1968 and to make of socialism a living and meaningful political creed for our people. As you are aware, we are an island of not more than 720 square miles with a population of about 900,000 but we are today one of the ten largest sugar exporters of the world.

When we became independent in 1968, we were faced with grave socio-economic problems which could have triggered the disintegration of our society. Our reserves were almost depleted and sugar prices were at the lowest; it was selling at ₤13 a ton on the world market and the cost of production was above ₤25 per ton. And as you know sugar has always been the mainstay of our economy: even today it brings us more than 90% of our foreign exchange earnings. In addition to this desperate economic situation we were faced with a large army of young unemployed people. In fact the unemployment rate was at 20% of our labour force.

It was in those circumstances that we started economic planning in the post-independence era in Mauritius.

After studying the situation carefully we decided upon a wholly unorthodox approach to planned development. We decided that employment creation should be our basic objective and that a rise in GNP should be the consequence of our objective and not the other way round. We took the view that a rise in GNP accompanied by large-scale unemployment would be meaningless in national terms.

When we became independent the features of our economy were frightening indeed: we were a monocrop economy; the population was increasing at about 2.7% per annum; sugar prices were depressed; unemployment was rife and we had no other raw material or natural resources; and the people's expectations were high especially from a party and Government which had led them to independence. Such was the magnitude of the task with which we were faced.

Having decided that our strategy for development would be employment creation the choices confronting us were clearly the following:

(a) to diversify our economy and also to diversify our agriculture;
(b) to check the population growth;
(c) to meet the immediate challenging problem of large-scale unemployment;
(d) to raise the necessary external assistance to finance our plan and at the same time to build up the capacity to execute the plan projects.

With gradual improvement in sugar prices in the early 70's it was not difficult to raise assistance for our first post-independence economic development plan. Through a series of bilateral and other arrangements we were able to build up the executive capacity for plan implementation. In order to meet the immediate unemployment situation we created a series of development projects which were not strictly economically viable but were socially productive. Those projects were designed to mitigate the urgent social situation created by unemployment and to create the proper atmosphere which would permit long-term, meaningful development to take place.

By introducing a vigorous programme of planned parenthood we have begun to tackle the population problem and economic diversification has taken the form of industrial processing. We have created an Export Processing Zone which offers a series of incentives to foreign investors and it has become a well-known success story by increasing our foreign exchange earnings and by making a major dent in the unemployment problem.

Today, after eight years of independence we have the feeling of having got over the initial difficulties of underdevelopment and are well poised for a major economic breakthrough.

Unemployment, although it remains our number one problem, is receding and the population is now growing at the net rate of 1.6% p.a. We have almost 100% literacy and primary education is absolutely free; what is more, all children of school going age find a seat in a government primary school. The government health service is free for every Mauritian and the programme of electrification covers 90% of the Island.

In order to avoid any kind of imbalance between urban and rural development, we have launched a Rural Development Programme which aims at improving the quality of life of the rural poor by increasing their incomes and by improving the physical environment of the rural areas. In specific terms this means improvement of roads, educational and health facilities, better water supply, electrification and income generating activities like co-operative farming and kindred pursuits.

Mr. President, this is part of the story of planned socialist development in Mauritius. But we are not here only to exchange ideas about our individual development experience. We are also here to examine in a global manner the fate of planned development in Africa within the context of socialist objectives. And in this we do not only have to consider and evaluate our own actions but to consider and assess the political and institutional parameters within which we can operate freely. We must recognize that very often our development becomes lop-sided by externally imposed constraints; at times our parameters become unreal because as a result of the education which the leaders of our society have received outside our own borders, there is an attempt to introduce, almost blindly, institutions which are alien to our people.

This to my mind, is one of the most challenging problems of the developing world.

All of us who are present here have a common objective and that is to raise the quality of life of our people who for centuries have been exploited in a way which has no parallel in the history of man. And we have also all agreed that the path towards such an achievement is that of socialism. But what kind of socialism are we after? Are we going to be prisoners of dogmas and creeds which have been handed over to us by our former rulers? Here lies a kind of invisible motivation which leads us unconsciously to a deep crisis of faith in our developmental efforts. And this in turn leads to either a loss of identity or to the acquisition of a borrowed identity which prevents the emergence of the genuine African personality.

