Seewoosagur Ramgoolam

Moheeth came to Mauritius aged 18 in a ship called The Hindoostan in 1896.

His elder brother, Ramlochurn, had left the home village of Harigaon in the Bhojpur district of Bihar in search of a better life abroad.

Moheeth worked as an indentured labourer and later became a Sirdar (overseer) at Queen Victoria Sugar Estate.

When he married Basmati Ramchurn in 1898, he moved to Belle Rive Sugar Estate.

Basmati was a young widow born in Mauritius.

She already had two sons: Nuckchadee Heeramun and Ramlall Ramchurn.

Ramgoolam had his early grounding in Bhojpuri, Indian culture and philosophy, in the local evening school of the locality (called Baitka in Mauritian Hindu term), where children of the Hindu community learnt the vernacular language and glimpses of the Hindu culture.

The teacher (guruji) would teach prayers and songs.

Sanskrit prayers and perennial values taken from sacred scriptures like the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita were also taught.

He enrolled in the neighbouring R.C.A. (Roman Catholic Aided) School, run by Madame Siris without his mother's knowledge.

He learned History, Geography, English and French.

After leaving the pre-primary school, he went to Bel Air Government School, travelling by train, until he passed the sixth standard.

At the age of seven, Ramgoolam lost his father and at the age of twelve, he lost his left eye in a serious accident in a cowshed.

He continued his scholarship class at the Curepipe Boys’ Government School while taking up boarding with his uncle, Harry Parsad Seewoodharry Buguth, a sworn land surveyor, in Curepipe.

He would listen to the political discussions between his uncle and his circle of friends on local politics and on the current struggle for Indian independence under Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rash Behari Bose.

These initial conversations were to form the basis of his political beliefs years later.

The scholarship classes, which formed the basis of lower secondary schooling, permitted Ramgoolam to go straight for the Junior Cambridge at the Royal College, Curepipe, where he was educated by the likes of Reverend Fowler and Mr Harwood.

After secondary school, Ramgoolam worked for 3 months in the Civil Service.

With the financial help of his brother Ramlall, Ramgoolam was able to initiate medical studies in England.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (18 September 1900 – 15 December 1985), often referred to as Chacha Ramgoolam or SSR, was a Mauritian physician, politician, and statesman.

He served as the island's only chief minister, first prime minister, and fifth governor-general.

He is widely recognized as the nation's founding father.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, was born on 18 September 1900 at Belle Rive, Mauritius, in the district of Flacq to a Bhojpuri-speaking Hindu Indo-Mauritian family.

His father, Moheeth Ramgoolam, also known as Mohit Mahto, was an Indian immigrant labourer belonging to the Kushwaha Koeri family broader Vaishya community.

In 1921, Ramgoolam set sail on one of the ships of the Messageries maritimes for Marseille, and continued by train to London, his final destination, with a transit of a couple of days in Paris.

In the French capital he purchased copies of the books of André Gide and André Malraux with both of whom he struck friendship.

He graduated from University College London and attended lectures at the London School of Economics.

In 1935 he returned to Mauritius after completing medical studies in London and Seewoosagur worked to improve the living and working conditions of the bulk of the island's population which consisted of the descendants of indentured Indian laborers and enslaved Africans.

At that time the party was still under the leadership of its original founders Emmanuel Anquetil, Maurice Curé, Pandit Sahadeo, Renganaden Seeneevassen and Mamode Hassenjee, Jean Prosper, Barthelemy Ohsan, Samuel Barbe and Godefroy Moutia who initiated the party in 1936.

In September 1940 and during the Second World War he became one of the founders of the Labour Party's newspaper Advance which advocated universal suffrage, economic reform and social justice.

Ramgoolam wrote a series of articles using pseudonym Thumb Mark II which challenged the island's established conservative sugar oligarchs.

He was also appointed as President of the group known as Indian Cultural Association.

Seewoosagur Ramgoolam also joined the masonic fraternity and was an active member of the Loge de la Triple Espérance.

From 1940 to 1953 he was an elected Municipal Councillor in Port Louis and was re-elected to serve from 1956 to 1960.

Seewoosagur Ramgoolam served as Nominated Member of the Legislative Council from 1940 to 1948.

In 1947 Ramgoolam joined the Labour Party.

At the 1948 General Elections he was elected Member of Legislative Council for Pamplemousses-Rivière du Rempart as an independent candidate.

After Guy Rozemont's death in 1956, Ramgoolam served as the leader of the Labour Party of Mauritius until his death in 1985 and led the country to independence in 1968.

His son, Dr. Navinchandra Ramgoolam, served as the third and fifth prime minister of Mauritius.

Then he was elected Deputy Mayor of Port-Louis in 1956 and became Lord Mayor of Port Louis in 1958.