Ethnicity, Community and the Census in Mauritius, 1830-1990

Abstract

Ethnic census and racial classifications have many taxonomic and political problems particularly in Mauritius. The goal of capturing multicultural populations into ethnic and political groups is confounded by intermarriage between cultural groups linguistic and cultural assimilation and religious conversion. Using too general a category prevents a racial classification. The census in Mauritius had become politicized due to the British colonization with an attempt to identify self identified communities and then in the name of equality abandoning these distinctions. The history of ethnic mixing and census classification is delineated and the effects of constitutional communities are discussed. The census in 1830 adopted a classification system of European Free Black and Slave and amended in 1834 to Europeans Free Black and Apprentices (freed slaves). After Indian migration form 1834 the categories became unmixed Indian and General including Europeans and anyone of African origin. In 1891 the category Indo-Mauritian was included. By 1901 there was an attempt to classify according to anthropological distinctions: European (whites mixed and colored) African and Chinese within the General category. Other Indian was merged finally in 1944 with Indo-Mauritian because of the decline in the other Indian category. In 1952 the classification of name religion mother tongue birth place and nationality into an assigned population group became increasingly constrained. Physical appearance was not a measure for grouping. In 1962 the householder determined the population group identification. Religion particularly among Indians was a determining factor and among the Chinese there was a common ethnicity. A community based constitution required representation by community and defined the communities. However political changes in 1982 prompted removal of all community categories from the census of 1982 and the pattern continued for 1990. After 1944 there were increasingly greater community groupings by ethnic group particularly among the Chinese but in general the tendency was for an integrated urban society which was unaffected by the influences of segregation from the institutionalized communalism of the constitution.