Hinduism in Mauritius

Last updated
Hinduism in Mauritius
Aum Om red.svg
Statue Durga Mata.jpg
Durga Mata in Ganga Talao
Total population
630,500 (2011)
(48.5% of total population)
Religions
Hinduism
Majority
Sanātana Dharma
Minority
Arya Samaj and Others
Languages

Hinduism came to Mauritius when Indians were brought as indentured labour to colonial French and later in much larger numbers to British plantations in Mauritius and neighboring islands of the Indian Ocean. [1] [2] [3] The migrants came primarily from what are now the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, with another influx of migrants from the Sindh region of Pakistan, following the Partition of India. [1]

Contents

Hinduism is the largest religion in Mauritius, with Hindus representing approximately 48.5% of the population in 2011. [4] [5] Mauritius is the only country in Africa where Hinduism is the most practiced religion and percentage wise ranks third in the world after Nepal and India.

Demographics

YearPercentIncrease
187151.97%
188155.99%+4.02%
189156.10%+0.11%
190155.62%-0.48%
191154.26%-1.36%
192152.70%-1.56%
193150.37%-2.33%
194147.26%-3.11%
195146.97%-0.29%
196147.55%+0.58%
197149.56%+2.01%
198150.65%+1.09%
199150.63%-0.02%
200149.64%-0.99%
201148.54%

-1,1

History

Historical population
YearPop.±%
1871 132,652—    
1881 202,281+52.5%
1891 209,079+3.4%
1901 206,131−1.4%
1911 202,716−1.7%
1921 201,895−0.4%
1931 202,192+0.1%
1944 203,709+0.8%
1952 241,660+18.6%
1962 332,851+37.7%
1972 421,707+26.7%
1983 506,486+20.1%
1990 535,028+5.6%
2000 585,210+9.4%
2011 600,327+2.6%

The European colonial powers banned slave capture and trading in the first half of the 19th century, with the British Empire banning it in the early decades. However, the demand kept rising for low cost, high intensity labor in colonial plantations of sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and other cash crops. The British Empire substituted the slave labor supplies from Africa with indentured labor supplies from India. [6] [7]

The indentured people brought from India included primarily Hindus, but also included Muslims and Christians. They were subject to indenture, a long-established form of contract which bound them to forced labour for a fixed term; apart from the fixed term of servitude, this resembled slavery. [8] The first ships carrying indentured labourers from India left in 1836. [9] Sugarcane, a crop that is native to India, does not grow in the cold latitudes such as those found in Europe, but grows in tropical latitudes, were grown in large colonial tropical plantations to meet the growing European and American demand. It is these sugarcane and other tropical cash crop plantations that brought the indentured Hindus and other migrants from India to Mauritius, and other tropical countries such as Fiji, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, Suriname and others. [9]

The Hindus, and non-Hindus, who accepted indentured labor contracts and were brought to Mauritius, faced difficult conditions in India. Poverty in colonial India, starvation, epidemics and severe periodic famines in British Raj were rampant during the colonial rule. [10] [11] [12] Millions of Indians died from mass starvation during the 19th-century British India. [12] The extreme circumstances broke families, villages and triggered migrations. [10] By 1839, Mauritius already had 25,000 Indians working in slave-like conditions in its colonial plantations, but these were predominantly males since colonial labor laws prevented women and children from accompanying the males. In the 1840s a severe shortage of cheap labor in British plantation colonies led to systematic shipment of large number of indentured laborers to Mauritius, both men and women, particularly from the ports of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. [10] [9] According to Michael Mann – a professor of Sociology, the Hindus and non-Hindus of India who arrived in Mauritius were a small percentage of the over 30 million indentured Indian workers shipped around the colonial world between the 18th and early 20th century (many of whom returned after serving for years as plantation labor). [13]

By the time Mauritius gained independence from the British Empire, a majority of its population were from Indian heritage. According to Patrick Eisenlohr, about 70% of Mauritius' total population is of Indian origin. Those who identify themselves as Hindus constitute about 48% of the total population, or about 69% of those of Indian origin. [14]

Language

The major languages spoken by Hindus in Mauritius, at home and in commerce, are Creole, Bhojpuri, Tamil and Hindi. [15] The politically active Hindus, states Eisenholr, have attempted to preserve Hindi by calling it their "mother tongue" and "ancestral language", as well as an assurance against the colonial discrimination they faced, but most Hindus mainly use Creole in their daily lives – a syncretic language of Indians and Africans that has developed on the island. [15]