We in Africa have to avoid postures which can lead to a crisis of ideology in our societies which will surely slow down the pace of our development thus prolonging the agony of our peoples. On the one hand, we have to ensure that we do not introduce in our society a kind of socialism which in the name of equality and egalitarianism will enslave our peoples for generations to come. On the other, it is the duty of socialist parties of Africa to watch that wide and provocative disparities of wealth are not imposed upon the working class in the name of free enterprise.

Whichever path we choose, there remains a greater challenging problem to all of us: our peoples are in a hurry; they have been waiting for far too long. It is in this specific area that to my mind there is much scope for cooperation between socialist parties of Africa.

That is why I take the view that this conference has been organised at the right time. It is a beginning and let us hope that in the future it will pave the way for greater collaboration between peoples and parties who have pledged themselves to wage war against the greatest scourge of humanity which is poverty.

Mr. President, we are meeting at a time when two-thirds of humanity are living below the breadline. On the continent of Africa the number of people who are denied the basic necessities of life may be much greater but irrespective of these figures, the fact remains that such problems of absolute poverty constitutes the greatest challenge of modern times. Poverty is a central problem which has many depressing and degrading facets namely, inadequacy of food and housing; lack of educational and public health facilities and overpopulation. It appears that these facets feed and thrive upon each other and thus our task is rendered much more complex and difficult. Our countries have been exploited and impoverished and upon the ruins of our plundered countries an iniquitous world order has been built. Since we were kept backward we have been denied the benefits of the agricultural and industrial revolutions which took place outside our continent. Today we are determined to catch up and it is this common purpose which has brought us all together.

But engaged as we are in this overwhelming task I suggest that we do not lose sight of new developments which are taking place around us and which could well become the foundation of a new form of colonialism which has already begun to raise its head.

I wish to refer to the fact that the resources of our land mass are rather limited and are likely to last for a known limited number of years. Therefore, mankind will have to turn to the seas. It appears that the major powers have already identified the areas of the seas where a wide range of invaluable materials are available. Most of us, if not all of us, in Africa have neither the means nor the technology of going into this kind of venture but I want to suggest that African socialist parties should take an active and keen interest in this matter. This is as urgent as it is important. If we miss this opportunity we might find that by the turn of this century we shall have been enslaved once again before we have had the time and the means to fulfil our pledge to our own people.

Speech at the Conference of African Socialist Parties, Tunis, 3rd July 1975.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Letter to a Friend

When I got the news of your father's death I was ready to come to the funeral when I was faced with a serious problem. I therefore wish to apologize and to reassure you that my absence at the funeral must not be interpreted as a lack of feeling on my part for you. I want you to know that I sympathise with you and wish to convey to you and to your family my most sincere condolences. A man like you, I am sure, knows that death is a part of life. It is inevitable and always comes at a time and place of its own choosing.

Probably for those who are not involved in the bereavement it is easy to philosophize. Yet I believe that all of us have to philosophize whether we are involved or not. I can imagine your sorrow to see your father disappear since I, like many others, have had the same experience. When I think of this kind of event I am reminded of my own experience when my mother died years ago. The news of sudden death gives you a shock and between the time of death and the time the corpse is taken away from the house you somehow get reconciled to it. But at the specific moment when you find people taking away the corpse you really feel that something is being torn away from you. Again, after a very short while you get used to that also and you walk with the procession up to the cremation ground. But I think the most trying moment is when you come back home and you really feel the emptiness that is left behind. I feel this is the most difficult moment involved in all such situations.

That is why I believe that death is part of life and, what is more, we are all made of dust and ashes and that is where one has to return.

Again, that is why I believe a life which is led selfishly and closed in by narrow walls of pride and prejudice is absolutely meaningless.

At this moment of trial I want you to know that you are not alone and that I share your grief.

