Life in Greater India (An Old and Rare Book)

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Prof. Basdeo Bissoondoyal is an in eminent author, who was born in South Mauritius on April 15, 1906.

The Allahabad Hindi Sahitya Sammelan conferred the much coveted distinction of Sahitya Vachaspati on him in 1969. Cultures, a Unesco publication, speaks about him in terms of high praise.

Writing for the Illustrated Weekly of India, Bal Ghanshyam makes the right estimate of this eminent Mauritian when he states: "In Basdeo Bissoondoyal, Mauritius has a writer of international fame."

When in Mauritius, world-famous scholars make it a point to spend an hour or two with him. In may 1975 he received the visit of Prof. J. Filliozat, the French Indologist of note and in July that of the late Dr. V. Raghavan, the great Sanskrit scholar of modern India. Jayendra Kumar was much pleased after having a long conversation with him.

He has a number of important books to his credit chief amongst which are Hindu Scriptures, Les Hindous, India in World Literature, India in French Literature (Luzac & Co., London), and Mahatma Gandhi: A New Approach.

This autobiography of B. Bissoondoyal is in reality the story of the struggle of people of Indian origin in Mauritius to find their identity and roots. It is a vivid and inspiring account of a life dedicated to bring the eternal values, ageless culture and traditions of India, the country of their origin, to the current and future generations of the people of the magnificent country, Mauritius.

The term Greater India was in all probability first used on the analogy of the title of Sir Charles Dilke's book GREATER BRITAIN.

At the outset it was used when reference was made to Cambodia, Siam, Champa, Java, Sumatra and other countries of East Asia.

Further India is another happy term.

When labourers were sent from India to Bourbon or La Réunion, Mauritius, several parts of Africa, the Fiji Islands, British Guiana (Guyana), Trinidad and some other countries it did not occur to anyone that the countries of their adoption would remind some scholars in Calcutta of the countries of East Asia.

It is in the beginning of the present century that the GREATER INDIA SOCIETY was founded in Calcutta. Tagore chose to entitle one of his books Greater India.

The Late Ramananda Chatterjee published The Modern Review, Prabasi and finally Vishal Bharat. He, along with the editor of The Indian Review, showed great interest in us. We came to be known as INDIANS ABROAD or OVERSEAS INDIANS.