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.[4] 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.[5][6] After the legislative changes of 1767 these Indian immigrants were allowed to start businesses, buy land and own slaves.[7]
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 laborers arrived at Aapravasi ghat, an embankment located in the harbor of Port-Louis.[8] Mauritius thus became the British colony's largest recipient of indentured migrants.[9] Indentured labourers were mostly brought from the Bhojpuri speaking regions of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with a large number of Tamils, Telugus and Marathis amongst them. The descendants of these indentured labourers make up two-thirds of the island's current population.[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 immigrants from Gujarat and Sindh arriving as traders, businessmen, and merchants.
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.[10][11][12] The 1921 census in Mauritius counted that Indian women there had a total of 148 children fathered by Chinese men.[13][14][15] These Chinese were mostly traders.[16]
Today the population consists of mainly Hindus with Muslim, Christian, Buddhist 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 Creole at home. Indo-Mauritian use their ancestral languages mostly in religious activities, some of them include Bhojpuri, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu.
Indo-Mauritians have influenced Mauritian culture, dominating the economic, public sector and political faces of the island.[9] Mauritian politics have been historically dominated by the Indo-Mauritian community[17] 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 the community. Most Hindu celebrations are public holidays. Indian influence is felt in religion, cuisine and arts. Indian influence is also felt on music wherein the island has its own groups of Bhojpuri and Tamil bands.[18] Indian films are also widely popular.[19]
^Hollup, Oddvar (1994). "The Disintegration of Caste and Changing Concepts of Indian Ethnic Identity in Mauritius". Ethnology. 33 (4): 297–316. doi:10.2307/3773901. JSTOR3773901.