The island nation carries many Bhojpuri-language television programs on Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, the channel controlled by the Mauritius government. [16] Hindus in Mauritius that widely use Bhojpuri include the rural south and north-central region near La Nicolière. [17] These settlements are of Hindus primarily from Gangetic plains regions of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, and their language is a modified form – a koiné in linguistic studies – of the original Bhojpuri. [17]

Social stratification and Caste System

According to some scholars, such as Oddvar Hollup, the first Hindus that settled in Mauritius did not observe caste system and intercaste restrictions have been unimportant in Mauritius. [18] [19] [20] Most scholars, states Hollup, observe that this may be because "the economic and political conditions in the host societies where indentured Indian laborers were introduced had conditions that were not conducive to the maintenance of caste", and that caste was not a principle of social organization as all Indian laborers (coolies) were "doing the same kind of work and sharing the same living conditions". [18]

However, casteism has become an integral part of Mauritian politics as major political parties which are involved in general elections propose Hindu candidates on the basis of their castes in order to match the caste demographics of voters in each constituency and district. Otherwise, electoral defeat becomes imminent. [21] In 2007 Atma Doolooa, an author and political activist, published a book Castes in Mauritius, the future of Indians and Hinduism in which he explained how casteism is a major consideration by politicians who strictly respect this system although they publicly deny its existence in Mauritius. [22] What is now knows as the Vaish caste in Mauritius is a relatively recent invention which did not exist when Coolies arrived on the island after 1835. In Mauritius the term Vaish nowadays collectively refers to the sub castes Ahir, Koyri, Kurmi and Nonya.

Another relatively modern form of stratification emerged in 1983 when the MMM attempted to isolate the Hindi-speaking Hindus by inventing a new group called TTM which abbreviates "Tamil, Telegu, Marathi". The MMM also attempted to separate the Ravived and Rajput castes from the Vaish group for political gains during the 1983 elections, but these divisive methods failed as the MMM lost these elections after being in power for less than a year. [23]

Major Hindu festivals

The Hindus in Mauritius observe major festivals, such as Diwali in Port Louis above. Mauritius Divali Diwali Lighting and Decorations 2010.jpg
The Hindus in Mauritius observe major festivals, such as Diwali in Port Louis above.

One of the biggest Hindu festivals on the island is Maha Shivaratri ("Great Night of Shiva"). During this annual Hindu celebration, which takes place in the months of February and March, four to nine days of ceremony and fasting lead up to an all-night vigil of Shiva worship.

Other important Hindu festivals in Mauritius include: [24]

Temples in Mauritius

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness maintains several temples in Mauritius.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arya Samaj</span> Vedic reform organisation

Arya Samaj is a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement that promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas. The samaj was founded by the sannyasi (ascetic) Dayanand Saraswati in the 1870s.

The Memon are a Muslim community in Gujarat India, and Sindh, Pakistan, the majority of whom follow the Hanafi fiqh of Sunni Islam. They are divided into different groups based on their origins: Kathiawari Memons, Kutchi Memons and Bantva Memons from the Kathiawar, Kutch and Bantva regions of Gujarat respectively, and Sindhi Memons from Sindh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Mauritius</span> Religion in Mauritius

Islam in Mauritius is the nation's third largest religion behind Hinduism and Christianity. Muslims constitute over 17.3 per cent of Mauritius population. Muslims of Mauritius are mostly of Indian descent. Large numbers of Muslims arrived in Mauritius during the British regime, starting in 1834 as part of the large-scale indentured labor force from India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurmi</span> Hindu agricultural caste of India

Kurmi is traditionally a non-elite tiller caste in the lower Gangetic plain of India, especially southern regions of Awadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. The Kurmis came to be known for their exceptional work ethic, superior tillage and manuring, and gender-neutral culture, bringing praise from Mughal and British administrators alike.

Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are Guyanese nationals of Indian origin who trace their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginning in 1838, and continuing during the British Raj.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamil diaspora</span> Descendants of Tamil immigrants in other countries

The Tamil diaspora refers to descendants of the Tamil speaking immigrants who emigrated from their native lands in the southern Indian subcontinent to other parts of the world. They are found primarily in Malaysia, Arab states of the Persian Gulf, South Africa, North America, Western Europe, and Singapore. It can be divided into two main diasporic clusters, due to geographical, historical and cultural reasons, as Indian Tamil diaspora and Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora.

Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a caste, a clan, a community, a race and a tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in South Africa</span>

Hinduism is practised throughout South Africa, but primarily in KwaZulu-Natal. Approximately 1.1% of the South African population professed to be Hindu, according to the 2011 census. This is down from the 1.4% based on the 1996 census. The 2016 General Household Survey measured a further decline to 0.9%.

Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to the Republic of India or other parts of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in Fiji</span> Overview of the presence and role of Hinduism in Fiji

Hinduism is the second-largest religion in Fiji, and primarily has a following among Indo-Fijians, the descendants of indentured workers brought to Fiji by the British as cheap labour for colonial sugarcane plantations. Hindus started arriving in Fiji starting in 1879 and continuing through 1920, when Britain abolished the slavery-like indenture system. Fiji identifies people as "Indo-Fijians" if they can trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent, Hindus form about 27.9% the population of Fiji.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean Hindustani</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Caribbean

Caribbean Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Indo-Caribbeans and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. It is a koiné language mainly based on the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects. These Hindustani dialects were the most spoken dialects by the Indians who came as immigrants to the Caribbean from India as indentured laborers. It is closely related to Fiji Hindi and the Bhojpuri-Hindustani spoken in Mauritius and South Africa.

The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers from British India were transported to labour in European colonies, as a substitute for slave labor, following the abolition of the trade in the early 19th century. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted till the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean, Natal, East Africa, Réunion, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean, Indo-African, Indo-Mauritian, Indo-Fijian, Indo-Malaysian, and Indo-Singaporean populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in Zimbabwe</span> Overview of the presence, role and impact of Hinduism in Zimbabwe

Hinduism is a minority faith in Zimbabwe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhojpuri cinema</span> Indian Bhojpuri-language film industry

Bhojpuri cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Bhojpuri language widely spoken in the state of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with major production centres in Lucknow and Patna. The first Bhojpuri talkie film, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, was released in 1963 by Vishwanath Shahabadi. The 1980s saw the release of many notable as well as run-of-the-mill Bhojpuri films like Bitia Bhail Sayan, Chandwa ke take Chakor, Hamar Bhauji, Ganga Kinare Mora Gaon and Sampoorna Tirth Yatra.

Bihari Mauritians are the descendants of mainly Bhojpuri speaking migrants to Mauritius. A majority of Indo-Mauritians are of Bihari descent, and the majority of Mauritians are Indo-Mauritian. Castewise, most Bihari Mauritians are Vaishyas with significant Bhumihars, Brahmins, Rajputs, Koeris, Chamars, Yadavs, Kurmis, Banias and Kayasthas. All but one Mauritian Prime Ministers have been of Bihari Vaishya descent. The community includes a Hindu majority with a Muslim minority. About 65.7 % of the 1.3 million population of Mauritius is of Indian origin, most of them from Bihar, with Bhojpuri as their ancestral tongue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhojpuri region</span> Region in India

Bhojpur is a ethnolinguistic and cultural area in the Indian subcontinent where the Bhojpuri language is spoken as a mother tongue. The Bhojpuri region encompasses parts of the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, and the Madhesh, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces of Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rama Navami</span> Hindu festival celebrating the birth of the deity Rama

Rama Navami is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Rama, one the most popularly revered deities in Hinduism, also known as the seventh avatar of Vishnu. He is often held as an emblem within Hinduism for being an ideal king and human through his righteousness, good conduct and virtue. The festival falls on the ninth day of the bright half of the lunar cycle of Chaitra (March–April), the first month in the Hindu calendar. It is also part of the Chaitra Navaratri festival in spring. Rama Navami is a holiday for government employees in India.

Migration from India into Africa pre-dates European colonization. The number of Indians in Africa increased greatly with the settlement of Indians in Africa as indentured servants during colonization, and has continued to increase into the 21st century.

Bhojpuri music is a form of Hindustani Classical Music and includes a broad array of Bhojpuri language performances in distinct style, both traditional and modern. This form of music is mostly created in Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other countries like Nepal, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, Netherlands, Mauritius and other Caribbean Islands.

