Muslim Mauritians
Around a sixth of the island, descended from indentured labourers of the Ganges plain and from Gujarati merchants who arrived free, holding a constitutionally recognised place in parliament and a distinct institutional world within an Indo-Mauritian majority they are not part of.
Identity
Population: Around 210,000, roughly 17 per cent of the population
Location: Port Louis, Plaine Verte, Camp Diable and towns across the island
Language: Mauritian Creole and French; Urdu and Arabic taught and used liturgically; Gujarati among merchant families
Language family: French-lexifier creole; Indo-European → Indo-Aryan (Urdu, Gujarati); Arabic
Traditional governance: Waqf boards, mosque committees and the Jummah Mosque trust; Muslims are one of four communities constitutionally recognised for parliamentary representation.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Calcattias
Descendants of indentured labourers shipped from Calcutta, the largest group.
Surtees and Memons
Gujarati merchant families who arrived free and financed much of Port Louis commerce.
Bohras and Ismailis
Smaller Shia trading communities with their own institutions.
Culture
Clothing: Contemporary dress with hijab increasingly common; sherwani and gharara at weddings; the Gujarati merchant families kept distinct dress traditions longer.
Food: Briani, which in Mauritius is a Muslim dish that became a national one; halal versions of the shared Mauritian kitchen; Gujarati vegetarian cooking among merchant families.
Ceremonies: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, both public holidays; Muharram, observed on Mauritius as the Ghoon festival with elaborate tazia towers; mosque-based education.
Marriage customs: Nikah with mahr; historic endogamy between Calcattia and Gujarati lines has weakened; marriage across the Hindu-Muslim line remains uncommon.
Initiation rites: Madrassa alongside state schooling; the Gujarati families' apprenticeship in trade; Quranic memorisation is widely pursued.
Stories & Oral Literature
Two Arrivals, One CommunitySocial history
Mauritian Muslims came by two very different routes: indentured labourers from Bihar and the United Provinces, who arrived under contract, and Gujarati merchants who arrived with capital. The merchants built the Jummah Mosque in Port Louis in the 1850s, a building of Indian, Creole and Islamic elements that is now a national monument. The class distinction between the two arrivals took a century to soften and has not entirely gone.
The GhoonReligious tradition
Muharram on Mauritius is marked by the Ghoon, with towering tazia replicas of Hussain's tomb carried through the streets. It was historically a shared occasion in which Hindus and Creoles participated, a fact that Mauritian historians note and that communal politics has since made harder to sustain. The festival remains one of the island's most spectacular.
Proverbs
“One came with a contract, one with a ledger, both with a prayer mat.”
The community's two origins.
“The mosque was built before the road that reaches it.”
Institution-building as the first priority.
“Briani feeds the whole island and belongs to one quarter.”
A community's dish becoming national.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Islamic cosmology; the community's own founding narrative runs through two migrations rather than one, which its historians emphasise.
Beliefs: Sunni Islam, chiefly Hanafi, with Barelvi and Deobandi currents; Shia Bohra and Ismaili minorities; Sufi devotional practice at the older mosques.
Ancestors: Descent is traced through the Aapravasi Ghat registers for the indentured lines and through Gujarati family records for the merchants.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Allah
The one God
Imam Hussain
Commemorated in the Ghoon, Mauritius's distinctive Muharram observance
Sufi saints
Honoured at the older mosques and in devotional practice
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Plaine Verte and the Muslim quarters of Port Louis; mosques across the island; merchant houses and warehouses in the commercial district.
Building techniques: Basalt and lime masonry; the Jummah Mosque combines Indian, Creole and Islamic elements in one building; timber and iron in the older housing.
Village layout: Quarters organised around the mosque and madrassa, with the commercial streets nearby, in a capital laid out by community from the colonial period onward.
Artifacts
Jummah Mosque, Port Louis
Heritage site
Built from the 1850s by Gujarati merchants, a national monument of blended styles.
Tazia towers of the Ghoon
Ritual
Elaborate replicas of Hussain's tomb carried at Muharram.
Aapravasi Ghat registers
Archive
Immigration records of the indentured, including the Muslim arrivals.
Briani
Foodway
A Muslim Mauritian dish that became the national one.
Historical Timeline
1834
Indentured immigration begins; Muslim labourers arrive from Bihar and the United Provinces.
1840s–1850s
Gujarati merchants establish themselves in Port Louis; the Jummah Mosque is begun.
1900s–1960s
Waqf boards and community institutions consolidate; communal representation enters colonial politics.
1968
Independence with a constitution recognising Muslims as one of four represented communities.
Present
Both Eids are national holidays; the Ghoon remains among the island's largest public observances.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Britannica: Mauritius — religionEncyclopaedia Britannica
- UNESCO: Aapravasi GhatUNESCO
Premium & scholarly sources