Trade unionist, politician, writer, journalist and poet, Jaynarain Roy (JNR), is remembered for his erudition. He made noteworthy submissions in the 1940s for the country?s constitutional progress. He was an elected legislator between 1948 and 1967 (defeated in 1953, but soon victorious in a by-election). He withdrew from active politics in 1967.

In India ? JNR left for India in December 1925 at the age of 16, with on board the same ship bound for Calcutta two fellow-Mauritians, Ooomashankar Geerjanand, who returned home as the first Indo-Mauritian graduate, and Emmanuel Anquetil (later the father of the country?s trade unionism). As arranged by his contact, pandit Banaridas Chatturvedi, JNR called in Varanasi on pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya who then headed the Central Hindu College (CHC) which he later converted into what is the present famous Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Malaviya put JNR in the 8th class of the CHC.

Soon, Malaviya took JNR to attend in Nagpur the annual conference of the Indian National Congress (INC) of which he was a prominent member since the inception. From 26 to 29 December 1925, the 17-year old JNR was present at the INC conference chaired by mahatma Gandhi. Having come under his spell, he joined the INC youth wing. After his secondary education in Varanasi, he studied at the University of Allahabad and resided at the Hindu College Hostel overlooking the Alfred Park where Chandrashekar Azad often came to meet his fellow-revolutionaries. JNR obtained his BA Hons (History, Literature and Political Science) in 1932, coming out first, MA (Political Science) in 1934 and LL B the following year.

Involved in the revolutionary movement under the influence of C. Azad whom he had met in Allahabad in 1928, JNR was imprisoned for three months the following year. A collaborator of Azad, he had been gathering information for him. He was luckily released after some time upon the intervention of the deputy commissioner of police, Tyagi, the uncle of a fellow-student. In July-September 1930, the INC extreme youth wing, of which the teenager Indira Nehru (later Ms Gandhi) formed part, picketed the grounds of the Allahabad University. When she visited Mauritius as Indian Prime Minister in 1971, she asked to see JNR. Having earlier met her in Delhi in 1950, he paid her a courtesy call. In 1931, after the exchange of firing between C. Azad and the police for about 20 minutes, Azad shot himself to death upon checking that he had run out of ammunition. JNR witnessed this patriotic death which took place at Albert Park, now named after the great martyr Azad.

Upon the request of Gandhi, whom he had met several times while following him in many parts of India in his freedom campaign, JNR joined relief work organised by the INC in Bihar in 1935. Dr Rajendra Prasad led this emergency operation in aid of the multitude of people deprived of food and shelter. An unprecedented earthquake, followed by heavy floods, had shaken the North Indian province. JNR stayed in Bihar from May 1935 to March 1937. He headed the relief works at Minapur, a tiny village in the middle of Muzzafarpur District that had been the worst hit in Bihar. JNR helped to reconstruct Minapur. In 1950, he was fortunate to be received, as the head of the Mauritian parliamentary delegation, at the first Republic celebrations in New Delhi, by Rajendra Prasad, India?s first President. JNR had written, before returning home, about his experience at Manipur in the Indian Cultural Review (Mauritius) of April 1937.

Journalist and writer ? having contributed to the press in India and Mauritius even before going to the subcontinent (correspondent of Vishal Bharat, pandit Chatturvedi?s Hindi paper in Calcutta, and his first poem published in Mauritius Mitra in 1924), JNR became, during his stay in Allahabad, a regular correspondent of several Indian newspapers, in particular the Delhi-based Hindustan Times in which appeared his feature entitled ?Around a Cup of Tea.? From India, he also wrote for such Mauritian papers as Arya Vir, Arya Patrika and Le Radical, besides Mauritius Mitra. The Arya Vir of 17 April 1931 carried JNR?s article ?The Sidelights of the Gandhian Movement? on the symbolism of Gandhi?s protest march to Dandi of 12 March 1930. Back in Mauritius in May 1937, besides contributing, mostly under the pen-name of Gautam, to the Hindi press, JNR wrote in English, under various pseudonyms, for other papers of the time.

« In 1937, JNR, having just returned home from India, joined the trade union movement. He then wrote a series of articles in Hindi in Arya Vir, explaining the causes and consequences of the strikes of 1937. »

JNR?s pamphlet captioned ?Whither Indo-Mauritians?? was published in Dr Edgard Millien?s l?Oeuvre in September 1937 as a sequel of the strike that had taken place in the previous month. As many as 5000 copies were sold at Cents 25 each. Then, in his booklet, ?Towards Uplift ? Being an Open Letter to Indo-Mauritians,? containing a brief history of Indo-Mauritians, he reviewed the causes of social stagnation. After referring to the various religions and cultures prevailing in the country, he dwelt on the educational system which was, for him, ?too European in its conception.?

