Indian Indenture in Mauritius

Sites, Structures & Tangible Heritage

During the 19th century the demographic and socio-economic landscape of Mauritius was irrevocably transformed by the immigration of around half a million men, women and children, brought to service the island’s burgeoning sugar industry under the indenture system. The vast majority of indentured immigrants were Indians, although a few thousand Chinese, Malagasies and Liberated Africans also arrived as labourers during this period, and were contracted into estate employment on similar terms. The indenture period for Mauritius is calculated as beginning in 1834 and terminating in 1923 with the last trickle of labour immigrants from India. This book provides an introduction to sites of significance to the half a million or so men and women who arrived on Mauritius as indentured labourers and which can be deemed ‘lieux de memoire’ or places of tangible heritage.