BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON JAYNARAIN ROY

116 Pages·2005·0.23 MB·English

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