Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Net Worth

Background and career

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (18 September 1900 – 15 December 1985), often known as SSR or Chacha ("uncle"), was a Mauritian physician and statesman who led Mauritius to independence from the United Kingdom. He was the colony's chief minister from 1961 and premier from 1964, the first prime minister of independent Mauritius from 1968 to 1982, and governor-general from 1983 until his death. He is widely known in Mauritius as the "Father of the Nation".

The son of an indentured labourer from Bihar, Ramgoolam was born in a village in eastern Mauritius. He studied medicine in London, where he joined the Fabian Society and Indian nationalist circles and met Mahatma Gandhi. After returning home in 1935 he became a leader of the Indo-Mauritian community, co-founded the newspaper Advance and was nominated to the colony's Council of Government in 1940. Elected to the Legislative Council in 1948, he became the leader of the Labour Party group in the council and, by 1958, of the party itself. He campaigned for universal suffrage and ministerial government, both of which Britain conceded in the late 1950s.

As chief minister and premier, Ramgoolam led the parties that sought independence at the Lancaster House conference of 1965. During the conference, after being told that Britain could separate the islands without Mauritian consent, he agreed to the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, which Britain made into the British Indian Ocean Territory. The detachment led to the expulsion of the islands' inhabitants between 1967 and 1973, a decision taken by the United Kingdom and the United States, not by Mauritius. Opponents, and some of the displaced Chagossians, long accused Ramgoolam of trading the islands for independence. British records later showed that Britain was prepared to detach them regardless, and in 2019 the International Court of Justice found that the detachment had not been based on the free and genuine will of the people of Mauritius. His Independence Party won the 1967 election, and Mauritius became independent on 12 March 1968.

As prime minister, Ramgoolam governed through coalitions, including one with his former opponents in the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate. His governments built a welfare state, introduced free secondary education and promoted the export processing zones that began the diversification of the sugar economy. They also ruled under a state of emergency from 1971 to 1976 to contain strikes led by the Mauritian Militant Movement. He signed the Lomé Convention, which guaranteed a European market for Mauritian sugar, and was chairman of the Organisation of African Unity in 1976–1977. After losing his seat in the 1982 election he became governor-general, and he died in office in 1985. The country's main airport and the botanic garden at Pamplemousses are named after him, and his likeness appears on Mauritian coins and banknotes. His son Navin Ramgoolam has served three terms as prime minister.