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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON JAYNARAIN ROY PDF

116 Pages·2005·0.23 MB·English
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Preview BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON JAYNARAIN ROY

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON JAYNARAIN ROY (1908 – 1986) 1. Foreword The task of compiling biographical notes on Jay Narain Roy proved to be an exhilarating and intellectually stimulating exercise. It was clear from the outset that his multi-faceted achievements as a writer, a columnist, a peerless political leader, an educationist, a trade unionist, a social activist, a social activist, a torchbearer of Hindi, a potent scribe of the struggle for independence, a relentless voice for the downtrodden, an innovative thinker tirelessly contributing definitive ideas to fashion Mauritius into a better society for one and all would be no easy venture. The intellectual giant and uncompromising patriot who unfolded from research inducted a sense of urgency to the work in order to bring to light the life and deeds of such a distinguished son of soil. It is impossible to summarize such a key figure of our struggle for freedom from the trappings of intolerant colonial rule into such a succinct document. The object is therefore to shed light on his background, his unique intellect, the environment and events which fashioned him and on some of his determinant achievements. The singular trait of Jay Narain Roys’s life is that most of his initiatives and actions have been recorded in his prolific public writings spanning six decades as well as in numerous articles by a wide cross-section of his contemporaries. These biographical notes have been built from these writings, newspaper articles, research, testimonies of his contemporaries and personal notes of Jay Narain Roy and his spouse Roheenee Roy. 2. Background It is in 1857, which Indian historians call the year of the first Indian Revolution that Jay Narain Roy’s grand-father Nawabsing Roy came to Mauritius. He was a hefty man, a professional wrestler and a formidable adept of the Indian art of fighting with a nine-foot stick. He was immediately employed on his arrival as watchman of the Treasury of Belle Rive Estate. His stentorian voice was heard throughout the labour camp at dawn when he shouted the morning call for the labourers to awake. In those days, the estates kept huge amounts of money at their Treasury to pay the workers and cover their expenses for several months as the banks were located only in Port Louis. Furthermore, the poor means of communications heightened the risk of encountering thieves during money transfers. Nawabsing Roy was literate and read the religious scriptures regularly. He was a pious man never missing his daily meditation and prayers in particular to his favourite deity Hanooman. He inculcated in Jay Narain Roy’s father Ramlallsing Roy and through him in the succeeding generations the habit of prayers and a deep sense of piety. Ramlallsing Roy, the father of Jay Narain Roy was a leading figure. He was a voracious reader and an expert on the Ramayana and the Bhagvad Gita. He was also the President of the Hindi Society, the Hindi School, the Head of the Panchayat (Village Court) of his village and the Head of a Round Table type of society set up to uphold morality and fight against the sexual harassment and abuses of the managerial staff of the estate. Appropriate punishment was meted out by his Round Table to chasten wrongdoers. Ramlallsingh Roy and through him in the succeeding generations the habit of prayers and a deep sense of piety. Ramlallsing Roy, the father of Jay Narain Roy was a leading figure. He was a voracious reader and an expert on the Ramayana and the Bhagwad Gita. He was also the President of the Hindi Society, the Hindi School, the Head of the Panchayat (Village Court) of his village and the Head of a Round Table type of society set up to uphold morality and fight against the sexual harassment and abuses of the managerial staff of the estate. Appropriate punishment was meted out by his Round Table to chasten wrongdoers. Ramlallsing Roy’s reputation for equity and justice was such that he was regularly called upon to settle difficult issues in other Panchayats across the island. Moreover, the trust in Ramlallsing Roy was so absolute that the villagers left their gold jewels and savings with him for safekeeping. Ramlallsing Roy not only subscribed numerous magazines and newspapers from all over India but also regularly received personalities, scholars and eminent religious dignitaries from the sub-continent who stayed for months on end at his place in a specially furnished guest house whose amenities included a well-equipped library and musical instruments. During the election of 1921, in spite of the pressure brought on Ramalallsing Roy by the Estate as he was one of the two Indo-Mauritian electors of the District, he stood his way and figured prominently in the election campaign of R. Gajadhur who opposed a candidate from the sugar oligarchy. When Ramlallsing Roy passed away, the Estate had to decree a day’s holiday to allow the whole community to pay their respects. Jay Narain Roy’s mother Caleesaree Roy who played a major role among the womenfolk of the village had a reputation as a children’s “doctor” and a “veterinary”. When a cattle was languishing or any child was ill, people would run to her for advice. She always kept a stock of herbal and other medicines. Moreover, when a mother would die while giving birth to a child and the father unable to look