Bihari Mauritians are the descendants of mainly

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

and some

Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city ...

speaking migrants to

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. A majority of

Indo-Mauritian Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to Indian subcontinent or other parts of South Asia. History During the administration of the French East India Company (until 1767) and subsequent French rule at least 12,000 work ...

s are of Bihari descent, and the majority of Mauritians are Indo-Mauritian (the Hindus:

Bhumihar Bhumihars, also called Babhan, are a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar (including the Mithila region), the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal. The Bhumihars claim Brahmin stat ...

Vaishya Vaishya (Sanskrit: वैश्य, ''vaiśya'') is one of the four Varna (Hinduism), varnas of the Hinduism, Hindu social order in India. Vaishyas are classed third in the order of caste hierarchy. The occupation of Vaishyas consists mainly ...

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

Koeri The Koeri (spelt as Koiry or Koiri) and also referred to as Kushwaha and Maurya in several parts of North India are an Indian non-elite caste, found largely in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, whose traditional occupation was agriculture. According ...

Chamar Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...

Yadav Yadav refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite, Quote: "The Yadavs were traditionally a low-to-middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern state ...

Kurmi Kurmi is traditionally a non-elite tiller caste in the lower Gangetic plain of India, especially southern regions of Awadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. The Kurmis came to be known for their exceptional work ethic, superior til ...

, Banias, and Kayastha castes are well represented). All but one Mauritian prime ministers have been of Bihari descent.The Indian Diaspora
Some 'castes' in Mauritius in particular are quite unrecognizable from a subcontinental perspective, and may incorporate mutually antagonistic castes from an Indian setting into a single group. A 'Rajput' in Mauritius is of a sudra caste, the title having been usurped by this group in the nineteenth century. The terms Hindu and 'Indien' refer exclusively to north Indian Hindus. Migrants from Tamilnad identify their religious group as Tamil, not Hindu, and minority groups such as 'Telugus' and 'Marathis' are preoccupied with maintaining regional endogamy rather than with caste distinctions. Gujaratis are also seen as a separate community, from a trading rather than an indenture background, and maintain a social distance from descendants of 'coolies'. The former Brahmin elite are referred to as the Maraz and together with the former Rajputs and other Kshatriyas, now called 'Babujis', enjoy the prestige conferred by high-caste status, whilst politically they complain of marginalization. The community includes a

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 ...

majority, followed by

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

(

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

) while a minority practices Christianity. About 60 percent of the 1.2 million population of Mauritius is of Indian origin, many them from Bihar, with

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

as their mother tongue. Bihari Mauritians were mainly from the Gaya,

Chhapra Chhapra is a city and headquarters of the Saran district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is situated near the junction of the Ghaghara River and the Ganges River. Chhapra grew in importance as a river-based market in the 18th century when t ...

, Bhojpur and Gopalganj and East and West Champaran districts. In those early days of Migration, the labourers referred Mauritius as 'Marich'.

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''

wrote an acclaimed novel set in this period, based on extensive research, called the '

Sea of Poppies ''Sea of Poppies'' (2008) is a novel by Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh which was Short list, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 in literature, 2008. It is the first volume of the Ibis trilogy. In the words of Rajnish Mishra, "the Ibis tr ...

'. This fictional account tells of a ship, called 'The Ibis', which brought the Bihari bonded labourers to Mauritius. The main characters who embark on the ship include a widow saved from enforced

Sati Sati or SATI may refer to: Entertainment * ''Sati'' (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi * ''Sati'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike *Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer *Sati, a character in ''Th ...

by a man of lower caste, the daughter of a famous French botanist and a former aristocrat sentenced to penal transportation after going bankrupt. It also describes the devastation of the farming community in the region by the monopolistic British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. According to the book, many small land owners were forced to cultivate poppies to produce the opium that was trafficked to China. This created a supply of hungry and impoverished Bihari migrants who were desperate enough to brave the hellish journey to Mauritius and even more distant colonies of the empire.

Social stratification

Though the island is divided on ethnic and religious grounds, '

' Mauritians follow a number of original custom and tradition, quite different from those seen in the Indian subcontinent. Some castes in 'Mauritius' in particular are quite unrecognizable from a subcontinental perspective, and may incorporate mutually antagonistic castes from Indian setting into a single group. The "title" Rajput is used primarily by

Shudra Shudra or ''Shoodra'' (Sanskrit: ') is one of the four '' varnas'' of the Hindu caste system and social order in ancient India. Various sources translate it into English as a caste, or alternatively as a social class. Theoretically, class ser ...

castes in Mauritius, which was usurped by this group in nineteenth century. The 'vaish' are the largest and most influential caste group on the island, in which Koeris, Kurmi, Yadav, Teli, Bania etc. are included.The former

elites together with former Rajputs and other

Kshatriya Kshatriya ( hi, क्षत्रिय) (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority") is one of the four varna (social orders) of Hindu society, associated with warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the con ...

s are called 'Babuji' and enjoy prestige conferred by high caste status , though politically they are marginalized and their place has been taken by the castes who identify themselves as 'vaish'.

References

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Mauritian Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably ...

* Indian diaspora in Mauritius