Fig 3: Young Seewoosagur Ramgoolam with his Mauritian university friends in London in 1932
(Source: GIS)
In 1921, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam travelled to London to study medicine at University College London. While training as a physician, he also attended lectures at the London School of Economics, where he encountered debates about democracy, freedom, and economic development. He was active among the Mauritian and Indian students in London and began his long writing career there.
During a visit to Paris, he befriended the French writers André Gide and André Malraux. Gide’s journey from sympathy for communism to rejection of it left a deep impression on the young Mauritian. Unlike many postcolonial leaders who would later embrace Marxism and who were deeply influenced by socialism, Fabianism, and the ideology of the British Labour Party. Seewoosagur Ramgoolam already understood the risks of ideology. In 1935, after 14 years in London, Dr. Seewoosagur Ramgoolam returned home—not only with his medical diplomas as a specialist but also with a political vision: justice, inclusion, and democratic participation.