SIVASANKER BADLU – A LEGEND AND HUMANITARIAN OF A OTTAWA PIONEER FAMILY

                "SERVICE TO HUMANITY 

                   IS SERVICE TO GOD"

                                         (Mr Sivasanker Badlu)

By Subry Govender

 
One of the community leaders of yet another pioneering family of Ottawa who lived by the philosophy of “service to humanity is service to God” was Mr Sivasanker Badlu – a builder by profession.
Mr Badlu, who stayed with his large family of  wife, Bhagirathi, three sons and five daughters in Kissoon Road, was one of the chief architects who contributed to the construction of the new Jhugroo Primary School in the Tin Town area and who was also involved in other building projects in the Ottawa village, Verulam, and in Durban.
Mr Badlu, born on 31 December 1917, was the fifth son of indentured labourer, Badlu Debi, who arrived in 1896 on the ship Pongella XX11 from Basantpur village in Barabanki District near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
His father served his first five-year term of indenture at the Ottawa Sugar Estate.

(PARENTS ARRIVED FROM BASANTPUR VILLAGE IN LUCKNOW, UTTAR PRADESH)

(Mr Badlu Debi - father of Sivasanker Badlu - who arrived from India in 1896 as a 20-year-old teenager and worked at the Ottawa Sugar Estate as an indentured labourer.)

Here his father, as a 20-years-old teenager, met his mother, Nowarathri Mithummiya, who was also 20-years-old. Mithmmiya, who arrived on the same ship as Badlu Debi, hailed from Patna, Bihar.

                                                  (Mrs Nowrathri Debi - Mr                                                             Sivasanker Badlu's mother                                                                  who arrived on the same ship as                                                     his father in 1896.)

 

They married at the Ottawa Sugar Estate on 21 September 1901 and conceived Sivasanker, five other sons and four daughters.

The eldest brother of Sivasanker converted to the Islamic faith and thereafter was known as Fakir Ismail Mahomed. He moved to Cape Town.
Sivasanker and four other brothers – Dhanpath, Budhram, Rambharose, and Ramshai – settled in and around Ottawa. The youngest brother, whose name the family finds it difficult to recall, died at a very early age.
His four sisters – Rookmini, Indrawathie, Sampathie and another (name unknown to the family) – married and settled in Ottawa, Grange, Avoca and Sydenham.
Sivasunker Badlu entered the building industry at a very young age and while trying to earn a few “bobs”, he at the same time showed his enthusiasm to help in the upliftment of the community of Ottawa and other people.

               

CONSTRUCTION OF NEW JHUGROO                                      SCHOOL

The construction and completion of the new Jhugroo Primary School came about after it was found sometime in the mid-1950s that the old Jhugroo School was too small to cater for all the children of Ottawa and some children from Ottawa Sugar Estate, Blackburn, Sacks Estate, and other surrounding areas.
Mr Badlu recalled the construction of the new school in a document he compiled in 1991 after his adult children encouraged him to write a book about his life as a humanitarian. 
He declined to write a book because he was of the view that being involved in voluntary work was not for the promotion of his own ego. But he did write a few pages about his involvement in the building of the new Jhugroo school; a wood and iron structure that served as a school for African children on a site now situated opposite Rani’s Fish Shop; a small temple in Somtseu Road in Durban; the construction of wood and iron houses for several working class families in Durban; completing unfinished work at the Madressa school in Verulam; the completion of the temple hall at the Soobramanium Temple in Umdloti Drift; the completion of the APS project in Carlisle Street, Durban; the construction of Verulam Crematorium; and the construction of the Ottawa Community Hall in Maharaj Road.
According to Mr Badlu in his document, a public meeting was called in January 1957 to advance the construction of the Jhugroo Primary School. A committee was elected with Mr Badlu as secretary and Mr S S Maharaj, Mr M Parthab and other concerned community members.

            LAND DONATED BY MRS SANJERIA JHUGROO

 

A two-and-half acre land for the construction of the new school, according to Mr Badlu in his document, was donated by Mrs Sangeria Jhugroo after she realised that education for the children was very important. She donated the land near the home of Mr Parthab in memory of her husband, Kissoon Jhugroo.
After negotiations with the then Department of Education, the construction of the school through voluntary labour started in 1957. The voluntary builders and other workers would be on site every Saturday, Sunday, Public Holidays and during their annual holidays. The volunteers, during Summer, would start work at 5:30am and finish only at 7:30pm.
The voluntary workers would be provided with lunch and tea from food items and vegetables donated by merchants in Durban and bread by the Tongaat Bakery.

                               (The construction of Jhugroo Primary School that Mr Sivsanker Badlu spearheaded as the supervisor since 1957. It took Mr Sivasanker and his fellow voluntary builders four years and four months to complete. The voluntary builders included M M Naicker, Munoo Maharaj, Dunoo Singh, S S Maharaj, and M Parthab.)

