India-Mauritius cultural ties centuries-old, first Mauritian PM statue in Patna

New Delhi: India and Mauritius enjoy a cultural bond that goes back nearly two centuries, fostered with vibrant people-to-people ties and linguistic bridges.

Such is the link with the island nation that its first prime minister, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, drew his ancestry in Bihar, a region from where his father, an immigrant labourer, had come to Mauritius in search for livelihood.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a two-day state visit to Mauritius beginning March 11 to grace the island nation's national day celebrations as the chief guest.

Modi is travelling to Mauritius at the invitation of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam.

Mauritius, a former British and French colony, gained independence in 1968.

"Under the French rule, in the year 1729, the first Indians were brought to Mauritius from the Puducherry region, to work as artisans and masons," according to a profile of India-Mauritius bilateral ties published on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Under British rule, about half a million Indian indentured workers were brought to Mauritius between 1834 and the early 1900s. About two-thirds of these workers permanently settled down in Mauritius, it says.

"The first batch of these workers, comprising 36 persons, arrived in Mauritius on November 2, 1834, onboard the ship 'Atlas.' This day is now observed in Mauritius as 'Aapravasi Diwas,'" reads the profile dated October 2023.

On his way to India from South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi briefly stopped over in Mauritius from October 29 to November 15, 1901 and steered the destiny of Indian labourers with his three transformative messages – the importance of education, political empowerment and staying connected with India, according to the profile.

In a homage to him, the National Day of Mauritius is celebrated on March 12 (the date of Gandhi's Dandi Salt March).

Mauritius was one of the handful of countries with which Independent India established diplomatic relations in 1948, even before the Independence of Mauritius, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

India was represented by an Indian Commissioner in British-ruled Mauritius between 1948 and 1968, and thereafter by a High Commissioner after Mauritius became Independent in 1968.

Sir Seewoosagur became the first prime minister of Mauritius as a free nation.

He was born at Belle Rive in Mauritius to Moheeth Ramgoolam and Basmati on September 18, 1900, and the child was fondly called Kewal.

His father lived in the small village of Belle Rive, five miles away from Bel Air, in the district of Flacq, officials said.

Moheeth Ramgoolam had followed in the footsteps of other Indian immigrants.

His elder brother, Ramlochun, had left his home village in Bihar in search of his fortunes abroad.

"The immigrants had been lured by all sorts of fairy tales about how life was rosy in Mauritius like they would snatch handfuls of gold just by lifting stones. Moheeth Ramgoolam, aged 18, came on the ship the 'Hindustan' to join his brother in Mauritius. He worked as an indentured labourer to rise as 'sirdar' (overseer) on the sugar estate of Queen Victoria in the East," the official said.

Ramgoolam is the son of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, whose legacy is commemorated both in the land of his birth and the land of his forefathers.

A striking bronze statue of Sir Seewoosagur was unveiled at a street junction opposite the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna in 2008 by his son, who was also then the prime minister of Mauritius.

In 2018, on an invitation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Ramgoolam paid a three-day visit to Bihar, during which he visited Patna, Siwan, Nalanda, Bodh Gaya and Harigaon.

During this visit to Patna, the PM inaugurated a street in his father's name.

On being asked by the media how he felt about coming to Bihar, Ramgoolam had said, "It feels great. It feels even though I have been away from Bihar, it's like coming home." Modi's visit will reaffirm the strong and enduring bond between India and Mauritius and reinforce the shared commitment of both countries to enhance the bilateral relationship across all sectors, the MEA said in a statement on Friday.

The enduring cultural and interpersonal ties between India and Mauritius are nurtured by the Indian Cultural Centre in Mauritius (India's biggest in the world) and the World Hindi Secretariat, a bilateral organisation for the global promotion of Hindi, as per the profile on the MEA website.

Besides English and French, Hindi and Bhojpuri are spoken or understood by many members of the diaspora or Indian-origin people living in Mauritius.

A key reason for the special ties is the fact that people of Indian origin comprise nearly 70 per cent of the island nation's population of 1.2 million.