In Search Of Our Ancestors

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In Search Of Our Ancestors

Author:

Dr. Armoogum Parsuramen

Co-Author:

S Peerthum

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction:

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

In Search Of Our Ancestors

Fig 1. Immigrant Parasuraman with his jahajibhais and other Indian Indentured Labourers being photographed at the Immigration Depot or the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site in December 1891 and January 1892

(PG Series, Immigrant Photo Registers, Mahatma Gandhi Institute Indian Immigration Archives)

Fig 2. There were hundreds of Tamil Old Immigrants who signed the de Plevitz Petition between January and May 1871 at Nouvelle Decouverte. They came from all over the island and either signed their names or placed a mark next to their names. It was the first act of mass and organized protest and resistance by the Tamil Old Immigrants against the repression of the British colonial officials and the planters (RB Series, Petitions, National Archives Department)

***

With the Special Contributions of

Mr. Nivitri Sewtohul, CSK,

Retired Deputy Rector, Education Officer & Mauritian Writer

Dr. Céline Ramsamy-Giancone,

University of Reunion, La Reunion

Mr. Selvan Naidoo of the 1860 Heritage Centre,

South Africa

Late Mr. Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy,

Former Director and Under Secretary General at the United Nations, India

Dr. Rahul Pillai Sivashanmugham

Parvatibai Chowgule College, Goa University, India

Late Mahen Utchanah,

Former Chairman of GOPIO International & Minister, Mauritius

Mr. Cheddi Sidambarom,

Researcher & Writer, Guadeloupe

Nalini Naidu,

Cuilinary Author & Girmit Researcher, Fiji

Dr. Marcello Mello,

Senior Lecturer, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil

A Publication of the

Armoogum Parsuramen Foundation (APF),

Old Mill Road, Pereybere Republic of Mauritius (October 2022)

***

Fig 3. Immigrant Parasuraman with his jahajibhais, Immigrants Jayan and Manian

Being photographed at the Immigration Depot and

Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site in December 1891

(PG Series, Immigrant Photo Registers,

Mahatma Gandhi Institute Indian Immigration Archives)

Fig 4. In 1843, Le Mauricien was the first pro-planter colonial newspapers to publish notices in the Tamil language such as marriage announcements, religious services, public auctions, and funerals. Between the 1840s and 1860s, the dozens of notices were published on behalf of free Tamil immigrants, traders, merchants, and even some former indentured Tamil immigrants

(Le Mauricien, 27 Mars 1843, The National Library of Mauritius)

Fig 5. Another detailed Map of the Madras Presidency showing Regions of Recruitment of the Tamil and Telugu Indentured Workers who came to Mauritian shores between 1826 and 1910 including Salem, Madras, Pondicherry and many other areas. (National Archives of the Republic of India (NAI), The Imperial Gazetter, Vol XVI (1896)

Fig 6. A List showing the names and wages of Chamapaten, a Master Stone Mason, Arlanda, Charpenter, and 19 other skilled Tamil workers who worked on some of the public buildings in Ile de France in 1777. Between 1728 and 1790, more than 2,000 Tamil Indian skilled workers were brought to work in the colony (OA Series, National Archives Department)

Fig 7. A 3-Year Indentured Labour Contract Agreement between Mr. Harel, a Franco-Mauritian estate owner in Pamplemousses District, and 18 Tamil Indentured Labourers signed 27th July 1859 and drafted by an emigration agent. Immigrant Mootoosamy was the sirdar and represented the interest of this small group of Tamil labourers (PF Series, Mahatma Gandhi Institute Indian Immigration Archives)

Fig 8. The Emblematic 16 Steps of the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site in 2011 where between 1860 and 1910, tens of thousands of Tamil Indentured Immigrants Climbed at they started a new life in Mauritius (Satyendra Peerthum, GTF Collection)

DEDICATORY PAGE:

A GARLAND OF TRIBUTE TO THE BRAVE AND BOLD TAMIL INDIAN FREE PASSENGERS/IMMIGRANTS, SLAVES, INDENTURED LABOURERS & THEIR DESCENDANTS THE TAMIL INDO-MAURITIAN WORKERS OVER PAST NEAR THREE CENTURIES

Il ne faut donc aucun doute que, parmi les immigrants indiens a Maurice, les Tamouls furent les tout premiers a y venir comme commercants, artisans ou laboureurs. Ils partagerent la meme vie difficile des autres coolies mais connurent la prosperite des premiers….Le fait, cependant, que nous etions les permiers parmi les Indiens a venir a Maurice ne confere a aucun d’entre nous advantage de droits ou de privileges. Mais cela nous rappelled ce que nos ancetres etaient capable de faire par la foi, la motivation et le travail acharne-

