History of Bilateral Relations | Influence of the Indian National Movement | High-Level Visits
Bilateral Agreements with Mauritius | Political | Defence Cooperation | Economic and Commercial Relations
Credit Lines Extended to Mauritius | Education and Language | ITEC and Technical Cooperation | Consular
Cultural Relations | Pravasi Bharatiya Divas | World Hindi Secretariat
Bilateral Agreements with Mauritius | Political | Defence Cooperation | Economic and Commercial Relations
Credit Lines Extended to Mauritius | Education and Language | ITEC and Technical Cooperation | Consular
Cultural Relations | Pravasi Bharatiya Divas | World Hindi Secretariat
INDIA-MAURITIUS BILATERAL RELATIONS
History of Bilateral Relations :
- Mauritius maintained contacts with India through successive Dutch, French and British occupation. The French colony of Pondicherry played an important role in the development of Mauritius during the French occupation by providing skilled workforce for various projects in Mauritius. From the 1820s, Indian workers started coming into Mauritius to work on sugar plantations. From 1834 when slavery was abolished by the British Parliament, large numbers of Indian workers began to be brought into Mauritius as indentured labourers. The ship 'Atlas', which carried the first batch of Indian indentured labourers, reached Mauritius on November 2, 1834. This day is now observed in Mauritius as 'Aapravasi Day', a national holiday. Over the following decades, the number of Indian immigrants grew to a level where they came to constitute a majority of the population. In all, about half a million Indian indentured labourers are estimated to have been brought into Mauritius between 1834 and the early decades of the 20th century, out of whom about two-thirds settled permanently in Mauritius.
- Diplomatic relations between India and Mauritius were established in 1948.