Introduction

Writings on Indian immigration and settlement in Mauritius rarely give special attention to the Tamils and generally assume that their evolution followed similar lines to the rest of the Indian community.

While this may appear largely to be true, in the sense that Tamils like the rest of the Indian labourers, initially worked on plantation estates, then moved to villages and acquired land and education as basis for social mobility, yet the Tamil community earlier than the rest, acquired the major attributes of a modern community with a modern education, life style, and more egalitarian outlook while preserving their religious and cultural traditions.

This paper will seek to argue that the distinctive path travelled by the Tamils can be explained by the influence of the Tamil merchant class which played a pioneering role in shaping the Indian Community, particularly the Tamil Community.

At the outset it is important to provide some brief notes on the present day Tamil Community of Mauritius. According to the Census of 1990, Tamils represent about 6,5 per cent of a total population of 1 million people. This percentage is often disputed because it is alleged that it does not take into consideration a considerable number of people who merely declare in the census returns that they are 'Hindus' or 'Christians', or who fail to mention Tamil language as one of the languages of their ancestors. However, in terms of conventional social categories publicly recognised in Mauritius, though not officially, Tamils constitute a distinct community with a strong sense of identity . It has its religious and cultural institutions, is overwhelming Hindu in religion and is almost equally distributed geographically in both rural and urban areas.

Most of its members belong to a lower middle class, mostly in blue and white collar jobs with a tiny professional elite at the apex. Tamils have always played an active role in public life, being prominent in trade-unions and politics and is often seen as a 'link community' between the two major segments of the population -- Creoles and northern Hindus. Inspite of its small share in the electorate, it plays a far greater role in politics than its members would warrant because of the permanent polarisation of Mauritian politics.

As early as 1729, Tamils had been introduced in Mauritius during French rule as artisans, and also as slaves...

After these brief notes it is important to trace the various stages of the migration of the Tamils in Mauritius in order to highlight the emergence and development of the Tamil Merchant Class. As early as 1729, Tamils had been introduced in Mauritius during French rule as artisans, and also as slaves. In 1810, when the British captured Mauritius, more Tamils came to the island, particularly Indian traders. In 1834, plantation Labourers were embarked from the ports of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras and between 1834 and 1926, about 470,000 were introduced in Mauritius. In the first half of the nineteenth century there also came in the island an Indian merchant Community comprising mainly of Gujerati Muslims and Tamils.

During the French period in the tiny Indian community comprising of mainly of free workers and slaves, no Indian appeared among the list of merchants who were usually defined as wholesalers. However towards the end of eighteenth century petty traders, peddlers and hawkers and other self employed persons did emerge among the Indian community. It is also known that Indians were not permitted to operate in the Island as traders and those who did come were sent back. After the French Revolution, the laws were slightly relaxed and occasionally we do come across Indians who called themselves traders or hawkers. During the early years of British rule , among those who followed the British flag, there were some traders.

By the 1820's and the 1830's a small Tamil trading community existed in the island with a few merchants, mostly Tamil Christians such as Zacharie Nalletamby and Arlanda Nanapragassa providing the nucleus for the development of the Tamil merchant class. As Mauritius developed into a sugar producing colony and economic activities expanded, the number of traders increased.

The Mauritius Almanacs of 1828 and 1837 listed an increasing number of Indian merchants, many of them were Tamil Christians such as Louis Ramasamy, Appavou Francois, Ayapa Lafleur r Perembelon, N. Baya and a number of Hindus such as Sinatambou Chetty, Poti Chetty, Ramchetty, Soucramania V, Annasamy, Moutousamy and Virapa, most of them already present before British conquest. They were mostly wholesalers; one was a ship owner, there was one or two manufacturers or tobacco, and also a few jewellers. It appears that they were servicing essentially the small Indian community.

Whereas the early Indian traders had been initially functionaries or artisans who had accumulated a modest capital to launch in trading activities, Indian merchants and traders, who came later, were based in India, and came with their capital. Their movement to and from the island to places like Seychelles, Reunion and South Africa leave the impression that they were mostly merchant travellers with no intention of settling in the Island.

By the middle of nineteenth century, the Tamil merchants and traders had become a self-conscious and conspicuous group who differed in wealth, clothing, consumption and life styles from the rest of the plantation workers. The names suggest that some of them belonged to the Chettiars trading caste while others belonged to various other castes, Describing some of the traders in 1870 , N. Pike wrote "Talking of the vaisyas or traders, they were known by the name of chetty or Chettiar - such as Cariety Chetty, Bori chetty and Telegu Chetty. Oil mongers who profess to be of the vaisya caste are to be found here in immense numbers, most of them carrying on trade" (Pike 1873 : 483)". Another writer in the 1950's confirmed that among the merchants "They were Pillays and Chettiars and being wealthier than the immigrants" (Roy 1960:260).

In the 1870's the most prominent traders were Chettiar - Teeroomoddy Chetty, co-proprietor of a sugar estate in 1823, a trader and a ship owner, and the Sinnatambou brothers who built the first mayor Temple in the island. Some merchants belonged to other caste. The most impressive Tamil Temple in Port Louis was built in 1856 by a merchant of the Vellala caste. Most of the Tamil traders settled in Port Louis, the port capital of the Island and a few of them also settled in the more populous villages of Mahebourg, Souillac, Mare-d ' Albert, Plaine des Roches and Central Flacq.

Hindu customs and religion remained dominant in the Tamil merchant community...

Like in town, those who settled in those villages set up their own temples which remain up to now among the most refined temple structures in the rural districts of the Island. Hindu religious practices and observances were regulated in these temples and led the Tamils to cohere around the traders who constituted an emergent elite with all the attributes of social leadership. This elite cultivated assiduously the cultural model of their homeland and established institutions in the colonial society. Merchant temples had distinctive ways of temple organisation. Although Brahmins were almost non existent among Tamils in Mauritius, the Vellala Temple has had a Brahmin priest from Madras since its creation. At the Sinnatambou Temple, it was the leading merchant Teeroomody Chetty who often acted as the officiating priest for the evening prayers. These temples contrast sharply with the rudimentary structures set up by the plantation workers on the estates.

Apart from being centres of worship, temples were the centres of social and cultural activities. Various religious festivals were organised in them and these religious festivals became regular public events in the town and villages. Temple administrations usually sought and obtained permission to have public processions during the cavadee and walking on fire and other festivals so that these soon became 'public' festivals similar in status to Catholic processions or the Muslim procession of Moharram.

The organisation of these festivals necessitated what may be called a cultural elite -- priests, artists, musicians , dancers and teachers so that the traders may be said to have developed a full cultural life because of their wealth while the plantation workers were struggling to piece together the fragments of culture they had carried over to Mauritius, The cultural and social initiatives of the Tamil traders were maintained in later years. In 1901 they participated with Muslim merchants to welcome Mahatma Gandhi during his visit in Mauritius; It was at the Sinnatambou Temple that M.K. Gandhi attended the Lakshmi Puja on Divali day (Ramyead 1989). In 1909 they supported Manilall Doctor, Gandhi's disciple in Mauritius, and under his influence they set up a modern school "The Young Man Hindu School" in 1909, which became a nursery for the Tamil intelligentsia in the first half of the twentieth century. They organised Tamil Theatre in 1931 and introduced the first Tamil talkie "Site Kalyanam'' and "Nallatongal" In 1937 they set up, the Tamil League, a club organising the cultural and literary activities in European languages.

In their efforts to cultivate their religion and culture they had to adjust to changes in a colonial society with a dominant western culture. They slowly adopted western education and accommodated themselves to the colonial context. Some of the outward trappings of Tamil culture were changed. Dress, food habits, and some of the outward aspects of culture were modified and replaced by new attributes. Endogamous caste or ethnic marriages were nor always maintained. The Tamil merchant community was slowly transformed, but this transformation did not lessen their commitment to the preservation of Tamil culture and traditional relationships. Occasionally they had to face encroachments from Christianity; despite occasional losses, they kept alive their religion and culture.

Hindu customs and religion remained dominant in the Tamil merchant community, even when they became an upwardly mobile elite. They maintained their overall coherence, were modernised as far as secular matters were concerned but did not shed their basic Hindu values and culture . Thus the Tail Merchants constituted a middle class elite practising their culture and religion in an urban and European Colonial Society. It was this model which was emulated by plantation workers on the estates and in villages' and by those who migrated to town.

The influence of the merchant class on the Tamil community...

Before we delineate further the influence of the merchant class on the Tamil community, we have to highlight the ways in which their influence pervaded the whole Tamil Society. As a trading community they were ubiquitous in the capital and their residential area had always attracted Indian labourers, who sought refuge from the rigours of plantation life or those who sought employment after their labour contracts had expired.

In the main villages there was always a few merchants, and where they had established temples, they usually incorporated slowly emerging rural elite in their religious and cultural organisations. Even in villages where there were no Indian traders, the socio-cultural organisations, already in existence, set the pattern. Lack of data does not allow us to examine closely this close collaboration between the traders and the remaining Indian community.

However, we have evidence that in one village, Mahebourg, it was 4 traders who bought a plot of land in 1856 and established a temple to preserve their religion and to establish a school to teach Tamil. By 1900, the members of the temple administration included, in addition to traders, sirdars, gardeners, job contractors as well as labourers. It is likely that in other villages similar developments took place, and some kind of an open-ended elite developed with traders of higher caste retaining a dominant position Another way in which the influence of the traders permeated other segments of Tamil Society was by marriage alliances with the children of the upwardly mobile rural elite, especially civil servants - teachers, clerks and other professionals. These contacts in both urban and rural settlements, marriage alliances and temple activities lead to reciprocal assimilation between the two groups in which the merchant class social and religious values have remained dominant.

Even when social barriers like caste or class did not help to foster closer ties between the traders and the rest of the Tamil or even the Indian community, religious and cultural events enabled their influence to spread. Religious festivals, regularly organised by the Tamil elite attracted a big crowd of people from all corners of the Island as well as celebrants, devotees and pilgrims. As early as 1850, Cavadee and Walking on Fire were regularly organised.

A description of Fire Walking in 1867, testifies to the popularity of such event. Walking on Fire attracted a huge crowd and was prepared for a month .

"Crowds gathered from all parts of the Island. Every railway train was full to overflowing, and very many more would have been too if the railway people had only had the bright idea of running an extra train or two on the 14th and the 15th taking advantage of the great affluence of passengers (Pike 1873:229). Such festivals were organised regularly in various temples of the island and were attended by high officers of the government (Hazareesingh: 1938) The influence of the elite was not confined to religion. Standards of dress, food, worship, prayers and music were emulated progressively by all Tamils. As early as 1840 it was reported that Indian labourers were dressing themselves like Indian traders in town. Public religious processions spread to all villages. Merchant shops provided utensils, books and other ethnic goods needed by the community and also an opportunity to exchange ideas. North Indians too later appropriated these forms of religious expressions. Writing about the contribution of the Tamils, U. Bissondoyal wrote "If Pongal and Deepavali have survived, it was largely due to them. Sankranti was almost non existent among the Hindi - speaking until Basdeo popularised it in the l940s'" (Bissondoyal 1990: 15).

The impact of the cultural activities of the Tamil elite cannot be minimised...

The impact of the cultural activities of the Tamil elite cannot be minimised. In a society, divided sharply on racial lines and which regarded Hindu customs and traditions with contempt and disgust, the Tamil merchants were able to make Hindu religion acceptable and respectable to the rest of society. They secured the presence of government officials at their festivals. Likewise plantation owners were brought to attend and to finance Tamil cultural and religious festivals thereby lending respectability to these traditions.

More importantly public celebration of festivals promoted social cohesion and became a vehicle for asserting social consciousness, while participation of northern Hindus contributed to the emergence of an embryonic Hindu identity. Both identities acquired a positive ring because the traders were a wealthy group accommodating itself to the modern education, urban norms and yet subscribing to religious orthodoxy and traditional culture. As a group of 'modernisers' spending lavishly on Hindu rites and festivals, they exercised a permanent fascination on the rising generations and the upwardly mobile segments of the Indian community. This should not mean that the plantation workers had not set up their religious and cultural institutions. We rather suggest that elite and popular traditions became linked in a continuum permitting changes while minimising discontinuities.

Despite their rich cultural background, the Tamils in Port Louis failed to assert themselves in the social and political field...

Despite their rich cultural background, the Tamils in Port Louis failed to assert themselves in the social and political field because in the early years the majority did not know enough English and French, which were then indispensable tools if they wanted to make themselves heard and respected. Only in the face of extreme injustice did they stand up to their rights. For example in the 1850's V.Sinnatambou, one of the leaders of the Tamil Community, enlisted the services of a lawyer, Mr Bolton to put a stop to police incursions in the premises of the Sinnatambou Temple.

Apart from this example we know hardly anything of the political work of the merchant class in the 1850's. In the 1860's the Tamil merchants were roused from their lethargy by the vigorous leadership of Rajarethoum Moodeliar, the nephew of V. Annasamy. Arriving in the island in 1867, Rajarethnum was appalled by the conditions of the Indians in Mauritius. With the close collaboration of Sinnatambou and Tiroumoudy Chetty, he took upon himself the mission of reforming the Indians and educating them in the richness of their civilisation and religion.

Influenced by the reform movement in India particularly the Veda Samaj of Madras, he was associated with the founding of the first Tamil newspaper in Mauritius in 1868. His lectures on Indian civilisation were widely applauded at the Societe d'Emulation Intellectuelle' by such persons like A. de Boucherville, E. Bazire and Charles Bruce, Professor of Sanskrit on King College and Rector of Royal College. He also founded a "Societe d 'emulation Intellectuelle" (Society for intellectual improvement) for Indians and lectures were given on a number of topics such as Hinduism, philosophy and the Arts.

In the 1870's he was for a brief period professor of Tamil at the Royal College and it was at that time that he led the Tamil merchants to take initiative to seek political power. They spoke on behalf of the Indian community and asked to be placed on equal footing with other sections of the population. They became critical of the labour law of 1867 and censured the police for ill treatment of Indian community. It was their restlessness which ultimately led to the setting up of the Commission of Inquiry on the Police. Rajarethnum, who was their spokesman, helped De Plevitz to write his petition on behalf of the Indian Immigrants and clandestinely collaborated with him throughout his political struggle. (Reddi 1986)

The Merchant class also fought for Indian representation in the Council of Government and championed the cause of the Indians on a number of crucial issues. A few Tamil electors had been on the electoral roll and with time as the number increased, coloured candidates at Municipal elections were forced to appeal to the Indian community. In 1860, the first Indian mayor of Port Louis was Eliacin Francois, a Tamil Christian and in 1885 another Indian Christian merchant, Gnanadicrayen Arlanda was appointed Indian nominee in the Council of Government.

Although these Indians rarely spoke on behalf of the Indians; yet they paved the way for future politicians. Throughout the nineteenth century, both at Municipal and general elections, there were one or two Tamils, who stood as candidates. They were unsuccessful but they kept an interest in politics. Towards the late 19th century they were joined by one or two north Indians but the efforts of the Indians' both Tamils and north Indians proved to be sporadic,

In 1909 the arrival of Manilall Doctor, Gandhi ' s emissary, to Mauritius resulted in a fresh spurt of political activity among Indians, both the Indian merchant classes and the descendants of the indentured labourers. Both the Muslim and the Tamil merchant classes made claims for representation in the Council government and disavowed the earlier government nominees Nallethamby, a Tamil Christian and Dr Sakir, a Muslim , were viewed as too creolised to be representatives of Hindu and Muslim interests respectively.

Under the influence of Manilall Doctor, they petitioned for the teaching of Indian languages, the creation of public cremation grounds and public holidays for Divali, Dussara, Holi, Maha Sivarathree and Sivmavrani . In 1909, Veerapa Padayachee of 20 Rampe Street, Port Louis, organised a meeting to thank the Secretary of State for the Royal Commission of Inquiry of 1909 and asked for its recommendations to be implemented. It was at his place that Manilall Doctor met Indians to discuss the recommendations of the Royal Commissions. Pressure from the Tamil Community resulted in the provisional appointment of K. Narainsamy to the Council of Government, and in 1911, they continued to press for a permanent appointment.

