raw, dewaxed and oxidized jute fibers and those chemically modified with phenol and formaldehyde (treatment for 3 h at 95 $degree$ c and ph 8) before or subsequent to oxidation were subjected to graft copolymerization with methyl methacrylate (mma) in the presence or absence of some other monomers such as maleic anhydride (ma) or methacrylic acid (maa) in a limited aqueous system using k//2s//2o//8 as the initiator under photoconditions with the objective of inducing improved rot resistance and dyeability without loss in tensile strength. for preparing oxy-jute, dewaxed and preswollen (dewaxed jute fiber swollen with 10 aqueous urea at 90 $degree$ c for 2 h) jute fibers were subjected to mild oxidation or bleaching using aqueous h//2o//2 and nalo//4 and non-aqueous chlorine (cl//2 in ccl//4). optimum conditions for graft copolymerization have been established by examination of the effect of such variables as monomer concentration, time of polymerization and nature of chemical modification of jute fiber prior to vinyl grafting. percentage grafting, tenacity (g denier** $minus$ **1), dye fixation () and rot resistance (expressed as percentage retention of tensile strength of the fiber after a standard soil burial test) were evaluated and analyzed. high rot resistance (80-90 retention of tensile strength after soil burial test) and dye fixation () of as high as 86 were obtained for grafted jute fibers. washing fastness and light fastness properties of the dyed fibers were also examined. (edited author abstract) 10 refs