{"id":3134,"date":"2014-10-17T07:20:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T07:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2014\/10\/17\/mt-60-years-8\/"},"modified":"2018-05-28T12:46:55","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T08:46:55","slug":"mt-60-years-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/mt-60-years-8\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tribulations and Aberrations of Monsieur Noel Marrier d\u2019Unienville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mauritius Times 60 Years\u00a0 Ago – 1st YEAR No. 10 –\u00a0<\/span>SATURDAY –\u00a0<\/span>16th October 1954<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Being unable to substantiate his vague and false allegations, Mr Noel Marrier d\u2019Unienville, Director of the CERNEEN and editor of an anonymous bulletin, the C.I.D.I. in order to save his face cowardly slanders and ridicules the NALANDA Co. Ltd, because their printing press prints the Mauritius Times \u2013 the paper which is throwing cold water over his malicious, false and subversive campaign, Mr N.M.U. has been repeatedly reminded that the NALANDA Co Ltd is not responsible for the policy and views of the Mauritius Times just as the General Printing and Stationery Ltd, cannot be held responsible for the distorted news conveyed through the bulletin of the C.I.D.I which is printed by them. But Mr N.M.U appears to be invulnerable to reason. No amount of sound argument would convince our Mauritian <\/span>Dan Quixote. Coup bas!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stop Feudal Thinking Mr NMU!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Be Jove! Who has given him the \u201ccredentials\u201d to question the activities of Indians and Indo-Mauritian firms? Who is Mr N.M.U to order the Nalanda Co Ltd, to state its aim under the threat of: <\/span>\u201csi elle (librairie Nalanda) veut que nous la laissons en paix, qu\u2019elle d\u00e9montre au public la purit\u00e9 de ses desseins de fa\u00e7on satisfaisante et en des termes aussi clair\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong> (vide Cern\u00e9en of 23.09.54). We doubt that the meanest Indo-Mauritian would have uttered such threat against a white business concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr N.M.U has returned to Mauritius after 20 years. Living actually in the \u2018entourage\u2019 of the \u2018beau monde\u2019 it seems he has not been able to take stock of the progress made by different communities during his long absence.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Indo-Mauritian he still sees the \u2018malabar coolie\u2019 which the white colon of old contemptuously called our grand parents. The World is moving faster than Mr N.M.U!<\/span><\/p>\n

Hitler\u2019s Weapon Borrowed by Mr N.M.U!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When argument fails, Mr N.M.U in the Hitlerite fashion deliberately ridicules, derides, mocks and nicknames his opponents. Hitler describes his method in Mein Kampf: \u201cToute propaganda doit \u00e9tablir son niveau intellectual d\u2019apr\u00e8s la capacit\u00e9 de comprehension du plus born\u00e9 parmi ceux auxquels elle s\u2019adresse. Son niveau intellectuel sera donc d\u2019autant plus bas que la masse d\u2019homme \u00e0 convaincre sera plus grande.\u201d Faithful to the above directive, Hitler set the example himself. His eloquence was marked by derision, vile jest and abuse. Churchill was called by him and by Goebbels: paralytic, drunkard, idiot, insane, driveller, lazybone, liar, Erostrate, etc. Has not Mr N.M.U. in the Hitlerite fashion derided Mr A. Masson, the only white man who had the courage to oppose and crush his nefarious policy, by nicknaming him Mootoomasson, Dr Ramgoolam is called Dr Croupion, Dr Ramgoolamsky, Dr Ramjagan, Mr Seeneevassen: colcott\u00e9, Mr Beejadhur: Marquis de Beejadherry; Mr Rozemont: Insoluble Dans l\u2019Alcool\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