Fig 9. Ramoo Sooriamoorthy’s book which has become a classic and a work of reference in modern Mauritian historiography. The Tamil Indians Immigrants in Mauritius and the Tamil Indo-Mauritians had to wait almost 250 years before the story of their migration, settlement, and contribution in the making of this was country and nation was told by a well-known Tamil Indo-Mauritian writer and scholar (Ramoo Sooriamoorthy, Les Tamouls a l’ile Maurice, 1977)

This book is dedicated to all those Tamil free immigrants, slaves, indentured labourers, and Indo-Mauritian Tamils who through their sacrifices, toils, tears, blood, and by the sweat of their brows have contributed in transforming Mauritius from being a barren and rocky no-man’s land into a garden of sugar and then into a modern and developed democratic country which serves as a reference point and also as a shining beacon to the rest of the modern world-

Professor Armoogum Parsuramen (GOSK) & Mr. Satyendra Peerthum-Historian (AOYP)

Fig 10. The Silambou Monument unveiled in April 1986 erected By the International Movement of Tamil Culture Mauritius Branch with the support of the Government of Mauritius and on the occasion of Varusha Pirappu in the presence of Sir Anerood Jugnauth, the then Prime Minister of Mauritius. It marks the Tamil Indian Migration and Settlement in Mauritius and emergence of the Tamil Indo-Mauritian Community (S. Peerthum Photo Collection).

Acknowledgements

The main co-authors wish to put on record their gratitude to the following overseas scholars as special contributors to this landmark publication namely: Mr. Nivitri Seetohul, Mauritian writer and former education officer, deputy rector, and writer, Dr. Celine Ramsamy, Lecturer in History at the University of Reunion Island and President of ODI-La Reunion, Selvan Naidoo, Historian and Writer and Editor of Vanakkam South Africa and the Director of the 1860 Heritage Centre, Late Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy, Writer, a former Director and Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Official and International Anti-Apartheid Activist, Dr. Rahul Pillai Sivashanmugham, Parvatibai Chowgule College, Goa University, Goa, Republic of India, the Late Mahen Utchanah, former Chairman of GOPIO-International and former Minister, Mr. Cheddi Sidambarom, Writer and Researcher from Guadeloupe, Mrs.Nalini Naidu, Culinary Author and Girmit Researcher based in Sydney, Australia and originally from Fiji, Dr. Marcello Mello, Brazilian anthropologist , writer, and Senior Lecturer, Federal University of Bahia in Brazil.

The main authors also extend their thanks to Professor Doug Munro of the Queensland State University and Retired Historian based in New Zealand, Dr. Vijaya Teelock, Retired Associated Professor in History of the University of Mauritius and former Chairperson of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund and Vice-Chairperson of the Truth and Justice Commission of Mauritius,  the Late Dr. Shakuntala Boolell, former Associate Professor and French language and literature from the University of Mauritius, Mr. Satyadeo Peerthum (GOSK), former President and Secretary of the Arya Sabha of Mauritius, former Inspector of Hindi-Speaking Schools of Mauritius, former Vice-Chairman of the Hindi-Speaking Union, Writer, and Historian, the Heirs of Allister Macmillan residing in London, UK, the Naidoo family of South Africa, and the Coopen, Seeneevassen and Ringadoo families of Mauritius, and Mr. Vikram Mugon of the International Slavery Museum who worked on the original Tamil exhibit back in 2014.

The main authors are also especially grateful to the Global Rainbow Foundation, Mr. C. Narayanan and his hardworking and dynamic printing team based in Chennai, India, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute Archives, the National Archives Department, the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, the National Library of the Republic of Mauritius, the National Heritage Fund of Mauritius, the Carnegie Library of Curepipe in Mauritius, the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture, Jackie de Maroussem of the Eureka House, the UNESCO Indentured Labour Route Project, the ILRP’s Indian Ocean Committee, the Tamil League, the Archives Departmentale de la Reunion, the National Archives of India, the National Library of India, the 1860 Heritage Centre of Durban in the Republic of South Africa, the ISS Singh Collection of Durban in South Africa, Natal Archives Depot, Pietermaritzburg, Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa, Suria Govender Collection, Natal, South Africa, Archives Departementale de la Guadeloupe, India SanmargaIkya (TISI) Sangam of Fiji, and National Archives of Fiji.