after the baby, she would adopt the child. Jay Narain Roy thus had a number of adopted brothers and sisters. Jay Narain Roy was born on 8 September 1908 in Beau Champ. Since an early age, he showed multi-faceted qualities remarkable for one so young. He thus participated in several dramas staged by the members of the Hindi Society including one that became very popular entitled “Indar Sabha” which inspired from the stories of Indra, the God of Heaven in the epic Mahabharata. He was also the President of the Youth Club of his village and when the Temple’s priest was seriously injured, he replaced him for more than a year reciting prayers in the temple every morning and evening. Jay Narain Roy knitted an intimate relationship with his father who was also his mentor. Thus, he developed since his young days a strong interest in Indian Culture, India and the political struggle being waged there. 3. His Education 3.1 Education in Mauritius At the beginning of the last century, apart from those who lived in the neighbourhood of school, people all over the country were unwilling to send their children to school, especially alone, because there was the scare of bugbears, thieves or witches. To try to remedy this situation, the Government offered a capitation fee of Rs1 per pupil to Head Teachers who could prevail upon parents to enroll their children. So when Jay Narain Roy reached the school going age, his father anxious to start his formal education invited the Head Teacher of the nearest school to speak to the parents of his village. Thus twelve children were persuaded to go to school from his village and they walked to and back from school together everyday. He did his primary education at Grand River South East Government School as from 1913 where he was awarded many prizes as he always stood first. After his sixth standard which he passed at the age of 11, he attended St Jean Baptiste de la Salle Government School in Port Louis where he passed the Senior Scholarship examination. Immediately afterwards he took the Monitor’s Certificate knows as the Fourth class Teacher’s Certificate and became a volunteer teacher. 3.2 Education in India He left Mauritius for India on 4 December 1925 on board the Sirsa at the age of seventeen. He met Anquetil for the first time on the same ship. Anquetil was on his way to Australia via India where he was an artisan and a trade unionist. On board there was also Ooma Shunkur Geerjanand who became his most intimate friend and later one of his closest collaborators in the Hindi Pracharini Sabha, Metha Jaimini, an Indian Vedic Scholar, who had come to Mauritius in the context of Swami Dayanand’s birth centenary celebration to supervise the publication of a special issue of the “Mauritius Arya Patrika” in 1925 and who was his guardian aboard the vessel as well as Pandit Banshiram who had come to advise the Sanatan Dharma organization. Since his childhood, Jay Narain Roy had been deeply influenced through his father and his readings and as a consequence he had always wished to participate in one of Congress’ Annual Sessions. Thus, as soon as he reached India, he went straight to Kanpur to attend the 40th session of the Indian National Congress which was being held from 26 December to 29 December 1925 in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi and under the chairmanship of Sarojini Naidu who was after Annie Besant the second woman to be President of the Congress. He was introduced to many Indian political stalwarts on the very first day of the Congress Session by Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya who was corresponding with his father and by Pandit Benarsidas Chaturvedi with whom he had been in correspondence since he was a little boy. Kanpur was then the great industrial centre of North India. He described his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi as follows: “I caught his feet by way of salutation and asked him if he still remembered his visit to Mauritius. He was very delighted and asked me to meet him which I did.” He passed his Matriculation from the City Anglo Vernacular School of Allhabad under the tutelage of Pandit Madan Malaviya, the founder of Benares University (later renamed Varanasi University). Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was one of the key figures of the independence movement of India and among India’s greatest orators who once spoke at a stretch for seven hours in the Indian Parliament. Jay Narain Roy passed his Intermediate at the Government Intermediate College (GIC) of Allahabad where he launched and was the Editor of a hand-written monthly magazine called GIC Monthly. He joined the Allahabad University in 1930. The choice of Allahabad was deliberate. Allahabad was in those days a very important centre of learning, the dwelling of the Nehrus which was 300 yards from the University, the very hub of politics and the hive of revolutionary ideas as the Headquarters of the Indian National Congress was located in the “Anand Bhawan”, the large mansion donated by Pandit Motilal Nehru, which became known as the “Swaraj Bhawan”. Allahabad was also the Headquarters of the Red Republican Army of India whose cammander-in-chief was no less than Chandrashekar Azad and which had inspired patriots such as Khudiram Bose, Aurobindo Ghose and Bhagat Singh. It was also the Headquarters of the Liberal Party which was founded in 1918 as an offshoot of Congress, the Headquarters of Hindu Pilgrimages as Triveni, the meeting place of the sacred rivers Ganga, Jumna and Saraswati, is located there. The Headquarters of the Hindu Maha Sabha was also situated there. Emperor