The construction of the new school, which took four years and four months to build, was  completed in early 1962. A function to mark the opening of the school was held on March 24 1962.

Dr Kemraj Sivasanker recalls this event:

"The opening was performed by my father and it was a historical day in his life to be given this unique honour. He was the first person of Indian-origin during the apartheid era in South Africa, and not an official of the education department who usually performed these duties, to be conferred this privilege to formally open a government building. A plaque to mark this historic day was erected in his honour."

                                            

This is what Mr Badlu himself  wrote in his document when the new school was built:
“The voluntary workers, through their selfless dedication and spirit of co-operation, gave a sigh of relief when the project was completed. They knew that the children of Ottawa will not be turned away from a lack of accommodation.
“The Jhugroo Primary School is the only school in Natal which can be proud of its heritage to be completed exclusively by voluntary labour. It was a great public sacrifice.”

Mr Badlu committed his time and life to the building of the new school while at the same time he was involved in the construction of his own brick and tile home for his wife, Bhagirathi,  and eight children at number nine Kissoon Road.

(Mrs Bhagirathi Badlu)

(Mr Badlu's sons - Dhanraj and Kemraj - seen here at their home in Kissoon Road in 1959)

Most of the children – Dhanraj, Kemraj, Leelawathi, Devi, Neermala, Hemwathi, Miatry, and Anver - attended the old and new schools before pursuing their higher education at the Verulam High School and the Mount Edgecombe High School.
Danraj, who became a teacher, taught at the two local schools before being promoted to a high school in Phoenix. 

(Mr Danraj Sivasanker and his wife, Rooma)

(The five daughters: From L to R: Luxmi Devi, Miatry,  Hemwathi, Neermala (Mala), Leelawathi)

(Dr Kemraj Sivasanker and his wife, Veena)

The second son, Dr Kamraj Sivasanker,  travelled to India to study medicine after being granted a medical scholarship by the Government of India. He graduated in 1968 and studied further and worked in England, where he is now settled with his family.

He was very keen to return to Ottawa to serve the local community as he was the first person to study and qualify as a medical doctor.

But, according to Dr Kemraj, he was “never allowed to settle back in Ottawa due to circumstances beyond our control which was imposed by the then administration”.

“It was of great sadness both for me and my dad that I was not able to serve the then village community in a capacity that was severely lacking in Ottawa.”
According to family members, the descendants of the Badlu Debi ancestors now number more than 300 over five generations. Many of them have progressed to become doctors, teachers, lawyers and have entered the academic world.
Some family members researched their roots and visited the village in Bihar after their grandfather made several trips to the village where he was born.
According to family members, their grand-father funded his trips to his village of Barabanki by selling some land that he had purchased in Ottawa. The grandfather, who was accompanied on one of his trips by his third son, Rambharose, gave some of the funds to his family in Barabanki.

    FINDING HIS ROOTS IN INDIA IN 1979 

Mr Badlu also made his journey to his roots in 1979. But his father’s family were not too pleased to see him because they were afraid that Mr Badlu had made the visit to the village to claim a portion of the family land.
This is how Dr Kemraj described his father’s journey to the village:

“My father found his way to his village but was viewed suspiciously and made most unwelcome as his peers, his cousins, felt he had returned from Africa to lay some claim on their holdings as they belonged to the farming community.  My Dad explained that, that was not the purpose of his visit. He then sought the help of some villagers and asked to see the Sarpanch, the head or chief of the village whom he met and explained the reason of his visit. The village head then was able to retrieve old records which did reveal that a Debi Badlu had gone to Africa in the late 1890s.  Armed with this information and accompanied by the Chief they returned to the village and after confirming that my father was who he declared to be, he was welcomed by his cousins and the whole extended family. He once again stressed that he was not making any land claims. He spent the night there and left the next morning for Delhi via Lucknow, fully satisfied that he had identified his roots and his father’s origins. This was narrated to us on his return.”

One of Mr Badlu’s daughters, Neermala, rose to become a senior producer and DJ at the Hindvani community radio station.
The descendants have been encouraged by the humanitarian work that Mr Sivasanker Badlu was committed to for most of his life. He passed away at the age of 85 at his home in Ottawa on July 8 2002.

                                                            (Neermala)                                                                                                                        "PROMOTE THE GOOD FOR ALL"   

They proudly remember this philosophy that he wrote in his document:
“I thank God for everything that through His guidance, blessings, and sincerity, I have executed my duty towards Humanity. If you have served Humanity then you have served God in every manner and respect.”
The Badlu descendants are also encouraged by his last words in the document: 

“No one should be content with promoting his own good only. On the contrary he should look for his good in promoting the good for all.” Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com  – Nov 28 2023

( Footnote 1: See the article on the Construction of school buildings in Ottawa by Dan Sivasunker)

(Footnote 2: This article was written with information and photographs provided by Dan Sivasanker, Dr Kemraj Sivasanker, Neermala, and grandson Shamal Sivasanker. Their assistance is greatly appreciated.)