2nd November 2008 marks the 174th anniversary of the arrival of the indentured labourers in Mauritius. This specific event was a major milestone in the evolution of Mauritian history because their gradual introduction over a period of more than seven decades forever altered the demography, society, economy and politics of the island.

The indentured labourers played a central role in the process of transforming a little known and rugged Indian Ocean island into the most important producer of sugar in the British Empire by the mid-nineteenth century. In modern Mauritian historiography, there has been a tendency of focusing mostly on the genesis and establishment of the indentured labour system in British Mauritius. While, at the same time, the decline and the eventual demise of this system as well as the arrival of the last indentured workers have rarely been explored by Mauritian scholars.

<B> The Sanderson Committee Report</B>

In 1909, the Council of Government of Mauritius requested for a royal commission of inquiry from the British imperial government in London in order to secure a loan for the revival of the local economy. The Royal Commissioners discovered that there was still widespread abuses in the sugar industry such as the double cut system, the non-payment of wages of the indentured workers and they were being illtreated

As a result, one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission of 1909 was for the abolition of the importation of indentured immigrants into Mauritius from India. In 1910, as a direct result of the Commission?s findings, the Earl of Crewe, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, with the support of the British imperial government, appointed a special committee consisting of members of the British Parliament under the chairmanship of Lord Sanderson.

The Committee investigated the social and economic conditions of indentured workers who were sent from British India to work in the various overseas European colonies. During the course of the same year, the Sanderson Committee Report was published and it recommended that the exportation of indentured labour to British Mauritius should cease. It partially based its recommendation upon the fact that between 1900 and 1909, there was a gradual decline in the number of new indentured immigrants who were being brought to Mauritian shores.

<B> The last indentured workers</B>

The Mauritius Almanac of 1913 provides important statistics on the last decades of the indentured labour system in the colony. Between 1906 and 1910, more than 1700 indentured labourers arrived in Mauritius, while more than 3400 former indentured workers actually left the island. This clearly shows that there were twice as many former indentured immigrants leaving Mauritius than the number of new indentured workers arriving. In addition, during the 1910s, thousands of former Indian sugar cane workers left Mauritius for India or for other sugar colonies such as Natal, Guyana and Fiji.

Between 1923 and 1924, around 1395 labourers were landed in Port Louis harbour and in May 1924, the last batch of indentured workers set foot on Mauritian soil. Most of these labourers came from the United Province and they had already worked in other British territories such as British Guyana, Trinidad and Natal in South Africa.

By December 1924, more than half of these Indian workers were not satisfied with their working conditions and opted to return to British India. It is interesting to note that in June 1978, Sir S.Ramgoolam, the then Prime Minister of Mauritius, had unveiled a plaque at the Aapravasi Ghat in order to commemorate the arrival of the last batch of indentured workers in Mauritius.

<B> Maharaj Singh?s Report</B>

In January 1925, Kunwar Maharaj Singh, a high-ranking officer of the Civil Service in the United Province in India and an aristocrat, was sent by the British Government of India to Mauritius. Hugh Tinker, a British historian, eloquently observes: ?At last an Indian official of standing had been deputed to examine the situation of overseas Indians?.

Maharaj Singh?s objective was to investigate the social and economic conditions of the Indian immigrants settled in Mauritius. The key question which he needed to answer was whether the colony still needed to import additional Indian labourers for the local sugar industry?

On 27th February 1925, Maharaj Singh submitted his report to the British Government of India. He mentioned that the Indian labourers and their descendants had achieved a lot in terms of social and economic progress and the indenture system should be terminated. A few weeks after, the British colonial authorities in India accepted his recommendation and no more indentured workers were sent to Mauritius.

<B> By Dr Satteeanund PEERTHUM & Satyendra PEERTHUM</B>