Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Mauritians of Indian origin

Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry from India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to the Republic of India or other parts of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia now known as Nepal and Pakistan.[2]

Quick Facts Mauritian-Indians, Total population ...
Remove ads

History

Summarize
Perspective

During the administration of the French East India Company until 1767 and subsequent French rule at least 12,000 workers arrived from India between 1721 and 1810 before the abolition of slavery.[3] These first Indian immigrants came from various parts of India such as Pondicherry, Karikal, Yanaon, Bengal and others. They worked under contract as skilled stonemasons, blacksmiths, and carpenters although hundreds of them were slaves. Some Malbars from Reunion (Bourbon) Island were also brought to work with them.[4][5] After the legislative changes of 1767, these Indian immigrants were allowed to start their own businesses, buy a land and have slaves too.[6]

Following the November 1810 British Invasion from the northern coast, the island came under British rule. With the liberation of about 65,000 African and Malagasy slaves after the 1833 abolition of slavery the Franco-Mauritian plantation owners and sugar oligarchs resorted to indentured labourers, or Coolies, from various parts of India to work in their fields. Between 1834 and 1920, nearly 700,000 Indian indentured labourers arrived at Aapravasi Ghat, an embankment located in the harbour of Port-Louis.[7] Mauritius thus became the British colony's largest recipient of Indian indentured migrants.

Indian indentured labourers were mostly brought from the Bhojpuri speaking regions of Bihar State and Uttar Pradesh State in India as well as from the Terai region of Madhesh Province in Nepal before its independence, with a large number of Tamils from Madras, Telugus from Hyderabad and Marathis from Bombay amongst them. A small number of Bengalis from Calcutta, Odias from Puri and Awadhis from Awadh also came along who were mostly Hindu priests. The descendants of these indentured labourers make up two-thirds of the island's current population and are dominant political figures in Mauritius.[8][9]

As free immigrants, these later arrivals were commonly employed by the British in the armed forces, police forces, as security personnel with a substantial portion of Hindu Rajput immigrants from Rajasthan State, Gujarat State mostly of Kutch region and Sindh Province arriving as traders, businessmen, and merchants before the Partition of India. A tiny portion of Punjabi Hindu and Sikh immigrants from Punjab State were also brought along them as soldiers.[10]

In the late 19th to early 20th century, Chinese men in Mauritius married Indian women due to both a lack of Chinese women and the higher numbers of Indian women on the island.[11][12] The 1921 census in Mauritius counted that Indian women there had a total of 148 children fathered by Chinese men.[13][14] These Chinese immigrants were mostly traders.[15]

Remove ads

Demographics

Today the population consists of predominant Hindus with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucianists, Sikhs, Jews and Baháʼí Faith minorities. The mother tongue of almost all Mauritians is the Mauritian Creole, while a minority of Indo-Mauritians still use both their ancestral language and Mauritian Creole at home. The latters mostly use their native languages during religious activities, some of them include Mauritian Bhojpuri, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Telugu, Gujarati, Awadhi, Bengali, Odia and Punjabi.

As from age six, all Mauritian children must learn a third language at school (French and English are already compulsory). The languages learnt at schools in decreasing order are Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Mandarin Chinese, Marathi, Telugu and Bhojpuri. Mauritian Creoles can opt for the Mauritian Creole as a third language. Choice is usually based on ethnoreligious background with Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and Bhojpuri chosen by Hindus belonging to the respective ethnicities, Urdu by Muslims from parts of the Indian subcontinent and Mandarin Chinese by Chinese from China.

Remove ads

Indian influence

Indo-Mauritians have influenced Mauritian culture, dominating the economic, public sector and political faces of the island.[8] Mauritian politics have been historically dominated by the Indo-Mauritian community[16] due to their majority as a whole on the electoral platform. All presidents except Karl Offmann and all prime ministers except for Paul Berenger have been members of this community. Most Hindu festivals are public holidays. Indian influence is not only felt in religions, cuisines and arts but also in the local music of the island where it has its own groups of Bhojpuri bands and Tamil bands.[17] Indian films such as Bollywood and Tollywood are also widely popular.[18]

Caste system

Due to local demographic realities, the Indian caste system was not directly implemented in the Mauritian context.[19][20][21][22][23]

Notable people

Remove ads

See also

Notes and references

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads