Social Movements and the Indian Diaspora by Movindri Reddy

Author:Movindri Reddy [Reddy, Movindri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317478973
Google: CAUBCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-11-19T02:50:41+00:00

History of indenture

The French occupied Mauritius from 1721 to 1810 and Governor Mahé de Labourdonnais (1734–1746) was the first to bring Indian laborers to the island.9 Some of them were imported as ‘free’ artisans but others were bought as slaves from the French ports in India such as Cochin, Goa, and Malabar. Africans were introduced as slaves under the Dutch from 1638, and the system continued under the French. By 1797 the population in Mauritius had risen to 60,000, of these 50,000 were slaves mainly from Madagascar and Mozambique.10 Under the governorship of Decaen (1803–1810) a second generation of Indians entered Mauritius, many of whom later adopted Christianity and merged with the mixed populations. Indians who arrived under French rule were called “Bengali” (from North India) or “Malabars” (from Kerala, but including Tamils from South India); by 1800 there were some 6000 Indian slaves in Mauritius.11 When the British captured Mauritius in 1810 there were about 75,000 inhabitants, a thriving city of Port Louis, and at least two Indians owned large sugar plantations.12

The Slavery Abolition Act passed by the House of Commons in 1833 conferred freedom to all slave children in the plantation colonies who were not over 6 years of age, and all those children born after the passage of the Act. All those over 6 years of age became free but were required to work for their former owners as “apprentices” for a limited period – 4 years for domestics and 6 years for those in agriculture. Estate owners were compensated with £20 million. The apprenticeship system in Mauritius started on 1 February 1835 and ended in 1839; at the time of abolition there were 61,045 apprentices.13 A year later, an agent of the Mauritian planters, Mr. Arbuthnot, recruited 36 laborers from India and by 1850 this number had increased rapidly to 48,112.14 Indians were under indentured contracts for 5 years and were entitled to free return passage to India at the end of service. They received 5 Rupees as wages each month as well as daily rations of 2 pounds rice, ½ pound dhal, and small quantities of salt, ghee, oil, and mustard. They were also supplied with one “dhoti” (loincloth), one blanket, one sheet, and two caps. Like elsewhere in the colonies they were subjected to the double cut whereby two days wages were deducted for every day of absence, and pass laws mandated that an identification document was carried at all times. There were further rules and regulations imposed on the various estates. A high death rate due to cholera, plague, and small pox epidemics, as well as infant mortality, led to relatively slow population growth. Many Indians also opted to return to India after the termination of their indentured contracts; by 1910 of the 450,000 Indians who had arrived 160,000 had returned to India.15

In 1851 the right to free return passage to India was abolished, and Indians were granted citizenship in Mauritius. Around the 1830s they began to move from indentured servants to small planters via a process called “morcellement.

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