THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SOOKDEO BISSOONDOYAL

HIS WORK AS A MEMBER OF THE CABINET Some Members of the Cabinet grumbled secretly. A campaign was set on foot to cut short his stay among the Ministers.

Sookdeo saw that austerity could save the ministers. On being asked to give an example of austerity they gladly accepted to have their allowance reduced. This step was so popular that it brought the members of the cabinet closer to the people. Nevertheless, not all of them were happy. They looked upon the newcomer as a kill-joy.

He had agitated to have an Ombudsman appointed. It is worthy of note that the present Ombudsman is an ex- pupil of his.

In 1965 the country took giant strides.

The beginning of the year was less eventful than its end.

In January Sookdeo, together with five other ministers, visited India.

Among the names of the great Indians of modern India, the first one, Sookdeo and his brothers had heard of, was that of V.D Savarkar.

Manilal M. Doctor was leaving Mauritius broken-hearted as Eugene Laurent was to do later, when he left behind five copies of Savarkar’s Indian War of Independence, 1857. That was surely a gesture that would not have won Gandhiji’s approval! Practically every IndoMauritian who had a smattering of English went through it so that all five copies were torn to pieces. The three brothers had a tattered copy. Two of them read it out in turns and Sookdeo kept listening. In fact, the habit of reading our books had become so characteristic so far as the brothers were concerned that it is in this way that at La Route Chateau d’Eau which was then a neglected area of Tranquebar that was itself desolate, the brothers read or rather devoured Tolstoy’s War and Peace done into French.

Soodeo had the strong desire to know more about Savarkar. On meeting the great Indian in Bombay he spoke of Madanlal Dingra. Savarkar did not expect that a Mauritian would be