Keharsingh Jagatsingh, more commonly known as Sir Kher Jagatsingh was a Mauritian politician and Labour Party minister.
Early life
Keharsingh was born in India, the 14th child of a family of 16 children. The family migrated to Mauritius and his father was a prison warden at Beau Bassin who retired in 1940. Although he did not attend secondary school Keharsingh joined the Teachers Training College in 1950, but left for the Civil Service where he worked as clerk in the Ministry of Health before starting a newspaper.
Political career
As a young journalist of Mauritius Times Jagatsingh was mentored by social workerBikramsingh Ramlallah who was also later elected to parliament in 1959. At the 1959 elections Jagatsingh was elected in Constituency No.40 Petite Rivière. LabouriteGuy Forget encouraged Jagatsingh to join politics. However at the October 1963 general elections Jagatsingh was not elected to Legislative Council as he was defeated by his rival Noutun Parsad Puduruth at Constituency No.40 Petite Rivière. At the General Elections held on 7 August 1967 Kher Jagatsingh was elected to Parliament in Constituency No.10 Montagne Blanche-Grand Rivière Sud Est. In 1967 he campaigned under the banner of the Independence Party with his running matesSatcam Boolell and Abdool Wahab Foondun within Constituency No.10. He became Minister of Planning & Economic Development until 1976. He was not elected at the 1976 General Elections although his running mate Satcam Boolell and rivals Ramduth Jadoo and Jagdish Goburdhun were elected in Constituency No.10. But in 1977 he became Member of Parliament without any elections following the resignation of Heeralall Bhugaloo, the Minister of Education under the Labour government. From 1977 onwards Sir Kher Jagatsingh was Minister of Education. He implemented "free education" throughout the island of Mauritius to fulfill the electoral promises of his leader Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam in response to the major disturbance caused by the 1975 Mauritian student protests. As a result school fees were abolished for all secondary schools and the quality of education was improved. However following the electoral defeat at the 1982 General Elections Sir Kher Jagatsingh retired from politics. He died on 19 July 1985 in England.
Publications
In 1954 Kher Jagatsingh was a co-founder of the weekly newspaper Mauritius Times. Jagatsingh wrote a book titled "Petals of dust" which was published in Mauritius in 1981.