Professor Dr. Armoogum Parsuramen (GOSK) would like to dedicate this book to his ancestors Immigrant Parasaraman and Murrichee, his great grandparents, Ramalingam Parasuraman and Pakuramah Pakira Pillay, his grandparents, Poornasamy Parsuramen, also known as Vela, and Rookoo Parsuramen, his parents,and of course his wife is Sheela and they have 3 daughters, Navina, Kovila, and Darshani who are near and dear to him.

Professor Parsuramen is also greatful to Rajoo Parsaruramen, his uncle, and his cousin, Indiren Parsuramen and other members of the Parsuramen family. His teachers and mentors at Friendship College, Bhujoharry College, the University of Mauritius. The staff at the World Bank and UNESCO who have worked with him and also his dear staff at the Global Rainbow Foundation. A special thanks and though for Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Harish Boodhoo, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, and Mahatma Gandhi who have paved the path for us all and have shown that service to others is service to God and that we must be men and women in the service of humanity namely the downtrodden and the vulnerable.

Mr. Satyendra Peerthum (AOYP) would like to dedicate this book to his family, Mrs. Sharmila Poonam Peerthum, his beloved wife, Satyam Kartik Peerthum, his dear son, Sunidhi Lutchmee Peerthum, his dear son, Mrs. Dulary Peerthum, his mother and also historian and writer from the Republic of Guyana, and the late Dr. Satteeanund Peerthum, his father also former senior historian and ex-minister, ambassador, teacher, research fellow, journalist/editor, and writer for having introduced to the study of history and the key role his parents had in making him into a professional historian.

He is also grateful and dedicates this book to Professor Doug Munro of New Zealand, Professor Nigel Worden, late Professor Robert Shell, and Professor Christopher Saunders of South Africa, to Dr. Vijaya Teelock of Mauritius, and Mr. Gollam Mamade Kramutally residing at Plaine Verte, Mauritius who is my dear friend and like an elder brother. He is also thankful to Mr. Chand Hariduth Ramgoolam, the Director of AGTF, Mr. Rishiraj Kanhye, the Chairman of AGTF, Mr. Lovehin Andiapen, the Acting Head of the Technical Unit of AGTF and World Heritage Site Manager, and Mrs. Babita Devi Nisha Bahadoor-Rambhajanam, Research Assistant at AGTF and dear friend and fellow historian.

This is work is also dedicated to the late Dr. Corinne Forest, former Head of the Technical Unit at AGTF, who was a dear friend, mentor, guide, and elder sister who was a gifted and brilliant museologist, defender of Mauritian heritage, and an emerging UNESCO World Heritage Expert who left us too early and she will be missed. This monumental work is dedicated with heartfelt love, admiration, and gratitude to them all.

Fig 11. The famous gateway of the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site where tens of thousands of Tamil Immigrants passed through as they started their lives as indentured labourers in Mauritius (Satyendra Peerthum, AGTF Collection)

Fig 12. A Map of Mauritius showing some of the Sugar Estates Where the Tamil Indian Indentured Labourers worked And lived during the 1800s and 1900s (Prem Saddul, Atlas of Mauritius for 2012)

Introduction:

The Saga of the Tamil Indians and Tamil Indo-Mauritians in Colonial Mauritius and After: A Three-Centuries-Old History of a Community’s Struggle, Resilience, Diversity, Tolerance, Cultural, And Peaceful Contributions to the Nation-Building Process in Mauritius (1728-2022)

In Search of our Ancestors: A Historical and Pictorial Presentation and Tribute to the Tamil Indian Migration and Settlement in Mauritius and their Descendants (1728 To Present Times) and in other Parts of the World" is a landmark book which is being launched by Global Rainbow Foundation marking the 294th anniversary of the arrival of the Tamil artisans and slaves from India to Mauritian shores on 11th November 2022 and the 188th anniversary of the arrival of the Indian indentured workers in Mauritius on 2nd November 2022.

It is estimated that between 1728 and 1930, more than 150,000 Tamil Indian artisans, free passengers including merchants and traders, slaves, and indentured men, women, and children reached the shores of our small Indian ocean island paradise. Out of which the majority were the estimated more than 107,000 Tamil Indian indentured workers who arrived in British Mauritius between 1826 and 1910. This massive book is essentially the long, complex, and epic social history of their migration, settlement, and their descendants in the making of the Mauritian state and nation over a period of almost three centuries.

