Pahlad Ramsurrun a prolific writer

Pahlad Ramsurrun launched eight of his books written recently at one go. The ceremony took place at the Arya Sabha branch of Beau Bassin on Saturday 8 April 2017. The books, covering a large variety of subjects – analysis of the Mauritian society, poems, folk tales and of personalities, were launched at one go in presence of the vice-President of the Republic and other eminent personalities. News on Sunday presents the road covered by this prolific writer.

Pahlad Ramsurrun started his career as a writer in 1969 in a haphazard way – by taking part in two essay competitions, one organized by the Arya Sabha on the topic, ‘Arya Samaj in Mauritius’, and the other organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations of New Delhi on the topic – ‘Relations between your country and India'. The first one was meant for the Diamond Jubilee of Arya Samaj celebrated in 1970 in Mauritius. The other was organized by the ICIC to mark the Birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi. He won both competitions and the former event became the motivation of his first book “The Illustrated History of Arya Samaj in Mauritius”; while the other took him to New Delhi to receive the prize and where he joined the University of New Delhi for higher studies. His first trip to India with 30 copies of his first book was undoubtedly unusual and it was also a boon to his career as a budding writer. 

He graduated from the University of New Delhi in 1973 and the components of his study were Hindi, English, History and Political Science. His three years stay in New Delhi was very beneficial to him because while studying he wrote dozens of articles in several Indian newspapers. Besides, he acquainted himself with seasoned Indian writers and journalists, and this helped him enormously as a writer. 

The year 1987 was the most productive year for him as a successful author. In that year, he penned ten books on different subjects, and, in September, he went to India with all his manuscripts. He stayed in New Delhi and Ajmer, where his books got published by renowned publishers. He returned to Mauritius with five books published in December 1987. Raj Heeramun, the editor of ‘Swadesh’ was elated and wrote an article in his publication – “Five books of Pahlad Ramsurrun”. And he received two more books in January next and the books were released in February 1988, by Armoogum Parsuramen, then Minister of Education, in Beau Bassin Arya Samaj Mandir. During the course of the year, he received three new books from India and they were released in November 1988 in the same venue as above. Upon which Rajendra Arun had written an article- “Ten books of Pahlad Ramsurrun in a Year”.

Among the ten books, there were three dealing with the social, religious and cultural activities of Mauritians. And as from 1988, he joined the historians of this country with his first comprehensive book, “History of Mauritius” in Hindi, of some 250 pages. He launched five books and the magazine Indradhanush in 1996 and again the same number of books in 2003 and in 2009 respectively. Such achievements have been the motivating factor for Somdath Buckhory to write in a daily that ‘Pahlad Ramsurrun who released ten books at a go in a year is no doubt a record hardly to be broken by anybody in Mauritius.’ 

His first book in Hindi – “Mauritius ki Lok Kathayen”, (Folk tales of Mauritius) was published in 1974. The first visit of the Indian Prime Minister of India, Shrimati Indira Gandhi took place in 1970. Bacchoo Prasad Sinha, the Hindi Officer of the External Ministry of India, accompanied her. After the Prime Minister went back, Sinha stayed here to meet a few socio- cultural leaders. Pahlad was fortunate to meet him at a dinner at the residence of Pandit Mohunlal Mohith who introduced the two to each other. Coincidentally Sinha and Ramsurrun traveled from Mauritius to New Delhi in the same plane. And while studying there, Pahlad went to see him at his place where he was given a book of folk tales, which the latter had written. After reading it he realized that most of the stories in the book were from what he had listened from his mother in his childhood. When he told Sinha so, when returning the book, the latter told him to pen down all the stories he had listened from his mother. He will get a publisher for him.

Along with his graduate studies, he wrote those stories, which his mother had told him in his childhood, and before leaving India in 1973, at the end of his study, he handed the manuscript of the book- “Mauritius ki lok Kathayen”. It was published in 1974 by Rajpal and Sons of New Delhi.  When it came out of the press, several Indian and Mauritian intellectuals and authors bestowed praises upon the contents of the book. Not only this, the U. P. Government awarded a literary prize in 1975-76 on the book, and it was translated in German by Prof. Zatlaff of the Leipsig University. The book also attracted the notice of Prof. Barz of the National Australian University.

In the year 1987, while writing ten books, he evaluated the socio – cultural set up of the Indian community of Mauritius and found out that several Hindi enthusiasts who had dedicated their lives to the promotion of Hindi and Indian culture in Mauritius, have been left out by a certain establishment and to make amends to it, he decided to publish a literary magazine, and the first issue of ‘Indradhanush’ was published, of only 20 pages, and it was launched in 1988, together with the ten books.  From then onwards, special issues were published on the personalities associated with the promotion of Hindi and Indian culture, like Manilal Doctor, Pandit AtmaramVishwanath, J. N. Roy, Prof Ramprakash, S.M.Bhagat, Shrinivash Jugduth etc., exclusively in Hindi, until 1999. As from 2000, ‘Indradhanush’ is being published in three languages, Hindi, English and French, bearing in mind the complexities of the Mauritian society.  Up till now special issues of the trilingual magazine were edited on the following Mauritian poets, journalists and authors- Robert Edward Hart, Malcolm de Chazal, Leoville L’Homme, Dookhee Gungah, Marcel Cabon, Aunauth Beejadhur, Pandit Casinath Kistoe,  Mohunlal Mohith, John de Lingen, Prof Ram Prakash, Dayanandlall BasantRai and last year on Dr. Moonishwurlalll Chintamunnee.

The first three books of Pahlad Ramsurrun dealing with history of Mauritius were released in 1988. Since then he has enriched the subjects by editing the history books of Pandit Atmaram Vishwamath, who wrote History of Mauritius in Hindi in 1923, prior to our historians like August Toussaint, Aunauth Beejadhur and Dr. K. Hazareesingh in the first half of the 20th century. He also edited the history book of William Bolton Draper. 

‘Indian centenary celebration and its Hidden Facets’ is an exceptional history book on Indian Immigration. In the same vein, he edited the most coveted book – “SSR Battles for a Democratic Constitution of Mauritius”, which throws light on the constitutional development of Mauritius since its settlement by the colonial powers until 1947, the year when the British Government awarded the literary suffrage to Mauritius, and that the Constitution changed the configuration of our Legislative Council for ever.

Pahlad Ramsurrun is of the view that “up till now, Mauritian historians of various schools of thought have written history in a bit biased way for obvious reasons. To write a balanced and true history of Mauritius, it is necessary to have a sound knowledge of the diverse components of the Mauritian society. To do this, one has to study the books of former historians, and then write an integrated history of the Mauritian People in a subjective and objective way. To write history in such a way will entail a lot of research work in the field. Moreover, as it is a very sensitive issue to write the history of a country, one should not indulge in sensational analysis that may provoke the outrage of a component of society.”