COMMEMORATING THE MAKING OF OUR HISTORY : The Arrival of Arbuthnot’s Indentured Labourers in Mauritius in November 1834

By Satyendra Peerthum, Historian, Writer, and Lecturer

 & Kiran Chuttoo-Jankee, Researcher, Oral History Expert, and TV Personality

Recent research at the National Archives Department of the Republic of Mauritius has provided important and additional information on the indentured labourers who came to Mauritius on the ship the Atlas on Sunday, 2^nd November 1834. The story of these pioneer Indian labourers began almost two months earlier in Calcutta, India. On 10^th September 1834, 36 Hill Coolies of the Dhangar caste (originally from the hills of Bihar in eastern India who were then living in Calcutta) signed a five-year labour contract with George Charles Arbuthnot of Hunter-Arbuthnot & Company, a major British trading company in Mauritius, in the presence of C. McFarlan, at the Calcutta Police Head Office. MacFarlan, the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta, read and explained in detail the contract to the Indian labourers with the help of an Indian interpreter.

The Pioneer Indentured Labourers

Once the labourers agreed to the terms and conditions, they placed their thumb mark on the contract and on a separate list, which contained the names of the 36 Coolies, they placed an ‘X’ next to their names. The sirdar of these labourers was called Sooroop who was assisted by Subaram. In all, there were 36 males among Arbuthnot’s coolies, some of their names were Callachaund, Dookhun, Bhomarah, Bhoodhoo, Lungon, and Bhudhram. It is interesting to note that there were no women.

The labour contract which these labourers signed was written in Bengali. Furthermore, the monthly salary for the males was 5 rupees per month and for the females only 4 rupees per month. The sirdar was paid 10 rupees per month and the assistant sirdar around 8 rupees per month. In fact, they all received six months’ pay in advance before boarding the Atlas. It was Hunter Arbuthnot & Company that paid for their journey from Calcutta to Port Louis. As a result, one rupee was deducted from their monthly wages by that British company for the return passage to India and they were also going to be provided with food, clothing, lodging and medical care.

The Arrival of the November 1834 Indentured Workers

On the same day that the labour contract was signed, MacFarlan sent a letter to H. Prinsep, the Secretary to the Government of the Bengal Presidency, informing him of the agreement. The Chief Magistrate requested the Vice-President and Governing Council of the Bengal Presidency to give their stamp of approval to the contract and to allow the labourers to sail for Mauritius. On 15^th September, the Vice-President in Council gave his assent to the contract. On the very same day, the 36 Hill Coolies embarked on the Atlas and began their historic voyage to British Mauritius. The Atlas was under command of Captain Hustwick and was also transporting George Arbuthnot and other passengers as well as a large cargo of 400 bags of rice.

After a long voyage of more than six weeks, the Atlas sailed into Port Louis harbour on Sunday afternoon, 2^nd November 1834. However, George Arbuthnot had to wait until the following day before starting the formalities in order for his labourers to be landed on Mauritian soil. On Monday morning, 3^rd November, Arbuthnot, wrote an official letter on behalf of Hunter-Arbuthnot & Company to Governor Nicolay, which requested that:

“they be allowed to land 36 Hill Coolies from the ship Atlas, whom they intend to employ on their Estate, under guarantee that they shall not become a charge on the Colony”.

Hunter-Arbuthnot & Company provided Governor Nicolay with a financial guarantee which was kept in trust by the local colonial government in the Colonial Treasury and would be returned to that British company after the five-year contract of the labourers had expired. As a result, during the afternoon of 3^rd November, permission for the landing of the labourers was given by the British governor. However, it was only on Tuesday morning, 4^th November, that the 36 Hill Coolies were landed close to the old Customs House less than two hundred meters from the present-day Aapravasi Ghat.

Later that same day, Arbuthnot’s coolies were taken to Belle Alliance Sugar Estate near present-day Barlow, in Riviere du Rempart. In 1834, Belle Alliance was owned by Hunter-Arbuthnot & Company and it stretched over an area of 502 acres and had a workforce of between 190 to 200 slaves. The Indian labourers worked from sunrise to sunset, six days a week and they were also required to perform light duties on Sundays. Thus, they worked side by side with the slaves of Belle Alliance in the sugarcane fields.

The arrival of Arbuthnot’s coolies is the particular event that is commemorated each year on 2^nd November at the Aapravasi Ghat. In 1950, Dr.Brenda Howell, a British historian, called these first Indian labourers “the pioneers of a migration which was eventually to transform the character of Mauritian life and industry.” Furthermore, during the first period of the indenture system, between November 1834 and May 1839, around 25,468 Indians were introduced into this small Indian Ocean island. In general, between 1826 and 1910, more than 462,800 Indian and non-Indian indentured workers reached Mauritian shores and they forever transformed our country’s demography, economy, society, and politics. This is precisely why we remember and honour our ancestors as we commemorate the making of our history each 2^nd November.

Sources:

1. MNA/RA 341, Letters and papers received by the Colonial Secretary, September-November 1834.
2. MA, HA 73/Appendix G, No.3, Recapitulation of the Number of Indians introduced into the Colony of Mauritius, 1834-1839
3. MNA, ‘1^st Immigration: Arrival of Indian Immigrants from 1834 to 1842’ in the Annual Report on Immigration of the Protector of Immigrants for the year 1859
4. Le Cernéen, November 1834
5. La Balance, November 1834
6. MNA/J/K3A, Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Treatment of Immigrants in Mauritius (London, 1875) or the Report of the Royal Commission of 1875
7. The Mauritius Almanac for 1920
8. Brenda Howell, Mauritius, 1832-1849, A Study of a Sugar Colony (Ph.D thesis, University of London, 1950), Vol I.
9. Labour Immigrants in Mauritius: A Pictorial Recollection (MGI Press, Moka, 2001)
10. H. Ly Tio Fane Pineo, Lured Away : The Life History of Indian Cane Workers in Mauritius (MGI Press, Moka, 1984).