It is important to note that during the mid-1930s, Aunuth Beejadhur published his work The Indians of Mauritius  in 1935, during the following year, The Indian Centenary Book edited by Kissoonsing Hazareesingh and Kalla Ramaswami Pydayya’s, Indians in Mauritius were published. Several years after, in 1950. Dr.K. Hazareesingh launched his famous A History of Indians in Mauritius, 1st Edition. Between the 1950 and the 1970s, several books and dissertations on the history of Mauritius were written, launched and published which contributed to enhancing our understanding of Mauritius, its history and its people.

However, the history , achievements, and importance of the Tamil Indians and Tamil Indo-Mauritians were only mentioned and briefly explored. It was only in 1977 that Ramoo Sooriamoorthy, a Tamil Indo-Mauritian writer and scholar published his now well-known and groundbreaking masterpiece The Tamils In Mauritius. Thus, the Tamil Indo-Mauritian community had to wait two and a half centuries for the publication of major book on the history and importance of their ancestors and community in the making of the Mauritian state and people. Almost half a century later, this book was published once again with some changes and alsono major academic work on the Tamil Indians and the Tamil Indo-Mauritians has seen the light of day in recent years.

Between the 1980s and the 2010s, several academic books in Mauritius and overseas by numerous local and overseas historians, scholars, academics, and writers have been produced. Numerous international conferences have also been held including the World Tamil Diaspora Conferences, indentured labour in Mauritius and the world, on the Indian Diaspora, and Migration studies. But, the history of the Tamil Indians and Tamil Indo-Mauritians received very limited focus and analysis and got lost in the wider discourse over major topics such as slavery, maroonage , the sugar, demographic, and labour revolution, indentured labour, vagrancy, free passengers, European colonization, the Mauritian working class, protest, resistance, decolonization, and the advent of independence and its aftermath.

Even scholars and writers such as Dr. Satteeanund Peerthum, Sydney Selvon, Vijaya Teelock, Sada Reddi, J. Chan Low, Cader Kalla, Raj Boodhoo, Muslim Jumeer, CRIOS Study Group, Marina Carter, Richard Allen, Clare Anderson, Benjamin Moutou, Msgr Amedee Nagapen, and several others never produced a detailed  work which concentrated on the historical and pictorial presentation of the Tamil Indian migration, settlement, and their descendants in Mauritius and different part of the world. This clearly led to a major lacunae or gap in modern Mauritian historiography.

Furthermore, more recently, in 2020, Dr. Peter Vethanayagamony, a Tamil Indian academic and writer, based in the USA published his major edited work entitled Tamil Diaspora: Intersectionality of Migration, Religion, Language, and Culture. While it is a laudable, academic, and multi-disciplinary study it was limited in terms of scope and breadth and the history of the Tamils in Mauritius was not covered in any of the 19 articles. Furthermore, over the past nine decades of more, in almost all of the aforementioned works, there were few pictures, lithographs, charts, and maps to help shed new light on the Tamil Diaspora in Mauritius and in other parts of the world between the 1720s until the present day.

In 2013, with the advent of the World Tamil Diaspora Conference in Mauritius and in 2014, UNESCO’s adoption of the Indentured Labour Route Project with the AGTF’s and MGI’s organization of a successful international conference based around the ILRP, the idea of this book was born. Over the past eight to seven years, the authors have been in regular contact and have worked together on this massive book and in early 2022, they decided to finally complete this work and have it launched as the moment was right in India and Mauritius.

In Search of our Ancestors: A Historical and Pictorial Presentation and Tribute to the Tamil Indian Migration and Settlement in Mauritius and their Descendants (1728 To Present Times) and in other Parts of the World’ through its more than 450 pages, 21 chapters, with a detailed introduction, annexes, a lengthy bibliography and more than 270 pictures, lithographs, charts, tables, and maps, it provides a unique, colorful, detailed, and epic narrative and insights into the social history of the migration, settlement, and the Tamils and their descendants as well as their role in the making of Mauritius and also in other parts of the former plantation world between the 1700s and the 1900s mainly.

Mauritius is a nation that is comprised of immigrants who came to Mauritian shores from Europe, Asia and Africa.  During the course of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, three different European colonial powers as well as European colonists have introduced free and unfree labourers from the Indian subcontinent including the Tamil-speaking districts. Between the 1630s and early 1700s, the Dutch introduced slaves and free workers from India, Madagascar and South-Eastern Asia.

From the 1720s to the early 1800s, the French colonial authorities and French colonists imported tens of thousands of slaves and some free labourers from Africa, China, and India with many coming from present-day greater Tamil Nadu. Between the 1830s and early 1900s, the Franco-Mauritian, British, Free Coloured, and Indians planters, including the Tamil Indian, merchants, traders, and negociants imported hundreds of thousands of indentured workers from India, Eastern Africa, South East Asia, Madagascar, Aden, Sri Lanka and China.

During the early British period, the indentured labour system existed on a small scale between 1826 and mid-1834, with the importation of around 2251 Indian and Chinese contract workers, with the majority of indentured workers coming from the Tamil-speaking districts of India. At the same time, it is important to note that between 1828 and 1832, Bourbon or Reunion Island imported 3351 Tamil and Telugu Indian indentured workers from southern India. It was only between November 1834 and May 1839 that the large scale importation of Indian workers began with an introduction of more than 25,000 Indian contract workers with more than one third being Tamil Indians. By 1843, it became state-controlled and state -sponsored under the aegis of the local British colonial government.  The indentured labourers were recruited under a five-year labour contract.

Between 1843 and 1910, more than 430,000 indentured workers were brought to Mauritius shores with more than 25% of them being Tamil-speaking regions of the Subcontinent. Furthermore, more than 80% of the ancestors of the Mauritian population arrived as indentured immigrants and passed through the gates of the Immigration Depot or Immigration Department and known today as the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site, including tens of thousands of Tamil indentured immigrants. The system contributed in the expansion of the sugar industry and in making Mauritius the most important exporter of sugar in the British Empire

Between 1826 and 1910, around 462,801 indentured workers, or 452,070 Indian and 10,731 other contract labourers, were recruited in India and other parts of the Indian Ocean World and brought on an estimated 1600 ships to Mauritian shores. This included more than 107,000 Tamil immigrants with most of them climbing the 16 steps the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site and three days later passing its historic gateway to go toil on the local sugar plantations, other estates, Port Louis, and in the colony’s emerging towns and villages. Furthermore, Mauritius was the first country to introduce indentured Indian labourers, including the Tamils, and Aapravasi Ghat was the first depot where indentured labourers were processed.

More than two-thirds of them remained and forever altered the island’s social, demographic, economic, religious and political landscape and their descendants. In addition, the Tamil Indo-Mauritians formed an integral part of this complex social and economic process as they contributed to the emergence of a pluri-ethnic society. At the same time, it goes with saying that the Mauritian experience with indentured labour and the early history of the Aapravasi Ghat are unique because they provide important and well-documented insights into the nature and dynamics of post-emancipation societies which emerged in the European colonial plantation world during the 19th century.

After all, the indenture labour system created a distinctive multi-cultural society in Mauritius. Indentured immigration in British Mauritius symbolizes the successful interaction and peaceful co-existance of communities of Asian, African and European which has led to the emergence of a Mauritian pluri-ethnic society. It should be noted that between 1826 and 1946, there were more than 5.2 million Asians, Africans, Europeans, and Pacific islanders who were taken to work in around 68 different countries, former colonies, and territories around the world. There were indentured and contract workers including those under the kangani, maistry, credit-ticket system which included written and oral long-term and short-term contracts.

During the same period, another 1million local-born individuals or those who formed part of an endogenous workforce were engaged under written and oral long-term and short-term contracts. Between 1826 and 1910, Mauritius received the 3rd high number of indentured or contract workers with one fourth being Tamil Indians as mentioned earlier. Between the 1870s and 1920s, around 25,000 and 30,000 Mauritians became engaged under 1 year contracts with some under 3-year contracts including some Tamil Indo-Mauritians.

In Search of our Ancestors:A Historical and Pictorial Presentation and Tribute to the Tamil Indian Migration and Settlement in Mauritius and their Descendants (1728 To Present Times) and in other Parts of the World’ presents the life-stories of more than 100 Tamil Indians and Tamil Indo-Mauritians from the 1700s to the late 20th and early 21st centuries or Present Times. It also provides detailed narratives on the life-stories of dozens of Tamil free passengers, slaves, and indentured workers and also the social history of more than 150,000 other Tamil Indians who reached Mauritian shores between the 1720s and the 1920s. It illustrates the history of these brave and valiant pioneers who transformed Mauritius from a barren volcanic island into a garden of sugar and into a shining beacon to the rest of the world.

In 1995, in his classic work ‘Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism’, David Northrup, American social historian, observed: "Despite the fact that indentured labor contracts usually guaranteed return passages, a great many indentured laborers settled permanently in their new homes after the expiration of their contracts, rather than