Letter to a friend who wishes to be anonymous, 26th June, 1975.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh

Sunday 10 January 2010

Vers une Entite Mauricienne

I am perfectly aware of the gravity as well as the complexity of the problem I am about to discuss. And it is precisely because of this that I wish to make it clear, at the very outset, that I am here this afternoon not as an accredited representative of the Hindu community but as a mere student of the Mauritian affairs who is attempting to interpret and explain what the Hindu community thinks of Mauritius and its problems. The views I will be expressing in a short while are my own: I can assure you that I am convinced of their validity and their relevance to the burning problems of the day. If, however, my views happen to offend any section of the population or if they happen to hurt the feelings of any individual or group inside or outside this hall, I beseech you to condemn my humble self and not to heap the blame on my community.

Again, I would like to make it plain that I am prepared to call a spade a spade. In so doing I'll have to consider the various forces at work in our society objectively: I want to look at them from a distance, so to speak, and try to assess them as well as their actions and interactions. But if by so doing I happen to shock some people I'll ask them to believe that my primary motive is not to offend but to face the facts of the situation squarely and to deal with them to the best of my ability and with as much sincerity of purpose as I can command.

To follow the pattern set by the previous speakers, I have divided my speech into three distinct sections. First, the history of the Hindu community in Mauritius; secondly, what I think its conception of une entite mauricienne is and finally, what it can contribute towards the realisation of that entite mauricienne.

After the abolition of slavery in the early 1830s when the manumitted slaves refused to work on the sugar plantations of the early French settlers and when utter disaster stared Mauritius in the face, identured labour was imported from India. Out of 400,000 indentured Indian labourers who came to the Island over 200,000 stayed: they decided to adopt Mauritius as their home. The descendants of those indentured labourers generally constitute the Hindu community of today.

The history of my community is a harrowing tale of misfortune and suffering. The forbears of the Hindu community were in no way better off than the slaves they had come to supersede. They were called coolies and had to work for a mere pittance. They were les engages of their masters and in the absence of decent industrial laws, they were at the mercy of their employers. They were just like some human cogs in the vast industrial machine. In those days political rights were a far cry and they lead an almost sub-human life. They were hardly educated and their life was a monotonous drudgery. Their only friends and acquaintances were their hoe and sickle and the large fields under their feet and the blue Mauritian sky high above their heads.

When they came to Mauritius, the Island could hardly claim to be an industrial country. Our sugar industry practically did not exist but their arrival in Mauritius ushered in an era of tremendous agricultural development. I am sure that one will bear me a grudge if I aver that the Hindu community had contributed and is contributing to a very large extent to the prosperity of this Island. Only the other day no less a man than Mr. Fernand Leclezio reminded us that when the surra had destroyed all the cart-hoses, Indian coolies replaced them. I am not overstating the fact if I allow myself to say that for such a contribution to the economic welfare of the country as a whole those Indian coolies deserve our thanks, our gratitude, our respect and perhaps even our admiration.

Every dog is supposed to have his day and those Indian coolies too had theirs. With the spread of education coupled with the advent of democracy, they began asking themselves whether there would be no amelioration in their fate. In one way or another they agitated and gradually their grievances began to be taken into consideration. A Royal Commission came in 1872 and exposed the inhuman treatment meted out to the Indian labourers. But the Royal Commission could only state the facts and make recommendations. There was very little change in their situation.

In the early years of this country they again agitated but at that time they benefitted from the leadership and inspiration of Manilall Doctor. A second Royal Commission was appointed n 1909. Sweeping changes followed and their position was greatly improved. It was a turning point in their history.

Until then they had no political rights and our system of Government was indeed an iniquitous one. The small man whether he was Creole or Indian has no say whatsover in the management of public affairs. But a time came, it was 1926, when for the first time in the annals of Mauritius, two Hindus were elected under a very liberal constitution. Lest I forget, let me state that during the period 1920-48 a large number of Hindus became professionals and began making their influence and abilities felt in various spheres of activity. This is, in short, a brief but avowedly imperfect history of the Indian community of Mauritius from the early beginning up to the generation to which I belong.

