Diaspora: Leadership and Enterprise - Overseas Indian

60Cover Story60© The Encyclopedia of the Indian DiasporaSir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, right, became the firstprime minister of independent Mauritius in 1968.(Below) Indian origin women holding placardsdemanding independence for Mauritius.they entered the political arena in a bigway and have dominated it ever since.A coalition of the Mauritian LabourParty (MLP) founded by Indians andCreoles, the Muslim Committee ofAction (CAM) of Sir Abdool RazackMohamed, and the IndependentForward Block (IFB) of Hindus wona majority in the 1967 election.Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, MLPleader and chief minister in the colonialgovernment, became the firstprime minister after independence in1968 and stayed on in the post until1982. In the 1970s, some Indian leadersjoined a new party, MouvementMilitant Mauricien (MMM) thatcame to power with AneroodJugnauth as Prime Minister andHarish Boodhoo as the Deputy PrimeMinister. Jugnauth later broke awayforming the Mouvement SocialisteMauricien (MSM), which became thegoverning party, with Jugnauth asPrime Minister while SirSeewoosagur subsequently becameGovernor-General. After his death,his son, Navin, took over MLP.Jugnauth was re-elected in 1991 whileNavin’s coalition won in 1995 and hebecame the Prime Minister.EASTERN AFRICAIn the East African countries ofKenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Indianshave traded on the coast since Biblicaltimes but moved inland right up toUganda after building the Ugandarailway at the turn of the last century.As craftsmen and shopkeepers, theseIndians, called Asians, were notallowed to own land. They foughtIn 1914, Indians formed the East African Indian National Congress, laterrenamed Kenya Indian Congress, to fight discrimination. The white Britishsettlers raised ‘the Indian Issue’ that the Indians contested. Trade unionist“Makhan Singh was jailed while Pio Game Pinto was assassinated.“against colour bar and for independence,were elected to parliament andserved as ministers, speakers of theparliament and even as judges.In Kenya, Asians formed politicalparties, started newspapers and magazinesand courted arrest in their freedomstruggle. In 1914, Indians formedthe East African Indian NationalCongress, later renamed Kenya IndianCongress, to fight discrimination. Thewhite British settlers raised ‘the IndianIssue’ that the Indians contested.Trade unionist Makhan Singh wasjailed while Pio Game Pinto was assassinated.When allowed representationin the Legislative Council, Asiansformed political parties like the KenyaFreedom Party. After Kenya’s independencein 1963, they dissolved thesepolitical parties and some wereappointed as judges and one of them,like C. Madan, even rose to becomethe chief justice.Kenya’s first vice president wasJoseph Murumbi, a half-Indian, thefirst Speaker was Dr. Fitz DeSouza, aGoan, and an assistant minister wasJan Mohammed, an Ismaili. Later,lawyer Krishan Gautama was electedas an MP but soon after, Asians leftthe political scene and instead usedeconomic clout to survive.Active in trade and industry, Indiansin Uganda supported that country’sindependence struggle. Asian leaders,such as Gurdial Singh and ShafiqArain, founded the Uganda ActionGroup in 1958 to change the directionof Asian involvement in East Africanpolitics. Following self-governmentin 1961, the group joined the UgandaPeople’s Congress, led by MiltonObote.After Uganda attained independencein 1962, Asians were unaffecteduntil the Africanisation policies in1970. Two years later, despot Idi Aminforced 75,000 Indians to leave within90 days. As honorary secretary of theAll Party Parliamentary Committeeon UK Citizenship, Praful Patelplayed a leading role in Britain to fightfor the rights of Uganda Asians andnearly defeated the government in theHouse of Lords. As a leading memberof the Uganda Resettlement Board,Patel helped them in re-settlement.Later, Uganda Asians prospered inBritain.Meanwhile, the Uganda Indianleaders assisted in bringing down IdiAmin. After Obote again becamePresident, Arain was appointedUgandan High Commissioner toBritain and Gurdial Singh to India. Incolonial times, former Kampala mayorSir Amar Nath Maini becameUganda’s minister for corporationsand regional communications. Afterindependence, Shafiq Arain, UPCspecially elected member, becameminister for East African telecommunications.In 1950s, Indians in Tanzaniafounded the Asian Association.Tanzanian Asians have been loyal tothe ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi(CCM) party. Asian freedom fightersstood by Julius Nyerere, and with thethen Tanganyika African NationalUnion (TANU) in its independencestruggle. After independence in 1961,Abdul Karim was the first speaker ofparliament; Amir Jamal becamefinance minister and Al Noor Kassum,minister for energy and minerals. Butgradually, Asians moved out of activepolitics.Zambia too has an Indian element.Elected on the Forum for Democracyand Development ticket in 2001,Dipak Patel, of Indian origin, is thecurrent minister for commerce, tradeand industry.THE CARIBBEANDr. Cheddi Jagan, the towering figureof Caribbean politics, struggled toliberate Guyana by founding thePeople’s Progressive Party. He foughtfor nearly 28 years for the restorationof democracy after that countryattained independence from Britishrule and became its first freely-electedpresident. The founder of the country’sfirst mass political movement,Jagan was the leading political figurein Guyana for over half a century.Bharrat Jagdeo is the current Presidentof Guyana.During the 1950-60s, Indians inTrinidad & Tobago founded thePeople’s Democratic Party, theUnited Democratic Party and theUnited Labour Front to fight forworkers’ rights. Basdeo Panday wonelections in 1995 with the UnitedNational Congress and went on tobecome the first Indian-origin primeminister of Trinidad and Tobago, laterserving as the leader of the opposition.Kamla Persad-Bissessar was swornin as the first woman attorney-generaland was later appointed as ministerof legal affairs, acting prime ministerand minister of education until 2006when she became the leader of theopposition. Linda Baboolal headedTrinidad’s House of Representativesand the Senate as well.In Suriname, Jagernath Lachmon,founder of the Hindoostaans-JavanesePolitieke Partij (which later becamethe Verenigde Hindostaanse Partij), isregarded as the most famous of allpolitical leaders of Indian origin inSuriname. Ram Sardjoe is the currentVice President of Suriname. In 1988,Ramsewak Shankar became the firstIndian origin president of Suriname.In Trinidad & Tobago, LindaBaboolal, left, is the President of theSenate while Kamla Persad-Bissessar isthe Leader of the Opposition.Cheddi Jagan, seen here being garlanded, wasthe first freely-elected president of Guyana.Today, his legacy is being carried forward byBharrat Jagdeo (inset).ASIAIndians arrived with the Britishwhen they established Singapore in1819. Later, Singapore was ruled bythe colonial Indian government fromCalcutta for almost 50 years in the19th century. Indian labourers andmerchants played a key role in the lastcentury in Singapore’s development.During World War II, under Japaneseoccupation, Singapore became a focusfor political and military struggles toliberate India from British rule. In1943, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bosearrived in Singapore and established a‘Free Government of India’ and gavethe clarion call of ‘Chalo Dilli’ or‘March to Delhi’ to his IndianNational Army. The campaign failed.After the war, Indians contributed tothe struggle for Singapore’s independencethat came in 1965.26PRAVASI BHARATIYA AUGUST 2007PRAVASI BHARATIYA AUGUST 2007 27