Ashoka had fixed one of his pillars in Allahabad. The University was reputed for its famous scholars most of whom were either Oxford or Cambridge qualified. Among them were the Vice- Chancellor Dr Ganganath Jha, M.A., Ph.D., D.C.L., LL.D., D.Sc. a Sanskrit scholar who had been awarded the titles Mahamahoupadhyaya and Vidyasagar by the Government of his erudition, Dr R. D. Ranade, the philosopher and one of the stalwarts of India, Professor Meghnad Saha, a pioneer in Astrophysics and one of the first Fellow of the Royal Society in India (FRS), Dr Nil Ratan Dhar, a Chemistry scholar and Consultant of the Government of India, Dr Beni Prasad, the Political Science specialist, Dr Raghupati Sahay, an English Literature specialist and one of India’s greatest Urdu poet under the pseudonym Firaq Gorakhpuri, Dr Shafaat Ahmed Khan, historian who was later knighted was the originator of the Pakistan Movement and gave the idea of Pakistan to Mr M.A. Jinnah who became its first President, Dr Amarnath Jha, English Scholar, Dr Bagchi, law specialist and another stalwart and Dr A. C. Acharya a well-known Sanskrit scholar. In the Indian National Congress Committees, the students of the Allahabad University could volunteer to assist the leaders and help in organizing the various activities of Congress. Jay Narain Roy volunteered instantly. Whie serving as a volunteer he became close to the Mahatma and thus realized one of his dearest dreams, that is to have the golden opportunity to listen to him, to learn from him and to find inspiration in his messages, thoughts and teachings. This also allowed him to listen to the other front-line personalities of the freedom movement such as Jawaharlall Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarojini Naidu, Bhalubhai Desai and S. Satyamurti. He therefore became more and more involved in the activities of the Indian National Congress and developed personal relations and close ties with many of its leaders. He was so attracted by the Mahama’s ideals and charisma that on one occasion he cycled with two other students from Allahabad to Benares, 189 miles away to meet him. The feat was reported in the newspapers. Thus Jay Narain Roy regularly met Mahatma Gandhi who became his guru and for whom he developed a unique admiration and reverence and who marked him for the rest of his life. No wonder this is what he said about Gandhiji in one of his writings:”I have known this man who made history, from close quarters. He was like Krishna: a child among children, a philosopher among thinkers, a statesman among politicians and a visionary among the great builders. To have obtained independence for hundreds of millions through non-violence is one of the great events of the history.” Describing the unique impact of Gandhi on the people of India he wrote: “When Mahatma Gandhi appealed for action, the whole country including towns and villages responded. When he was imprisoned, our hostel servants would ask permission to go to prison. The number of persons offering themselves for arrest always exceeded those who were arrested. There followed a general boycott of foreign goods, schools and Universities. When he appealed for funds, all the ladies gave away their jewels. Then he would auction the jewels. People would give more money than the worth of these jewels.” On 31 January 1948 after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, he wrote in an editorial in “Advance” “Bapu is no more. The father, philosopher and guide has gone to his rest. He who as the leader of our leaders, the solace of our tears, the hope of our millions, the pride of our race, the rallying point of the nation and the pure flame in a flickering world, will be reduced to ashes within a few hours….. With the death of Mahatma Gandhi, a whole chapter in world history has come to a close. An epoch has passed away. It was an epoch of miracles. It was the miracle of a man who, although not born among the highest castes in a conservative India had risen to claim its first reverence; of a human skeleton blowing life and strength into the soul of four hundred million Indians; of a frail, little creature who became as Truman said: “a giant among men”; of one capturing human hearts by surrendering all his worldly possessions; of one who made his life an experiment with truth in a distorted world of diplomacy akin to perfidy; of having declared was on the mighty British Empire with the weapon of non- violence; of being the dictator of the Congress without being even a simple member and of dying to preserve a nation… The pure flame will flood its light and we shall awaken to the necessity of truth as the only bulwark of peace in the world. Then we shall say: When there was a decay of righteousness you had come to lead us into light, but we were too much engrossed with other matters and we allowed you to die… It is the handful of people like those who lend the shine to this drab life and make living worthwhile. Their death resurrects, ennobles, illumines so as to make us exclaim: O death, where is thy victory? Where is thy sting?” Jay Narain Roy paid regular visits to the “Swaraj Bhawan”, the headquarters of the Indian National Congress. He also knew Jawaharlall Nehru intimately who he wrote “occupied a unique place in the galaxy of Allahabad. Nehru was both a speaker and a writer, the type of a philosopher, like a King

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covering the period 1937 to 1975 illustrate his unstinted crusade to further out in his writings at an early stage, in fact in his poem “Abhilasha” or.
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