The history of Mauritius can be summed up in a few words. The French came and took possession of the Island. They brought in a handful of Indian artisans to build the harbour and the first roads and imported slaves from Madagascar and Africa to work on the plantations. Later, as I have said just now, Indian immigrants came along. Finally, the Chinese came thus completing the mosaic of races which is Mauritian society.

The French who came here were cultured people. From very reliable authority I can aver that the French who came here belonged to the French aristocracy of those days. As proof, I can only point to the difference between the French which is spoken here and that which is spoken in certain part of Canada. The slaves of course had a primitive religion and culture. The Indians though they were illiterate and most of their religious beliefs were shrouded in malpractices, had a certain amount of culture. They had brought with them copies of the Gita and the Ramayana which gave them solace and soothed their soul whenever they found themselves as the mercy of economic circumstances. The descendants of the slaves, for reasons which I need not unravel, adopted Christianity as their religion and as Christianity is so closely connected with Western culture, the Creole community adopted Western culture.

So we have it. In our society which is composed of the descendants of slaves and immigrants and those of the French colonists and Chinese traders, four of the greatest religions of the world are represented. They are Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. But it will be untrue to say that we have four different cultures in Mauritius. I think that generally there are two cultures or to be more precise, only two cultural tendencies in Mauritius: they are Eastern culture and Western culture.

Now, what is the relation between the two cultures? How do Mauritian Westerners look at Mauritius Easterners? Or vice versa? I regret to have to say that in Mauritius we tend to think that one culture is inferior to another. We tend to believe in the supremacy of culture and religion; we are still thinking that cultures and religions are material units which have dimensions and which can be compared or haggled about as auctioneers do in their trade. And it is a pity indeed for me to have to say that here everything Indian seems to be inferior in the eyes of many who believe in Western culture. The impression that I have got out of actual experience is that Mauritian Westerners generally believe that anything coming from the West is perfect and that the East has nothing to offer.

But I do not blame those Mauritian Westerners who thing on such lines. I understand them; I feel sorry for them. I understand them because the attitude now prevalent among them was at a great premium in Europe a few decades ago. There was a time when Europeans thought that they had the monopoly of intelligence and power and that the East was and would eternally remain a hanger-on to the West. The Europeans obviously were devoid of any sense of history. But the great cataclysms touched off by the second world war exposed in a very glaring manner their shortsightedness and narrowness of mind. They were brought to accept the inevitable fact that apart from human goodness there is nothing lasting in this world. They realised that empires and monopolies are not eternal.

I wish to see a similar awakening among Mauritian Westerners. I want them to understand that they cannot afford to write off Indian culture and Eastern values as insignificant. I ask them to draw as much as possible from those values. I desperately ask them to realise this, at least for one thing. How can I like Western culture if I am constantly reminded by the protagonists of Western culture that my culture is insignificant and that I am an inferior human being? To my friends who belong to the Western way of life I say: the Hindu community is prepared to stretch out its hand in friendship to the other communities of the Island but it will do so only on terms of equality.

I would like to assure all my friends who belong to the other communities of the Island that we do not want to swamp them or to obliterate their culture and religion. My community belongs to that only nation which since time immemorial has given shelter to all religions and peoples. My religious background is permeated with a deep sense of respect and tolerance for all systems of thought. I do not believe in supremacy in any field of human activity. I believe that humanity is one and if you happen to be a Christian and I a Hindu, it's simply due basically to geographical divisions. After all, are we not all, whether Hindu or Christian, striving for the same end, i.e. perfection? Why then should we compel all the pilgrims to the city of God to follow the same path? I am convinced that in our vertical march towards a better humanity we must avoid traffic congestions!

There was a time, ladies and gentlemen, when humanity was broken up into tiny fragments, when the nations of the world were cut off from each other by mountains and oceans. But today the world is much smaller. We have been brought much closer together. We are making for one world in which there will be no Indian or European culture but a world culture, a human culture. Why then should we, in this small Island which is but a dot on the map, fight each other over trivial things? Can't we here work for a synthesis between Western and Eastern culture? In Mauritius we have the privilege of drawing from all the great cultures of the world. And you know only too well that a culture which opens its doors to new ideals becomes richer.

