On 2nd November 2022, the Mauritian nation and the Government of Mauritius will be commemorating the 188th anniversary of the arrival of the indentured labourers to Mauritian shores at the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site. Between 1826 and 1910, around 462,800 Indian and non-Indian indentured men, women, and children reached Port Louis. Among them more than 47,000 individuals or around 10% were young boys, girls, children and infants between the ages of 17 and 3 months. Furthermore, one of the important themes of research, when looking at the history of the indentured labourers, the vagrants and vagrancy in British Mauritius, is the issue of vagrant young boys and children.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds of indentured children and young boys, ex-indentured children and even Indo-Mauritian children and young boys who were often orphans were arrested by the local colonial police. They were imprisoned at the Vagrant Depot, the Port Louis Prisons, Beau Bassin Central Prison, Government Reformatory and the rural vagrant depots and prisons as the colonial authorities tried to limit and restrict their freedom as individuals and deny them their human rights.
The Vagrant Depot and the Powder Mills
In order to deal with the increasing number of vagrants, desertion, and illegal absence among the indentured and non-indentured workers in the colony, Governor Barkly established the Vagrant Depot at Grand River North West in Port Louis on 23rd February 1864. More than 22 years later it was closed in early 1887. Between 1864 and 1887, a total of 60,000 Indians, non-Indians, and Indo-Mauritians were imprisoned for periods between 1 month to 3 months at the Vagrant Depot. Around 6,000 or 10% were young children and young boys between the age of 7 and 17. Those who were rebellious and refused to obey the rules were beaten 12 to 20 times. They were even placed in solitary confinement, given rations of bread and water only, and forced to break stones in the hot sun.
There were other vagrant and immigrant children were also placed in the Orphans’ Asylum in Pamplemousses and they were between 7 and 17 years old. The 9 volumes of the PH series of Mahatma Gandhi Institute’s Indian Immigration Archives contain the only complete surviving vagrant registers with the pictures and the bio-data of several vagrant children and young boys. They contain the bio-data of more than 2700 vagrants and the pictures of more than 2200 vagrants and it is a unique collection in Mauritius and the world. Furthermore at the MGI Archives, the largest deserter, vagrancy, illegal absence register in the PO series covers the period between 1852 and 1878 and contains the details of 11,801 Indian, non-Indian, and Creole Mauritian indentured workers including 1,062 individuals or 9% were young boys and children.
The Case-Study of Ramsamy Ramen, an Indo-Mauritian
Ramsamy Ramen was 12 years old when he was arrested as a vagrant in Port Louis on 21st May 1881. He was an Indo-Mauritian and not an indentured child labourer and he was an abandoned child and was born on 4th May 1868. His father was Ramen, Immigrant Number 166444, an indentured labourer who has been murdered in Labourdonnais Sugar Estate during the early 1870s and his mother, Narsam, was an Indo-Mauritian who was a patient at the Barkly’s Asylum.He was eventually sent to the Orphans’ Asylum in Pamplemousses when his elder sister refused to take him into her custody.
The Case-Study of Ramanah Doorgaparsad, an Indian Child Immigrant
Immigrant Ramanah had lost his indentured immigrant parents at the age of 9. He was sent to the Vagrant Depot and then apprenticed to Mr.Rose in Port Louis. Between 1879 and 1881, he refused to work and was imprisoned on three occasions at the Vagrant Depot. In 1881, Ramanah was beaten with a rattan stick 20 times for refusing to work and for attacking one of the prison guards. During the late 1870s and the early 1880s, he was considered as being a rebellious child and an incorrigible vagrant.
The Case-Study of Munisami, A Well-Known Vagrant
Within six months of his arrival in Mauritius as a young Indian indentured labourer, Immigrant Munisami escaped from his employer. He was arrested as a vagrant and sentenced to 1 month at the Vagrant Depot. Between 1887 and 1903, Munisami was arrested 14 times and spent a total of 4 years for vagrancy and desertion at the Port Louis Prisons and the Beau Bassin Prisons. Between the late 1880s and early 1900s, he was arrested in different parts of the island and became one of the most notorious vagrants in the colony. In 1903, John Trotter, the Protector of Immigrants with the support of Governor Sir Charles Bruce had Immigrant Munisami deported from the colony as he was declared to be an incorrigible vagrant and a nuisance to the colony.
The trials and tribulations of these young children and men speak volumes of the inhumane conditions and great suffering that the indentured labour system brought onto the indentured workers. However, at the same time, young children and men like Ramasamy, Ramanah, Munisami, and hundreds like them, they resisted the system as they tried to assert their personal freedom and human rights as colonial authorities tried to limited their freedom. After all, they were determined that their freedom would not be forbidden as they reasserted their rights as legally free individuals despite the fact that they were young boys and children.
(AGTF Collection)