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The struggle of Pandit Sahadeo
Pandit Sahadeo, also known as Dajee Rama, was born in 1899 and died in October 1978, at his Gandhi Ashram in Vacoas. Therefore, this year marks the 25th death anniversary of this important Mauritian historical figure and hopefully, it will be properly commemorated during the course of this month.
Pandit Sahadeo was a founder of the Mauritian Labour Party, a member of the Arya Samaj and also helped to establish several Hindu social organisations between the mid-1940s and mid-1970s. Furthermore, he is the most important historical figure that the Mauritian Marathi community has produced during the 20th century. What distinguished Sahadeo from some of the other important historical figures of modern Mauritius was his close and long-lasting friendship with Dr Jules Maurice Curé, ?the father of modern Mauritius.?
Pandit Sahadeo and Dr Curé </B>
It was during the brief period between 1934 and January 1936, that Dr Curé served as a member of the Council of Government that Sahadeo became his closest friend and collaborator. On 23rd February 1936, he stood shoulder to shoulder with the good doctor, when the Labour Party, or the island?s first workers? party, saw the light of day in Champ de Mars. Sahadeo was also a member of the Executive Committee of the newly formed party and the personal assistant of Curé, the party president. Together, they struggled to bring improvements to the lives of the Mauritian workers and make them aware that they had to fight for their social and economic rights.
Between May 1936 and July 1937, the Labour Party carried out its campaign to mobilise the Mauritian workers by holding around 55 public meetings throughout the island. In addition, during this intensive campaign of mobilisation, Sahadeo was an important link between Dr Maurice Curé and the island?s rural Indian labourers. At the meetings, which were held in the rural districts, Sahadeo addressed the Indian labourers in Bhojpuri as well as in Hindi and provided them with a verbatim translation of Dr Curé?s speech. On 1st May 1938, when Labour Day was celebrated for the first time in Mauritius, thanks largely to the Labour Party, Emmanuel Anquetil and Dajee Rama or Pandit Sahadeo stood by the side of Dr Curé during that historic event.
Sahadeo?s Arrest in 1937</B>
In July and August 1937, Pandit Sahadeo, as a representative and agent of the Labour Party, played a leading role in organising the labourers of Réunion Sugar Estate in Plaines Wilhems district. During that same period, a series of strikes took place on several sugar estates in the island?s rural districts, including at the sugar plantation of Réunion. Shortly after, Sahadeo was arrested by the colonial police in Vacoas and was taken to the Casernes Centrales where he was held for several days. Governor Sir Bede Clifford and procureur général Hooper firmly believed that the good pandit was the mastermind behind the strike at Réunion Sugar Estate.
What happened next to Sahadeo is best described by Dr Maurice Curé who, in February 1967, wrote a nécrologie in L?Express for the late Chief Justice Rampersad Neerunjun, one of his dear friends. The former president of the Labour Party vividly narrated:
?Pandit Sahadeo avait été arrêté aux Vacoas, détenu aux Casernes centrales et il allait passer en jugement. J?avais retenu les services de Me Koenig et Me Neerunjun pour le défendre. Le jour fixé, je me rendis au tribunal. La situation dans tout le pays était tendue à l?extrême. Des gens n?avaient qu?une idée, mettre le feu dans tous les champs de cannes; ma femme et moi, nous avions eu toutes les peines du monde pour les détourner de pareils excès.?
Dr Curé continued: ?J?étais debout dans la cour du tribunal quand je vis passer Pandit Sahadeo encadré de plusieurs policiers, les menottes aux mains. On ne pouvait prendre plus de précautions s?il s?agissait d?un malfaiteur dangeureux.
J?étais sous l?empire de l?indignation quand je vis Neerunjun s?approcher de moi. Il me fit part du désir du procureur général Hooper de me voir avant l?enquête sur les troubles ou il devait présider. Je déclarai à Neerunjun que je n?accéderai au désir de Hooper qu?à une condition : que Pandit Sahadeo fut remis en liberté immédiatement. Neerunjun retourna voir le procureur général. Quels furent leurs propos ? On peut le deviner. L?ordre fut donné par Hooper de libérer Pandit Sahadeo qui allait être jugé par le magistrat Brouard.
J?accompagnais alors Neerunjun au bureau de Hooper avec lui j?eus une longue conversation. Neerunjun avait épargné au pays beaucoup d?heures critiques et peut-être sanglantes.?
As a condition for meeting procureur général Hooper, Dr Curé demanded the immediate release of his dear friend and faithful political lieutenant, Pandit Sahadeo which was secured with the help of R.Neerunjun. It is evident that the release of Sahadeo was imperative during that period of heightened social tensions that prevailed throughout the colony. The shabby treatment which was meted out to Pandit Sahadeo was not surprising because he was considered to be a dangerous agitator by the local British authorities.
After all, on 9th November 1937, in his secret despatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London, Governor Clifford mentioned, while commenting on the social explosion of 1937:
?Nevertheless I do not think anyone would be justified in asserting that the recent disturbances were entirely economic and devoid of political significance. For some months past, Dr Curé, Comrade Anquetil, and Pandit Sahadeo have been holding meetings in public and in camera. The authorities have reliable information regarding what has taken place in both classes of meetings. It would appear that the utterances of Curé are mainly concerned with local politics, those of Anquetil with international Bolshevism,while Sahadeo has frankly seditious appeals to the religious fanaticisms and racial animosities of the Indians with the obvious aim of arousing anglophobia and of provoking a disturbance of the peace.?
It does not take a far stretch of the imagination to realize that the biased local British government saw the Labour triumvirate, consisting of Curé, Anquetil, and Sahadeo, as being largely responsible for the labour disturbances of 1937 as well as a threat to the peace and tranquillity of the colony.
