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Gandhi in Mauritius

Mauritius, 1901 The Nowshera sails into a young Indian barrister, Mohandas Gandhi who will leave an indelible stamp on world history as the "Mahatma ".

Accompanied by his wife, Mohandas K. Gandhi made a ten-day stop in this island where many people of Indian .origin live. The couple will therefore be welcomed by its fellow countrymen from Gujarat who had settled as traders in Port-Louis and who will organise its stay in the colony.

His stay does not have any special importance as he writes on May 26, 1936 to the Mauritian writer, K. Hazareesingh. "I stayed in Mauritius for ten days. The ship called at Port Louis. My visit had no particular aim and that is why only a few persons knew of my presence on the island".

This did not prevent Gandhi from taking this opportunity to gather information on the living conditions of Indian immigrants and their descendants. He was perfectly aware of the situation of his compatriots who, just as in South Africa, did not benefit from any civic or political right. Already in 1885, he wrote: "Indians are in such great numbers in Mauritius and it is said that in spite of that, they don’t show any political ambition".

The young lawyer had already started to encourage Indians to regroup in their respective countries to fight for their rights. He was not yet the famous Mahatma (the great soul), the man who would irreversibly influence the course of the Indian sub-continent history and impose himself as one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century. His political action based on non-violence would become an inestimable source of inspiration or other great freedom fighters such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela

From Natal to Bombay: the militant debut

After spending eight years in South Africa, Mohandas K Gandhi was outraged by the fate reserved to the non-white people who were treated as inferior. He was himself humiliated at the Pietermaritzburg station. Wishing to be the voice of the Indian community, which was deprived of elementary rights compared to Europeans in South Africa, Gandhi wrote letters and pamphlets aiming at promoting the unity of Indians in foreign lands. One of his close collaborators was infact a certain Naidoo from a trading family who had left Mauritius for Natal. Until 1901, Gandhi, a pure product of British law schools, was a fervent admirer of British rule. That was before he discovered the sad reality about the life of his compatriots in India as well as in foreign countries crushed by British domination, which had finally turned them into second-class citizens. He therefore started a merciless struggle against the coloniser and would become the Mahatma of the five vows: satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), asteya (renunciation), aparigraha (non-possession) and bramacharya (celibacy). His passage in Africa also helped him to become interested in the fate of all underprivileged people and not only Indians. He thus became a sort of plural if not universal personality. Thence his famous sentence: "I am a Muslim, a Hindu, a Christian and a Jew as you all are".

Mauritius in 1901

In 1901, out of a total population of 371023 persons, Mauritius had 2 59 086 Indians or lndo Mauritians. As sugar production increased five-fold between the 1850s and the end of the century, thousands of men and women from the Indian Peninsula were recruited by sugar companies and large plantations. The development of sugar cane cultivation, thanks to the contribution of the immigrant workers, contributed enormously to the progress of the Mauritian economy. Most of the coolies (indentured workers) settled in the island, had regrouped when it was possible or had founded a family. The rhythm of life in Mauritius was based on work in the fields and in sugar factories. At the beginning of the 1900s, about 95 000 persons of Indian origin lived on sugar estates. Centralisation of sugar factories, from 250 in 1850 to about one hundred in 1900 gave rise to the parcelling of land. As a result of enormous sacrifices and hard labour, some Indian/amities became the owners of plots of land. Whole villages were thus erected by the descendants of these Indian immigrants who fried as well as they could to preserve their cultures by setting up associations of cultural and social promotion, the baithka and the madrassa, in village communities.

Even if Government managed 72 schools while religious authorities controlled 29 and the number of pupils was 17500, only 5 000 were of the Hindu and Muslim faiths. Gandhi became aware that schooling was not compulsory and that had not been extended to the great majority of agricultural workers' children. Those in charge of the colonial government education policies were in fact convinced that any decision in that sense would deprive the country of its agricultural labour, harm the prosperity o the main industry and uselessly increase the expenses of the colony. Therefore, education remained the initiative and work of volunteers in vernacular languages rather than in English or French. Thus, the participation of immigrant families in the life of the colony was mainly limited to the economic sphere. Didn 't Governor Charles Bruce say that Mauritians were not apt to exercise any political rights, as they didn't speak either English or French. Nalletamby, became the first Mauritian of Indian origin in the legislative council only a few weeks before Gandhi's visit. Some press comments about Gandhi's visit notably in the "Journal de Maurice" dated 18th November 1901, infact gave a sad example of the persistent prejudices against the Indian population. "...he couldn't understand how Mr. Gandhi could have found in illiterate Asians, "the main factors" of our country. People without instruction can only be the factors of a community of brutes. If Indians want to become Mauritians otherwise that by the hazard of birth, if they want, as Mr. Gandhi wishes, to take part in the question of our affairs, they must start by speaking our language as it should be spoken".

The reception at Taher Bagh

In 1901, about 53 thousand persons lived in Port Louis, the capital. Severe epidemics and the introduction of the train, which ensured communication between Port Louis and the centre of the country, had accelerated the exodus of Mauritians of French origin and coloured people to the Central Plateau and the creation of the towns of the Plaines Wilhems. Most Indian traders had remained in Port Louis. This is how the Muslim and Tamil traders offered a reception in honour of Gandhi at the "Taher Bagh" on November 13. It is during this reception that he exhorted Indians to become more interested in education and politics. Gandhi also took the train to visit various places such as Riviere du Rempart, Laventure in Saint Pierre, Beau-Bassin, Rose Hill, Forest Side and Curepipe and Rose Belle in the South to ask about the living conditions of the various populations.

An emissary in Mauritius

The fate of the men and women who had come from the Indian Peninsula preoccupied Gandhi. What should be done to educate them and at the same time help them to become aware of their rights? Therefore, on the advice of Gandhi, Manilal Doctor practised law from 1907 to 1911 and committed himself to defending the cause of the descendants of Indian immigrants. Manilal Doctor, an ardent lawyer, refused to remove his turban in court fought for the abolition of the "double cut" system of cutting two days' pay for one day's absence and Sunday labour as well as for the improvement of the fate of the small planter and the end of the indenture system.

Mauritius, guardian of Gandhian thought

The work towards emancipation and civic as Bellas political rights started by Manilal Doctor was continued with ardour in the 1940s and 1950s by two young Mauritian brothers of Indian origin, Basdeo and Sookdeo Bissoondoyal. The former who pursued university studies in India was greatly influenced by the thought and commitment of Gandhi. When he returned to Mauritius, he launched a literacy campaign in the country, thus laying the foundations of the political emancipation of the rural working classes. The action of Gandhi had major repercussions in Mauritius because of the similarities that existed between the situation in the island and that which prevailed in the Indian Peninsula. To a large extent, trade union and political struggle as well as the struggle for emancipation, universal suffrage and independence started in rural communities. It is therefore in homage to the Mahatma that March 12 was chosen as the date for the accession of Mauritius to independence. It was on March 12, 1930 that the Mahatma started the Salt March, a civil disobedience movement against British occupation. The visit to Mauritius of French writer Georges Duhamel coincided with the death of the Mahatma in 1948. Speaking of the coexistence of races on the Mauritian soil, Georges Duhamel said that "Mauritius resolved it in an exemplary manner and the day the island stops giving this example of pacific coexistence, then there will be no hope for the world." Mauritius had already taken the road that led to the realisation of the dearest of Gandhi's dream: that of pacific coexistence in the respect of human dignity.