Obituary - Ram Seegobin: Unanimous Tribute to a Man of Convictions

Image: Founder of the Lalit Party, this dedicated doctor represented radical and critical leftist ideals for over forty years. He passed away on Wednesday at the age of 84.Dr. Ram Seegobin died on Wednesday, January 28. With his passing, one of the most unique voices in Mauritian political life is lost, that of a leftist intellectual who maintained a stance of radical critique of the island's economic and political system for over four decades.After parting ways with the Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM), Ram Seegobin founded the Lalit Party in 1982, embodying an uncompromising left, grounded in Marxist analysis and unwavering commitment. A keen observer of the country’s socio-economic realities, he regularly engaged in public debate, dissecting government policies and social crises. His written contributions, on the Lalit Mauritius website and in various media, demonstrated a structured thought process and ideological coherence that even his opponents acknowledged.However, Ram Seegobin was not just a theorist. Arriving in Mauritius in 1974 with his wife, South African writer Lindsey Collen – whom he met in London and married in 1973 – he settled in Bambous, in the west of the island. There, he put his convictions into practice by establishing a unique health cooperative: the "Bambous Health Project," an association managed and funded by the villagers themselves, starting in February 1975.For twenty-five years, he worked as a doctor, renting a consultation room from a local family and organizing health education sessions under mango trees. This experience in community medicine illustrated his view of political engagement: grounded in reality, serving the less privileged."A fighter has left us," said Alain Ah-Vee, a member of Lalit, on Wednesday. "He was in meetings as long as he could. He fought until the end." This loyalty to his ideals commands respect, even from his political adversaries today.Rajesh Bhagwan, Secretary General of the MMM – the party Seegobin had left over forty years ago – paid tribute to his memory: "Ram contributed significantly before 1982 and politically after that, with his reflections and analyses. We certainly had differences but with mutual respect."Political observer Lindsay Rivière summarized this shared sentiment: "This is a significant loss for the country in terms of political thought. I didn’t always agree with his views, but he was a man who was always very sincere in his commitments." Former minister Steven Obeegadoo added: "He was what a militant should be: a person with convictions who lived them with passion and integrity."Beyond partisan divides, it is this coherence between thought and action that today seems to unify the memory of Ram Seegobin, brother of former MP Vidula Nababsing, and a figure of a now marginal Mauritian left that made its mark in its time.