Sahadeo?s Indian Connections</B>
In early July 1938, during the course of a private meeting between Governor Bede Clifford and Dr Curé, the British pro-consul mentioned to the good doctor that he had in his movement or in the Labour Party, men who had questionable reputation, which was particularly the case for Pandit Sahadeo. The governor made this clear when he stated:
?As for Sahadeo in India, that man was associating with people who had taken an active part in the terrorist movement (in British India). Did he wish, I asked, to see repeated in Mauritius the tragedies of India? And why go to India to learn how to benefit the labourers of Mauritius when conditions of labourers in India were far worse than they were here!?
Thus, the local British administration considered Pandit Sahadeo to be a troublemaker and a threat not only because of his active involvement in Dr Curé?s Labour Party, but also due to his strong links with some of the freedom fighters in Indian National Congress in British India. Therefore, Governor Bede Clifford suspected that he (Sahadeo) might bring a radical Indian influence, in terms of organised resistance against the local British administration, into the Mauritian labour movement which was still in its embryonic stage.
This fact is not surprising because during the 1930s, Pandit Sahadeo travelled regularly to the Indian subcontinent and had close contacts with the Indian National Congress. In March 1938, as a representative of the Mauritian Labour Party, he addressed the Indian National Congress on the social explosion of July-August 1937 as well as on the grievances, difficulties, and conditions of the labourers in Mauritius.
It should also be noted that in December 1938, it was thanks largely to the intervention of Pandit Sahadeo, that the Labour Party sent an official letter to Basdeo Bissoondoyal (who was then finishing his M.A at the University of Calcutta), which he was asked to present to the National Committee of the Indian National Congress. Sahadeo and Dr Curé were two of the individuals who signed that historic letter and it enumerated the grievances of the Mauritian workers and also mentioned the repression of the British government in Mauritius against the Labour Party. Pandit Sahadeo and the other Mauritian labour leaders also asked the Indian National Congress for some help in their struggle.
<B>Sahadeo?s House Arrest in 1938
In September 1938, the Port-Louis dockers went on strike and as a result, the island?s only port and its economy were paralyzed. A few days later, Governor Sir Bede Clifford declared a state of emergency, Dr Curé was placed under house arrest, while Anquetil was deported to Rodrigues.Pandit Sahadeo was placed under house arrest for almost two weeks and even after his release, he was kept under close police surveillance for several weeks.
After September 1938, the leaders of the Labour Party continued to be harassed by the local colonial administration. Despite this fact, Pandit Sahadeo remained very active in the Labour Party until May 1941, when Dr Curé stepped down as party leader and president and Anquetil assumed the leadership. Between 1941 and 1944, Sahadeo became less active within the party and rarely attended the party?s public meetings. During this period, the good pandit was helping Basdeo Bissoondoyal establish the Jan Andolan, since he was an ardent supporter of the young Hindu missionary.
<B>The Shift from the Labour Party
The gradual shift in Sahadeo?s activities was bound to raise serious questions within the Labour Party about his allegiance to the party. In May 1944, according to the secret police report of Allan Bell, the Acting Commissioner of Police, at one moment during the course of the Labour Party?s Labour Day meeting, at the Port-Louis Municipal Theatre, an old Indian labourer asked Anquetil to allow Pandit Sahadeo to address the gathering. Unfortunately, the president of the Labour Party refused by saying that after Dr Curé?s departure from the party, in May 1941, many of his main supporters, including Sahadeo, were not participating in the activities of the party, under various excuses, but they still had time to go around the country for other purposes. In fact, Anquetil?s comment led Allan Bell to conclude that:
?This was no doubt a reference to Pandit Sahadeo?s support for Bissoondoyal.?
Eventually, Bell?s report was submitted to Governor Sir Donald Mackenzie-Kennedy and Colonial Secretary Sydney Moody. By the mid-1940s, Sahadeo was channelling already his energy into other activities such as helping to set up Hindu social organizations. Between the mid-1940s and the mid-1970s, the good pandit continued his social work, one of his most important accomplishments was the establishment of the Gandhi Ashram in Vacoas with the help of Dr Curé.
<B>Sahadeo and Bérenger
In June 1972, while Paul Bérenger, the other leaders of the Mouvement militant mauricien (MMM) and of the General Workers Federation were imprisoned by the Ramgoolam régime, it was Pandit Sahadeo who undertook a seven-day hunger strike, despite his poor health condition. The objective of Sahadeo was to convince Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam to release Bérenger and the leaders of the MMM.
Unfortunately, his efforts proved to be futile with the leaders of the Labour Party but, symbolically, it carried a lot of weight with the MMM leadership and gave Bérenger and the imprisoned militants renewed vigour to oppose their tormentors. In March 1999, Paul Bérenger wrote an article in honor of Sahadeo in l?express as a way of thanking him posthumously for his noble act on behalf of the MMM during the darkest period in that political party?s history.
In 1977, Sahadeo went to visit Dr Curé, his dear old friend, when the latter was on his deathbed. Several months later, on Monday, 23rd October 1978, Pandit Sahadeo passed away and two days later, he was cremated at Phoenix Cemetery where around 300 individuals were present. In March 1999, an almost life-size statue of Pandit Sahadeo was unveiled near the bus terminal of Vacoas which, unfortunately, the Government of Mauritius still has not decreed national monument. Pandit Sahadeo or Dajee Rama should always be remembered for his struggle on behalf of the Mauritian workers, specially during the 1930s and 1940s, and for his important contribution in the making of modern Mauritius.
Satyendra PEERTHUM
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