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Mauritius: A Tribute to Beekrumsingh Ramlallah (1915-2000)
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L'Express (Port Louis)
31 October 2007
Posted to the web 31 October 2007
Philip Li Ching Hum
Port Louis
The annual celebration at Aapravasi Ghat bears the indelible imprints of Beekrumsingh Ramlallah - a name to be remembered in our history.
With relentless efforts, he has weathered many a storm to make this dilapidated Immigration Square into a World Heritage site. He fathered the rehabilitation work on Aapravasi Ghat through his sensitisation campaign on heritage conservation. The visit of Indira Gandhi on 6th June 1970 upon his persuasion gave a new impetus to his dream. His efforts were crowned with success when last year the UNESCO proclaimed it as a World Historic site. The spirit of Beekrumsingh Ramlallah still hovers over the place with his blessings while the footsteps of the multifarious unknown coolies through the portals for better pasture resound in our ears. It was a long campaign initiated by Ramlallah and sweet are the rewards.
Born on September 1915 at Long Mountain, he struggled hard to make a living amidst abject poverty and squalor. His mother passed away when he was still young. His forebears hailed from Shivpur, in India and were shipped to Mauritiusin 1887. They first settled in Moka where his father was born. From rags to riches, the Ramlallah gradually carved out a place under the sun. He was educated at Champ de Lort Government School and became a self-made man.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Ramlallah was coerced to serve in Mauritius Regiment but he refused and was court-martialled. He then started his career as a primary school teacher at Triolet in 1937.
Long Mountain has moulded his character and his association with Das, Ramlall and Sooroj Bhagat has budded into his youthful mind the idea of the establishment of a bookshop at a difficult time. Nalanda Bookshop against all odds came into existence. It became a temple of knowledge for the generations to come. Ramlallah has inculcated in the youth the reading habit and he has shown them the road to success through education.
After 16 years, Ramlallah abandoned chalk and talk for his pen. He embraced journalism in 1954 with the launching of "Mauritius Times" and he crossed swords with "Le Cerneen" to denounce injustices. He became the voice of the voiceless. The battle was fierce and the sugar oligarchy meted out ways and means to asphyxiate his writings. But his paper stood the test of time.
Again in 1984 Ramlallah played a major role in the political and social arena. In spite of old age creeping upon him, he stood out from the blue and took to the street to defend the liberty of the press when the survival of newspapers was threatened with the amendment to Newspapers and Periodicals Act (1984) to bring compulsory a deposit of Rs 500,000 as security to be made by all newspapers. The Mauritius Union of Journalists, founded in 1983 by Ramlallah reacted fiercely. He and 43 journalists was arrested in front of the Government House. The Comite Nationale de Presse signed a petition which turned out into a historical document. The regime backpedalled after mounting pressure.
Ramlallah was a torch-bearer of liberty. He became Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary at the ministry of Health and later in that of Commerce & Industry. He was of another breed, a man to serve the downtrodden without seeking recognition. He assumed the garb of "instructor, the educator and the moulder of the public opinion". He undertook two nation-wide campaigns : "Admit our Children" (1955) and "Down with Proportional Representation" (1956) and this has paved the way to a better Mauritius.
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Bekrumsingh Ramlallah demised on 12 September 2000 at the age of 85. He stood out as a patriot who has served the country and his life story will always outshine into the firmament of stars as an inspiration to the generations to come.
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