" Seychelles is an archipelago of
115 islands located between four and five degrees
south of the equator on the western part of the
Indian Ocean. It is a paradise of islands
floating like tiny gems in the clear waters of
the Indian Ocean. It is a little over one
thousand miles from India and Sri Lanka in the
northeast, from the eastern coast of Africa in
the west and from Mauritius in the south. The
population is just over 80,000, 90% of whom live
on the mainland of Mahe with Victoria as its
capital. The rest of the population is spread
over in about thirty inhabitable islands.
Although recorded history has it that the
Portuguese first sighted these islands and French
settlers landed in 1770, there is ample evidence
to show that Asians such as Arabs, Chinese and
Tamils visited these islands during the 15th and
16th centuries. From time immemorial timber from
Seychelles was transported to Pondicherry for
shipbuilding and rich Tamil merchants from
Cauvery delta had trade dealing with
Seychelles.
The first Tamil, Ramalingam from Reunion, came to
Seychelles in 1789 as an advisor to the Governor
and was endowed with large areas of land for his
services. In 1864 the Naiken family established
their business followed in 1874 by Kandasamy
Chetty in business. Now one may see Tamil
influence here in the frequency of common Tamil
names such as Pillai, Chetty, Govindan, Naiken,
Kandasamy and Vadivelu and a large number of them
are in the business community...more