I am a Hindu and I want to remain Hindu. I try to live according to the ideals of Eastern culture. But I am no enemy of Western culture. I am alive to the beauties of the Vedas and the Upanishads but I cannot ignore the sublime message of love and brotherhood of Christ. Will I be less Hindu if I admire and respect Christianity? Will my other friends be less Christian if they admire and respect Hinduism? My conception of une entite mauricienne is therefore this: I visualize a Mauritian society where all religions, all languages and all cultures will flourish side by side, where there will be mutual respect and understanding and where there will be no room for supremacy. I want a society where instead of accentuating our points of difference, we shall explore what we have in common. I want a society where there will be a free flow of ideas and ideals. May I add that our salvation lies not in the obliteration of Indian culture or Western culture but in a fusion of them both?

Personally, I think that my community can contribute much towards the realisation of a Mauritian entity.For the moment I cannot pinpoint in what particular fields it is going to make its greatest contribution but I should like to state that it is still in the throes of evolution and in time to come it is going  to prove its worth in all fields of Mauritian life. Hindus have no desire to dominate any other community. They do not want any special treatment but they want to learn from others and share the joys and sorrows of the country as a whole. They consider Mauritius as their home and they think they have got as much right as anybody else and they expect their feelings to be reciprocated.

Before resuming my seat I have two observations to make.

First, I wish to point out that I have deliberately confined myself to the cultural and social aspects of the problem we are discussing this afternoon. I have avoided politics for obvious reasons. I have done so because I am certain that if really want to meet on common ground we should seek to avoid issues which are more likely to divide than to unite us. But I am convince that a time will come when we shall be able to thrash out all our problems without fear of disintegrating our society. We have only to pave the way for such a situation.

Secondly, I would not like to create the impression that on this platform I am like the philosopher of the jungle. Perhaps, I should tell you something about the philosopher of the jungle. Once upon a time there was a centipede which was suffering from gout; it painfully walked miles to consult the philosopher of the jungle, that is the monkey. Having considered the complaints of the centipede, the philosopher offered this solution: "if you become a mouse and have only four legs, you will be twenty-five times better off". The centipede then replied: "That's a wonderful idea. How do I get to be a mouse?" The monkey shook his head and said: "I can't tell you that. I only make policy".

So, ladies and gentlemen, I have not come here merely to tell you that I want to find such and such society in Mauritius without at least attempting to suggest how I think we can bring about une entite mauricienne. Therefore I suggest five points.
  • We must realise that all communities have equal rights in Mauritius.
  • We must concede that no culture is inferior to the other and no religion is undeserving of respect. We may not like a particular religion but we must respect it. Mark my words, I say: we must respect it.
  • We must not allow politics to degenerate into communal strife and what is more important still, we must prevent politics from dominating our conception of this or that community or its culture and ideals.
  • We should try to learn each other's culture, religion and language. As long as we remain apart suspiciously looking at each other from a distance, une entite mauricienne will remain an empty expression.
  • The leaders of all communities, the priests, the press as well as the radio should muster their energies to bring home all Mauritians that we can and must achieve unity in diversity.
As a last word, ladies and gentlemen. I reiterate my conviction that Mauritius is not and should not be the preserve of any community. The traditions and values of France, Great Britain, Pakistan, China and India have got the right to live here. If we live wisely we'll lead a really rich life. Whether it was by a mere freak of history or a conspiracy of fate that we, people of different cultures and traditions, have been cast together on this small Island I do not know. But I am sure that we have to live side by side. We have to evolve the kind of society Prof. Radhakrishnan contemplates when he asks: "May we not strive for a philosophy which will combine the best of European humanism and Asiatic religion, a philosophy profounder and more living than either and endowed with greater spiritual and ethical force, which will conquer the hearts of men and compel peoples to acknowledge its sway?"

If we fail in this we will prove our unworthiness of being called an educated people.

Speech at a public forum at the Salles de Fetes, Town Hall of Rose Hill, 5th May 1958.

Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh.