Mauritius - Population

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The General Population (those who can’t be tagged as being of Indian or Chinese descent) make up about 30% of the islanders. They are the whites and the Creoles (people of mixed European and African origin), with European influences of culture and religion.

Mauritian Creoles are a diverse group, the result of intermarriage that cuts across class and ethnic considerations. They constitute just over a quarter of the total population and form a large working class. Their influence is a unifying one and their language, Creole, is the lingua franca of the entire population, spoken by all races.

The whites are descended from European, mostly French, settlers. Curiously, despite 158 years of British presence, only a handful of families think of themselves as Anglo-Mauritian. Franco-Mauritians make up only around 2% of the population but hold much of the island’s private wealth and dominate the business world.

Indian immigrants arrived in numbers under the indentured labour system, although some came later from the Indian subcontinent. By 1861, the Indian population outnumbered the whites and Creoles by 192,634 to 117,416, forming the ethnic and cultural majority. They now make up 68% of the population.

There are two major groups by religious definition: Hindus (some of whom are actually Tamils) and Muslims. Many of the Muslims migrated independently from India and Pakistan as traders.

To confuse the situation, intermarriage has resulted in an Indo-Mauritian element being introduced into the (Christian) General Population as well.

As well as forming the backbone of the labouring and agricultural communities, the Indo-Mauritians have developed through a history of industrial and political agitation to take vital roles in the economic and political life of the island.

Mauritians of Chinese origin are a small but ubiquitous ethnic community forming about 3% of the population. The first Chinese migrants came from Canton in the 19th century but the largest group is the Hakkas, from the province of Honan in northeast China.

There is a large Chinese quarter in Port Louis but Sino-Mauritians are to be found throughout the island, mostly as retailers or traders.

Their noticeable contribution to the development and unification of Mauritius is Chinese cuisine, which is found in private homes, as well as in restaurants and food stalls.

In spite of this wide variety of peoples, one of the attractions of Mauritius is its ethnic mix, not its ethnic division. Former prime minister of Mauritius, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, summed up his people aptly when he said: ‘The single great wealth of this island nation is its people, a multi-national group with an amazing blend of cultures, a political maturity admired by friend and foe alike and a jealously guarded freedom … The hospitality of Mauritians is legendary and spontaneous.’

Young Mauritians tell me that in the past decade marriages between ethnicities have increased, further blurring the lines between the various ethnic groups.

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