Attempts to secure political representation for the Tamils were pioneered by the merchant class. Towards the end of the 19th century, one or two north Indians stood as candidates and by 1927, two candidates Lallah and Gujadhur, both north Indians were elected in the General elections. The growth of political awareness among north Indians cannot be traced solely to the influence of the Tamil community. Education and the emergence of north Indian middle class were very important factors but the influence of the middle class Tamils was far from being negligible. Tamils had been the first to organise public functions for welcoming governors and to mark their political presence during public events and they were quickly followed by north Indians.

Efforts to secure political representation for Tamil Hindus were maintained by the Tamil elite. Meanwhile they organised public functions at the arrival and departure of governors or on the occasion of public events to mark their political presence and set the pattern for the rest of the Indian community. In 1890, both Tamil and Hindu (North Indians) presented separate addresses to the governor. In 1919 attempts were made to develop a unified leadership of the Hindu community when the Peace settlement was celebrated together. At this function, two North Indians - D. Lallah, an attorney and R. Gujadbur, a sugar estate owner, expressed the wish "for a union of the various classes of the Hindu Community". (Commercial Gazette: 1919)

The Tamil elite kept their interest in politics and showed a greater level of political awareness, yet they failed to secure representation through election as they constituted a minority in the electorate. With the development of mass politics after 1945, their minority status became more pronounced. Inspite of these weaknesses, they continued to play a much greater role in the various political groups than their numbers would warrant.

If the religious cultural and political impact of the Tamil merchants can be demonstrated, it is tempting to conclude that their influence on the economic evolution of the Tamils was negligible. This conclusion would be the more valid as a Tamil merchant class does no longer exist at present. A few Tamil merchants continued to survive at the beginning and in the early decades of the 20th Century. The ' Macmillan Illustrated' of 1919 mentions the names of Anthonymootoo, Vadamootoo, Coo Mootoosamy, and in the 1930s C. Canabady was one of the leading Indian merchants of his time

If by the 1870's the Tamil merchant class was still prominent economically, they were soon to be displaced from their position by Gujerati Muslim merchants and the Chinese. Writings on Indians refer to the presence of Tamil merchants in the last century but rarely explain their t disappearance ' in the present century. In the absence of reliable data it is still premature to speak of decline, even relative decline or even disappearance.

At present we do not know enough about their numbers and their movement to make any proper assessment. However newspapers are replete with examples of arrival and departures of Indian traders, and from their movements to Seychelles, Reunion, South Africa and India there are strong doubts whether the majority of them ever settled permanently on the Island, The general impression is that they were transients on constant lookout for greener pastures. If there were some who might have settled permanently, it appears that they were mostly clerks accompanying the traders, rather than the traders themselves.

Even for those merchant families in the 1920's and 1930's who abandoned trade, we cannot speak of decline since they remained upwardly mobile families whose children have embraced the liberal professions and joined the bureaucracy. This explanation should not overlook the fact that like all those in business these Tamil merchants were adversely affected by bankruptcies, partible inheritance, lack of heir, changes in the structure of international trade, and changes in the internal market. All these factors, even when present, make it difficult to draw any firm conclusion as the merchant community was too small.

Whatever be the reason for their disappearance, one factor which can be established is that neither their clerks who settled in the Island nor the Tamils who cohered around them inherited their trading activities. On the contrary even for those very few who remained in trade up to early 20th century, the dominant trend had been to replenish their ranks by upwardly mobile segment of the plantation workers and so reinforced the trend towards non-commercial professions. In fact marriage alliances between members of the merchant class families and the emergent rural Tamil elite which might have further diluted both traditional commercial values and agricultural values making the new elite overwhelmingly professional and bureaucratic while inheriting the religious and cultural as well as their secular values.

Conclusion

By way of conclusion, it has been argued that a primary role in the shaping of the Tamil community of Mauritius must be assigned to the Tamil merchant class. In the nineteenth century, they first had to accommodate themselves to an urban set up dominated by Western values. They emerged out transformed, economically, and socially subscribing to a set of secular values while cherishing their religion and culture. In turn it was the merchant class which mediated the acculturation process of the plantation workers, providing them with a model which survives to the present day and which in turn has been partially emulated by the rest of the Hindu community.

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