Commemorating 117th birth anniversary of Prof. Basdeo Bissoondoyal (“Pundit Vasudev Visnhnudayal”), the 15th of April will (henceforth) be celebrated as Basdeo Jayanti as a humble tribute to this eminent personality. A series of cultural events will be organized in some of his well-frequented villages where he used to preach and deliver sermons. Professor Bissoondoyal played a pivotal role in the Mauritian Cultural Renaissance and is renowned for his numerous literary and social accomplishments. A man so highly influenced by both Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, a chemistry of ideas could be said to have perpetuated between the late professor and the polymath, though not born at the same age and time. 
Professor Bissoondoyal was a gem of a person in every aspect. He was well-educated, highly cultivated, a bearer of extensive and varied information, and of course, very studious. He would spend a considerable amount of his time in the patient and persistent perusing of a great number of very rare and old books and manuscripts; often deciphering, translating or rewriting them. Pundit, as he was often called, he always seemed to be at home with any and every topic coming up in a conversation. Quite in nature but at the same time a very genial and very interesting member of the family, he commanded notice and respect from everyone – such was his aura that very few found its acquaintance, and no one would even presume to question as to whence he came, why he tarried, or whither he journeyed.
The professor was a man of few needs. Akin to the great Mahatma, he too seemed to believe in the adage “simplicity is the best policy.” His usual day-to-day attire will be a well-fitted dhoti-kurta, but of course, of the best quality. He ate no meat and drank no wine. Despite his age, his face was devoid of wrinkles, and he was free from any physical infirmity. The grace and dignity that characterized his conduct, together with his perfect control of every situation, attested to the innate refinement and culture of one “to the manner born”. This remarkable person also had the surprising and impressive ability to capture even the most minute of details, and also to predict the question of his inquisitors before they were even asked.
Professor Bissoondoyal was always known to keep an open mind about things and bore a sense of wonder and awe about life and the universe itself. He seldom held any dogmatic notion in any matter, and never sided with anything political. This was probably because he was intuitively aware that there are various shades to an issue and that the truth lies somewhere in between – a hallmark trait only a philosopher and a reformer could be expected to exhibit. In his essays he can be seen projecting a view of life with its roots ingrained in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Ancient Indian epics such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas have also been reproduced by him with new subjective turns and a rational spirit in an attempt to pack the old wisdom in a new bottle of myth of the world.
“Freedom of mind”
When it came to Professor Bissoondoyal, it could be safe to say that most of his time was spent in prachar. Quite often he visited Lalmatie (from where I hail) and coincidentally his sermons were held where I now stay. One of his disciples even told me that he used to go house-to-house and make people learn to sign so that they had the power to vote. That being said, Punditji was also of the opinion that regardless of the need, learning English would in fact open up many vistas into the riches of all the poetical literatures of the world. In my view what makes Basdeo’s argument even more significant is his ability to clearly distinguishing between the injustice caused by a serious asymmetry of power (colonialism being a prime example) and the importance nevertheless of appraising Western culture in an open-minded way, in colonial and postcolonial territories, in order to see what use could be made of it. He wanted Indians to learn what is going on elsewhere, how others live, what they value, and so on, all the while remaining interested and involved in their own culture and heritage. In fact, in his educational writings, the need for synthesis is strongly stressed in his uncompromising belief in the importance of “freedom of mind”, and his conviction that the expansion of basic education is central to social progress (the source of his praise, particularly in contrast to British-run India). He identifies the lack of basic education as the fundamental cause of many of India’s social and economic afflictions.
He started a Jan Andolan (“community movement”) to get together and through this process he was able to educate the illiterate so that they can become independent. He was someone who through his Andolan was able to make people vote for a democratic state. Hope politicians would pay a reverence to this great soul who empowered people.
To the beautiful, perfect world that God has created, Basdeo Bissoondoyal made his contribution in his own cordial ways. He did his duty towards God and mankind without any desire for accolades. His yearning was not to earn a petty name or fame for himself but to proliferate the fragrance of humanity, with passion but without anyone noticing, just the way God and nature perform their tasks. He carried no aspiration, neither did he desire for a knighthood by the British queen – no badge or reward ever appealed to him either. He was content with his humble title of Professor and even smiled from ear to ear when someone called him Pundit ji, just like they did with Pandit Nehru, Tagore gurudev and Gandhi ji. He often said that wisdom is a weapon we should all yield to ward off destruction; that it is a fortress which our enemies can never conquer.
At the very outset, I wrote about a cultural event and would like to refer to Arjun Appadurai’s opinion that it is in the culture that ideas of the future are embedded and nurtured, and it is by developing what he calls the ‘capacity to aspire’ that individuals and groups may find the resources to address questions of poverty and development – as culture is the product of long-run historical trajectories and interconnections.