With the voluntary funds he had raised as from 1937 and the proceeds of the sale of the pamphlet ?Whither Indo-Mauritians?? JNR conceived the publication of the daily Advance. He had been a government labour inspector from 1938 to 1947. The first issue of Advance came out on 1 October 1940 as launched and controlled by Dr Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (later Sir). For its first year, JNR almost daily contributed an unsigned article of a column and a half. He wrote the editorial anonymously for years, although Aunuth Beejadhur was the official editor, remaining a collaborator of Advance for over three decades. He was a formidable counterforce in English to Noël Marrier d?Unienville (NMU) who spearheaded virulent articles in French in Le Cernéen against Indo-Mauritians in the 1940s and 1950s. Seven years later, JNR helped launch the Hindi daily Janata (The People) of which he was the first editor. He contributed regularly and voluntarily, under various pseudonyms and later under the initials of JNR, to not only Advance but also Mauritius Times. Later, JNR also wrote in Le Mauricien that published his series of 25 articles on ?The Problems of a Free Mauritius.?

On 19 January 1948, after Gandhi had broken his five-day fast and less than a fortnight before his sudden death, Advance carried an article by JNR who likened him as the greatest of the world. His "Mauritius in Transition? (1960) is a masterpiece.

Trade Unionist In 1937, JNR, having just returned home from India, joined the trade union movement. He then wrote a series of articles in Hindi in Arya Vir, explaining the causes and consequences of the strikes of 1937.

Approached by Dr Maurice Curé, chairman of the newly created MLP and his lieutenant, pandit Sahadeo Rama, JNR drafted a telegram, signed by the three of them, to the INC president Nehru, seeking support for workers in Mauritius. He also despatched personally a telegram to Gandhi, Nehru, Prasad and Chatturvedi. His article in Hindi on Hartal (The Strike), explaining the workers? long enduring sorry plight, appeared in Arya Vir of 6 September 1937. Two more articles of JNR, again in Hindi, on workers were published in Arya Vir of October and November 1937. As a consequence of JNR?s telegrams, Sahadeo attended the INC?s annual congress in Ahmedabad in December 1938.

The recommendations in the Hooper Report (1938) pertained to, among others, the formation of statutorily recognised trade unions as well as the appointment of labour inspectors. After consulting Anquetil, who had returned from overseas since 18 December 1936, JNR accepted one of the six posts in July 1938. Even in his official capacity, JNR helped Harryparsad Ramnarain, Ramsoondar Baboolall and Mohunparsad Jugdambi in organising unions. He was most of the time also active outside office hours, touring the country to promote trade unionism and keeping contact with Anquetil. Because of his activities, especially his participation in the 1943 strike, he was transferred from Flacq, where he was first posted, to Port-Louis.

In 1947, JNR resigned his post of labour inspector to help Ramnarain?s Mauritius Amalgamated Labourers? Association (MALA) of which he was secretary for a short period. He masterminded the strike of 1947, the country?s most successful strike, as a consequence of which 18 sugar factories were closed down for a month. Immediately afterwards, the first procedural agreement was signed between the MALA and the Mauritius Sugar Producers? Association. JNR authenticated the contract on behalf of the MALA. Up to the 1960s, he toured the island, talking to labourers about the MALA?s raison d?être. He was pivotal in helping Ramnarain and Jugdambi before the arbitration board in the claim of the Plantation Workers? Union, as the MALA came to be known by then, obtaining a 15% increase in wages in 1959.

Constitutional Pioneer ? Following Governor Mackenzie-Kennedy?s statement in the legislature, on his plan for a revised Constitution for Mauritius on 13 February 1945, JNR wrote a series of related articles in l?Oeuvre. He made an in-depth analysis of the constitutional proposals, offering his criticisms and suggestions as later contained in the booklet, "The Constitutional Proposals (An Analysis of the Revision Plan) from which the quotations below are extracted. This 25-page paper publication grouping the writings on the subject by Roy, who prefaced it as ?Indian Youth,? was sponsored by Abdul Razack Mohamed. Printed in 1945 by the Modern Printing of Port-Louis, it was foreworded by Dr Edgard Millien, the owner-editor of l?Oeuvre?

JNR also touched the piteous prevalent socio-economic situation, particularly unemployment that he found not only on the increase among the educated and the semi-skilled workers but also almost total as regards women. Such problems, according to him, ?should claim priority of solution.? He deplored that ?everywhere the machinery of Government moves at a snail?s pace when faced with the problem of according certain rights to the people,? whereas ?experts, committees, enquiries, commissions, reports, discussions and like paraphernalia are often good time-killing devices.? In conclusion, JNR wrote: ?We should not be lost in the maelstrom of debates, plans and promises. We should apply the tests: ?How long will these take to reach those for whom they are intended? What classes of people will they benefit? Will they create equal opportunities for every citizen to grow to his full stature??

Educationist ? JNR devoted the rest of his life to the promotion of education and culture.

He chaired for long the famous Long Mountain-based Hindi Pracharini Sabha, the country?s only national, voluntary educational institution of its kind, being elected its annual president ten separate times up to 1952, and thence continuously until 1978. JNR also ran his own Mauritius College, a secondary school (boys and girls), set up in 1955 together with wife Rohenee (Rughoo) who had earlier taught at Bhujoharry College.