Ravived is a caste that is mainly found among Hindus in Mauritius. The origin of this caste lay in an Indian caste named Chamar This same caste is referred to as Ravidassia outside Mauritius, and this terminology is very seldom used in Mauritius.

References

  1. 1 2 Paul Younger (2009). New Homelands: Hindu Communities in Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, South Africa, Fiji, and East Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–8, 30–31, 53–54. ISBN   978-0-19-974192-2.
  2. ↑ Meenakshi Thapan (2005). Transnational Migration and the Politics of Identity. SAGE Publications. pp. 65–67. ISBN   978-0-7619-3425-7.
  3. ↑ Malik, Rajiv (2003). "The Hindus of Mauritius". Hinduism Today. Himalayan Academy. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  4. ↑ "Africa: Mauritius". CIA The World Factbook. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "Resident population by religion and sex" (PDF). Statistics Mauritius. p. 68. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  6. ↑ Paul Younger (2009). New Homelands: Hindu Communities in Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, South Africa, Fiji, and East Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN   978-0-19-974192-2.
  7. ↑ Steven Vertovik (Robin Cohen, ed.) (1995). The Cambridge survey of world migration . pp.  57–68. ISBN   978-0-521-44405-7.
  8. ↑ Tinker, Hugh (1993). New System of Slavery. Hansib Publishing, London. ISBN   978-1-870518-18-5.
  9. 1 2 3 "Forced Labour". The National Archives, Government of the United Kingdom. 2010.
  10. 1 2 3 David Northrup (1995). Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, 1834-1922. Cambridge University Press. pp. 62–67. ISBN   978-0-521-48047-5.
  11. ↑ Pieter C. Emmer (1986). "Chapter 9: The meek Hindu, the recruitment of Indian indentured labourers for service overseas". Colonialism and Migration; Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery. Springer. pp. 194–199, for context see 187–199. ISBN   978-94-009-4354-4.
  12. 1 2 Mike Davis (2002). Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World. Verso Books. pp. 6–11, 54–59, 167–173. ISBN   978-1-78168-061-2.
  13. ↑ Michael Mann (2016). "Chapter 16: Circulation and Migration". In John Marriott (ed.). The Ashgate Research Companion to Modern Imperial Histories. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-04251-8.
  14. ↑ Patrick Eisenlohr (2006). Little India: Diaspora, Time, and Ethnolinguistic Belonging in Hindu Mauritius. University of California Press. pp. 7–8. ISBN   978-0-520-24879-3.
  15. 1 2 Patrick Eisenlohr (2006). Little India: Diaspora, Time, and Ethnolinguistic Belonging in Hindu Mauritius. University of California Press. pp. 51–55. ISBN   978-0-520-24879-3.
  16. ↑ Patrick Eisenlohr (2006). Little India: Diaspora, Time, and Ethnolinguistic Belonging in Hindu Mauritius. University of California Press. pp. 72–73. ISBN   978-0-520-24879-3.
  17. 1 2 Patrick Eisenlohr (2006). Little India: Diaspora, Time, and Ethnolinguistic Belonging in Hindu Mauritius. University of California Press. pp. 67–69, 207–208. ISBN   978-0-520-24879-3.
  18. 1 2 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.
  19. ↑ Grieco, Elizabeth M. (1998). "The Effects of Migration on the Establishment of Networks: Caste Disintegration and Reformation among the Indians of Fiji". International Migration Review. 32 (3): 704. doi:10.2307/2547769.
  20. ↑ Jayawardena, Chandra (1968). "Migration and Social Change: A Survey of Indian Communities Overseas". Geographical Review. 58 (3): 426. doi:10.2307/212565.
  21. ↑ G., R. "The fallacy of the caste system in Mauritius". L'Express. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
  22. ↑ "Portrait: Atma Doolooa, un chamar fier de l'être". Le Mauricien. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
  23. ↑ "Kurmi, Ahir, Blanc, Kurmi, Ahir, re-Ahir…". L'Express. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  24. ↑ Jan Dodd (2004). Mauritius, Réunion & Seychelles. pp. 93, 134. ISBN   978-1-74059-301-4.
  25. ↑ Xygalatas, D.; Mitkidis, P.; Fischer, R.; et al. (2013). "Extreme Rituals Promote Prosociality" (PDF). Psychological Science. 24 (8): 1602–1605. doi:10.1177/0956797612472910. PMID   23740550.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.