Mauritius is all set to celebrate on September 18 the 111th birth anniversary of the father of its nation, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. As part of the celebration, Mauritius is set to sign an exchange programme with a school in Bihar, the state where Sir Ramgoolam had his roots. In the 19th century, a large number of Girmitiya laborers from Bihar were sent as indentured laborers to serve in sugarcane and rubber plantations in Mauritius. Several generations later, the community went on to give the country its first prime minister in Ramgoolam, who had from 1961 to 1982 led the struggle to free his country from British rule.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Government School of Mauritius and a basic school in Bihar’s West Champaran district on the 15th of September. As a prelude to this exchange, a life-size statue of Sir Ramgoolam was installed in 2007 in Patna.