Aapravasi @192: Honouring Girmitiya Resilience and Heritage

The Aapravasi Ghat Committee marks the 192nd anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers in Mauritius

In the early morning hours of Monday, 2 November, Mauritius paused to remember a defining chapter of its national story. At the historic Aapravasi Ghat in Port Louis, the Aapravasi Ghat Indian Indentured Immigrants Girmitiya Arrival Celebration Committee held its 56th Annual Yaj Ceremony, paying solemn tribute to the 192nd anniversary of the arrival of indentured labour workers on the island.

An official public holiday since 2001, 2 November marks the historic landing in 1834 of the first 36 Girmitiyas — indentured labourers — who departed from Kidderpore Docks on the banks of the Hooghly River in then-Calcutta, the capital of the British Raj in India. This voyage inaugurated what colonial administrators termed the “Great Experiment.” Between 1834 and the system’s definitive termination in the early twentieth century (noted as 1924 in historical records), more than 450,000 indentured workers arrived in Mauritius, transforming the island’s demographic, economic, and cultural landscape forever.

The morning’s ceremony unfolded with deep reverence. Pandits and Panditas representing various socio-cultural organisations across Mauritius chanted Vedic mantras, filling the historic stone courtyard with sacred invocations. Following the rituals, descendants of the indentured immigrants stepped forward for the lighting of the ceremonial lamp, offering shradhanjali (tribute) and floral homages to honour the sacrifices of their forebears.

Initiated in 1970 by the late Beekrumsing Ramlallah, this symbolic Yaj has been faithfully perpetuated following his passing on 2 September 2000 by members of the Ramlallah family alongside Mrs Sarita Boodhoo. Addressing the gathering, Mrs Boodhoo paid tribute to Beekrumsing Ramlallah’s instrumental role in safeguarding and preserving the Aapravasi Ghat, which earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 2006. She reflected poignantly on the extreme hardships, oppression, and humiliation endured by the early workers, praising the extraordinary patience, resilience, and quiet resistance that enabled them to survive and thrive.

Mrs Boodhoo highlighted the remarkable social mobility achieved by these pioneers and their descendants. Within just a few decades of 1834, roughly 35,000 small planters of Indian origin had emerged, becoming the largest group of landowners after the Franco-Mauritian estate owners. Despite gruelling working conditions, the Girmitiyas fiercely guarded their heritage, transmitting their traditions, cuisine, values, and ancestral languages through community baithkas, madrassas, and evening schools.

Looking toward the future, Mrs Boodhoo issued a strong call for linguistic inclusion. While Mauritian Asian languages — including Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, and Mandarin — have earned national recognition within the school curriculum, national broadcasting, Speaking Unions, and Cultural Trusts, she emphasized that they must now find their rightful place in parliamentary proceedings at the National Assembly. Integrating these ancestral tongues into Parliament, supported by Artificial Intelligence to overcome logistical hurdles, would represent a decisive step toward authentic Mauritianism. She also pointed to the presence of Indian languages and scripts on Mauritian Rupee banknotes as a powerful testament to the nation’s ethnolinguistic identity and economic evolution.

Beyond institutional recognition, Mrs Boodhoo underscored the collective duty of parents to pass down oral histories, moral values, and mother tongues to younger generations. In an era marked by hyper-connectivity, rapid urbanisation, and recent social disturbances, she warned against a growing cultural vacuum. Grounding youth in their family traditions and ancestral languages — which serve not merely as communication tools, but as complete philosophies of life and mutual respect — is essential for building cultural security and lasting national unity.

The commemoration also looked across the Indian Ocean to the ancestral point of departure. Mrs Boodhoo revealed that she had written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the establishment of a monument at the historic Bhawanipore and Tolly Nallah depots along the Hooghly River, where Mauritius-bound Girmitiyas were once housed prior to embarkation. She further proposed that the Kolkata Port Authority transform Garden Reach into a Girmitiya Heritage Park and Museum, featuring artistic landscaping created by artists from the global Girmitiya diaspora and India’s ancestral recruitment regions.

Reinforcing this enduring bond, the Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius, Anurag Srivastava, announced during the subsequent official function — organised by the Ministry of Arts and Culture and the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund — that the Government of India will host the 19th Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD) Convention in Kolkata from 7 to 10 January 2027. Hailed as a profound “reverse migration,” hosting the convention at the historic point of departure celebrates the return of Girmitiya descendants as accomplished global citizens and leaders, offering Mauritian youth a transformative opportunity to connect their modern national identity with their living ancestral roots.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 6 November 2026