Malbars or Malabars are an ethnic group of

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

origin in

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

, a French island in the Southwest

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, The Malbars constitute 25% of the population of

and are estimated to be around 180,000. There have been people of South Indian origin on the island since the 17th century, and those were mostly from Pondicherry. Most were originally brought in as indentured labourers in the second half of the 19th century and were mostly South Indian Tamils. Since then, the Malbars have developed some patterns of behaviour that are not quite those of their ancestors from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

nor those of the other inhabitants of Réunion.

Etymology

Malbars is derived from the word

Malabar Malabar may refer to the following: People * Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India * Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion Places * Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...

, a term which was used often by the French and other Westerners to refer to all Southern Indians, including the Tamils,

Malayalees The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predomina ...

, Telugus and Kannadigas. This term is based on the

Malabar region The Malabar Coast is the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing m ...

of the present state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

This term, applied by the French to Tamil labourers coming to Réunion, has been kept by the latter and others on the island to label their own identity.

History

Indian workers came to Réunion from South India, mostly from French settlements in

, Pondicherry, and

Karaikal Karaikal ( /kʌdɛkʌl/, french: Karikal /kaʁikal/) is a town of the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by the Rajah of Thanjavur and became a French Colony in 1739. The French held control, with occasi ...

. Most of these immigrants were ritually low in the

caste system Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

. Hard living conditions at home were the main reason behind their departure to La Réunion. The immigration of

indentured workers Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...

from South India started in 1827 but it was only after 1848 that indentured immigration began on a big scale.

Acculturation

The French government in Réunion made the first Malbars become Christian. However, many Malbars were only nominally Christian. The

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

was lost to

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceiv ...

.: "Réunion is a typical example of outsourcing by the French East India Company, and its history reveals how an hybrid culture emanated amidst Tamil settlers there, who are Tamils but could not speak Tamil, their mother tongue lost in the interregnum of 5 generations of separation from their homeland ..."

Recent developments

The Malbars desire to learn their ancestors' culture, and started studying their language and religions especially from

. Recently many Malbars, particularly those of upper and middle classes, have started to become completely

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

rather than nominally Christian.

Genetics

A genetic study has shown that the majority of the Indian origins of Malbars lie in the South-east of India. A significantly larger proportion comes from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, and

. The study also showed that 15-20% of the origins of Malbars come from elsewhere than India. Less than 1% comes from Europe.

Notable Malbars

Jean-Paul Virapoullé Jean-Paul Virapoullé ( ta, ழான் பால் வீரபிள்ளை) (born 15 March 1944 in Bras-Panon, Réunion) is a member of the Senate of France, representing the island of Réunion. Virapoullé is a member of the Union for ...

is currently Mayor of Saint Andre and first Vice President of the General Council of Réunion.

Tamil temples

* Chinmaya Mission temple, Quartier Francais, Sainte-Suzanne * Siva Soupramanien temple, Saint-Paul * Siva-Vishnou-Karli temple, Saint-Paul * Siva Soupramanien temple, Petit-Bazar on Avenue Ile-of-France, Saint-Andre * Sri Bala Subramanya temple, Saint Paul * Temple du Colosse, Saint André * Thiru Kalimata Temple, Sainte-Marie

Notes

External links

Indian Diaspora in Réunion

Réunion Tamils Cavadee
{{authority control Ethnic groups in Réunion Indian diaspora in France Tamil diaspora in Africa