Historical Context and Current Challenges Box 2.2: Chapter 2 Sugar plantations, the end of the slave era, and indentured servants Chapter 2 47. Constitutional conferences were held in 1955 and 1957, after which a ministerial system of governance was introduced. On 9 March 1959, the first elections to be based on universal suffrage were held. The constitutional conferences of 1961 and 1965 led the country further down the road to independence. Following the general elections of 1967, a new constitution was adopted on 12 March 1968. The country’s independence was proclaimed on the same day. Until 1992, the year in which Mauritius became a republic, the island was headed by a governor general representing the British Crown. 48. The preindependence and postindependence periods in Mauritius were marked by increasing tension and sporadic outbreaks of largely ethnic-based violence. Clashes between the Creole and Hindu communities had been evidenced as early as May 1965, in Trois Boutiques, a village in Souillac, in the southern region of Mauritius. Shortly before attaining independence in 1968, fighting occurred between the Muslim and Creole communities in the nation’s capital, Port Louis. 49. Democracy in postindependence Mauritius got off to a rocky start. In December 1971, a state of emergency was declared under the Public Order Act. This was an emergency measure designed to curb the rising unrest in the country, which was attributed to the activities of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM). Political parties and trade unions had some of their activities curtailed and several leaders of the MMM, including Paul Bérenger, were arrested. The first elections of the postindependence era were scheduled to occur five years after the (preindependence) elections of 1967. Through constitutional amendments, however, the election date was extended to 1976. It was not until 25 November 1976 that political meetings were allowed and elections held. 50. Successive elections have been held regularly since 1976, with smooth transitions to power. Initially, the two major parties in Mauritius were the Mauritius Labour Party (MLP) and the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD). The first prime minister of Mauritius, in 1968, was Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who was the MLP leader. In addition to the MLP, two other political parties have dominated the political scene: the above-mentioned MMM and, as a result of a spilt within the MMM, the Mouvement Socialiste Mauricien (MSM). Coalitions and alliances distinguish Mauritian politics, as different parties recognise the value of such strategies as a means of leveraging administrative and executive power for themselves. As noted in the Country Self- Sugar cane plantations had been established in 1721 by the French, although for much of the 18th Century production levels failed to meet the island’s needs. The sugar produced was used to meet the shipping industry’s demand for an alcoholic drink called ‘arack’. The number of sugar plantations grew slowly, and, by 1810, 9,000 to 10,000 arpents were under sugar cultivation. It was only under British rule and the repeal by Britain in 1825 of the preferential tariff for West Indian sugar that Mauritius became a major sugar producer and exporter, with the area under cultivation more than doubling from 25,000 to 51,000 arpents in the five years after 1825. In addition to the tens of thousands of slaves already in Mauritius, more than 30,000 were illegally landed in Mauritius in the 1820s. Many were constrained to work in the sugar plantations, where the need for slave labour was beginning to outstrip its supply. Furthermore, as a consequence of the outright ban on slavery in 1835, planters were forced to look elsewhere for labourers, especially after many of the newly emancipated slaves disregarded the new ‘Act of Abolition’ law that provided planters with access to their labour as ‘apprentices’ for a maximum additional six years, by purchasing their liberty before the end of the apprenticeship period. The British had sought an alternative supply of labour for the Mauritian colony as early as 1816. In 1816 and 1817, 500 Indian convicts were brought to Mauritius to work on building roads, and this number had grown to at least 1,017 by 1828. Mauritian sugar planters sent agents as far afield as China, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Singapore to look for labour. In the end, the planters opted for Indian indentured labourers, owing to their prior experience of living with a local free Indian population of artisans and craftsmen in Mauritius, as well as the need to avoid the appearance of importing labour illegally from Madagascar, among other considerations. The decision was also made because India was under a British administration, whose policy at the time favoured Indian emigration as a means of relieving the subcontinent’s overpopulation concerns. As a consequence, 75 indentured labourers arrived in 1834, heading an immigration boom that led to 451,000 landing by the end of the immigration period in 1910. More than 294,000 of these labourers stayed on beyond the end of the indenture phase. By 1862, the immigrant population comprised 62 per cent of the island’s population. A small number of Chinese traders also moved to Mauritius during this period. Source: Allen, RB. 1999. Slaves, Freedmen and Indentured Laborers in Colonial Mauritius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The voting franchise and the road to independence 46. 56 The British established a Council of Government in 1825, the members of which were nominated by the governor. By 1886, however, the council also included 10 elected representatives, although only wealthy, landowning individuals were allowed to vote. The franchise was extended in 1933, and, by 1948, all literate adults were allowed to vote. A newly formed Legislative Council replaced the Council of Government. The Legislative Council of 1948 comprised 34 members: 19 elected members, 12 members nominated by the governor of Mauritius, and three ex-officio members. Historical Context and Current Challenges 57