Scars of Partition by William F. S. Miles

Author:William F. S. Miles [William F. S. Miles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science
ISBN: 9780803248328
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2014-04-16T19:31:10+00:00

Map 13. Indian Ocean Polities

Even the Indian Ocean state geographically closest to India—the Maldives—is quite distinct from it. Governed by Muslim sultanate for centuries (Islam being introduced in the twelfth century), inhabitants of the two hundred populated islands (out of twelve hundred, clustered in twenty-seven atolls) underwent nominal Portuguese and Dutch colonialism before becoming a British protectorate in 1887. The local variation of Dhivevi—derived from an old Sri Lankan language—reflects the Sinhalese influence upon the archipelago, one that thoroughly mixed with Dravidian (southern Indian), Australasian, Arab, and African elements. Maldivian independence came in 1965.

Also located on the continental Indian side of the Indian Ocean—but neither politically independent nor ethnically Asian—is the British Indian Ocean Territory, a controversial creation of decolonization. As a condition for acceding to Mauritian independence, in 1965 Britain insisted that the Chagos Archipelago—henceforth known as the British Indian Ocean Territory—be detached from the colonial unit from which it had been hitherto administered. No sooner had the excision been effectuated than Britain proceeded to lease one of the Chagos Islands to the United States for fifty years. That island, Diego Garcia, became a major American military base, and on account of the involuntary evacuation of its inhabitants, a long-lasting human rights issue.

On the opposite end of the so-called Indian Ocean, closest to Africa, is the three-island cluster of the Comoros. Spurred by fears of British ambitions in Madagascar, and later, by German ones emanating from East Africa, France began acquiring in the 1840s what became in 1886 the four-island “protectorate” of the Comoros. In 1914 the Comoros became a full-fledged French colony (although initially attached administratively to Madagascar). Independence came to (most of) the Comoros in 1975; however, the island of Mayotte Mahoré—the earliest of France’s Comoran possessions—rejected the path of sovereignty.1

Réunion, like Mayotte, is also part of the French Republic, but in a much more integrated and mutually desirable manner. Like Guadeloupe, Guyane, and Martinique, Réunion was one of the “Old Colonies” (dating to the seventeenth century) that became an overseas department of France in 1946. Politically, it has tended to be more conservative than its three French West Indian counterparts. Réunionnais are of Indian and African origin but quite thoroughly assimilated into French cultural mode: Catholicism, not Hinduism, predominates.

Thanks to the considerable transfers of monies from the metropole to the Indian Ocean department, Réunion is by far the wealthiest polity in the Indian Ocean. The poorest, by far, is the region’s largest island (hence its nickname, Grande Ile): Madagascar.

France faced more opposition to colonial takeover and retention in Madagascar than in any other Indian Ocean territory. Treaties and declarations of “protection” from the 1860s to 1880s set the stage for wars of resistance in 1883 and the mid-1890s. Only with the deportation of Queen Ranavalona III in 1896 could an actual colony be declared and established. Nationalist sentiment still simmered, however, and major revolt erupted in 1947. Independence came in 1960. Madagascar is also “independent” when it comes to religion. Unusual even by African standards, more than half the population adheres to non-Christian, indigenous beliefs.

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