(Excerpts)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

OUR LANGUAGE PROBLEM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mauritius has been rightly called the \u201ccarrefour de races\u2019\u2019. Each of the several races which constitute the Mauritian population has its own particular virtues, beliefs and prejudices. Each must live and let others live. In our plural society a proselytizing attitude adopted by any community will, we fear, be injurious to our welfare. Unless we settle our various problems, peacefully as civilized people we will not be able to build a strong Mauritian nation. To reach our goal it is imperative to foster mutual trust and respect for the opinions, language, culture and religion of our neighbours. One of the most important and thorny issues which is bound to create confusion and misunderstanding is our language problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding foreigners through language<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the civilised world there is a marked interest in the study of foreign languages; nearly all great universities have a special department responsible for foreign languages. Recently the Rockfeller Foundation granted about 80,000 dollars (Rs 350,000) to the Deccan College – Post Graduate and Research Institute, India. This was done in the spirit that \u201cone of the most effective ways of understanding a country\u2019s thinking and culture is through study of its literature and Press\u2026\u201d Everywhere, while there is an urge to understand foreigners, while there is a sincere desire to study and to appreciate foreign literatures, while there is a marked interest in the study of comparative religion, which the great thinkers want to unify that whole human race in one great family, in Mauritius there is an inclination to rouse communal hatred, there is a decided tendency to ridicule and to sneer at the language, national dress and even the religion of life-long neighbours who have been relentlessly contributing in a very great measure to the advancement of the country as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Royal Commission Recommendation abandoned<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Every community which has settled in Mauritius wants to learn and to speak its own mother tongue. In order to satisfy all sections of the population it is Government\u2019s duty to see that each community is given equal opportunity to learn its own mother tongue and that a foreign language is not imposed upon it. It is always repeated that French is the mother tongue of the Mauritians. But is it a fact that French is the mother tongue of the Mauritians? Do all the Muslims or the Chinese or the Hindus speak French in their homes or at their social functions? No doubt French is the mother tongue of a part of the population; but it is not the mother tongue of the WHOLE population. And so it shouldn\u2019t be imposed any more on those who don\u2019t want to learn it.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as in 1850, it was suggested by East India Company that \u201cthe children of Indian immigrants could not be forced to learn a language which was foreign to them\u201d. Later it was intended to secure the services of Indian teachers from India, but the project met with opposition and was abandoned. Again in 1909 the Royal Commission recommended that \u201can Indian dialect may be substituted for either English or French, and the teachers must be able to speak and write at least one Indian language.\u201d But still the recommendation met the same fate as its predecessor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foreign Languages imposed on subject races<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Muslims, Hindus and Chinese students love French; it is a very rich language. They are learning it as much as their mother tongue. But why use compulsion? Is there an example in a civilized country where, besides the official language, the language of the minority is imposed upon the majority?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Franco-Mauritians and the coloured population have every reason to love and to prize French which is their mother tongue. The Hindus, the Muslim and the Chinese are equally right and they have similar reasons to learn and to speak their tongue. Is it logical that Hindi or Urdu or Chinese be imposed upon non-Indians or non-Chinese?<\/span><\/p>\n

Says Justice Sir John Woodroff: \u201cA people who abandon or who are compelled to abandon their language for that of another lose themselves\u2026 for these reasons dominant peoples have sought to impose their language on subject races as the completion of their conquest.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Provided the Indo-Mauritians or the Chinese are considered subject races or intruders in this colony, we don\u2019t think the Government is justified to impose the French language any more upon those who don\u2019t want it.<\/span><\/p>\n

K.R.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

* * *<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

ADVANCE \u2013 A HINDU PAPER?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A revelation of Mr NMU<\/span><\/p>\n

The CIDI writes: \u2018There are three daily papers in Mauritius printed in French, all of which have approximately equal circulation\u2026 Advance is <\/span>the paper of the Hindus and those who are inclined to left wing politics other than Hindus. (Italics are ours)<\/em><\/p>\n

OUR COMMENTS: It is now quite clear that Mr NMU and his colleagues who are editing and publishing the bulletin are blinded by their eagerness to calumniate the Hindus. It is no secret that ADVANCE is an Indo Mauritian paper and not a Hindu paper. Hon A. R. Mohamed is one of the big Muslim shareholders and a director of the Mauritius Free Press Service Ltd. We understand that more than one third of the shares belong to the Muslims. As the shareholders of Advance are only Hindus and Muslims, when the CIDI says \u201cthose who are inclined to left wing politics other than Hindus\u201d, does he mean that the Muslim shareholders are inclined to left wing politics?<\/span><\/p>\n

Still Mr NMU has the guts to say that \u201cla force du bulletin\u2026 se trouve dans son scrupuleux respect pour la v\u00e9rit\u00e9 \u00bb !<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Published in print edition on 17 October 2014<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mauritius Times 60 Years\u00a0 Ago – 1st YEAR No. 10 –\u00a0SATURDAY –\u00a016th October 1954<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[10527,10523,9869,10521,79,10522,4291,10526,36,739,10519,10520,10518,77,80,10524,10525,4628,4630],"class_list":["post-3134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-advance-paper","tag-beejadhur","tag-c-i-d-i","tag-dr-croupion","tag-dr-ramgoolam","tag-dr-ramjagan","tag-indo-mauritian","tag-mauritius-free-press-service-ltd","tag-mauritius-times","tag-mauritius-times-60-years-ago","tag-mein-kampf","tag-mootoomasson","tag-nalanda-co-ltd","tag-nmu","tag-noel-marrier-dunienville","tag-rockfeller-foundation","tag-royal-commission-recommendation","tag-rozemont","tag-seeneevassen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-Oy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}