Bihar Village Set For Facelift With Diaspora Link

A little-known village in Bihar has found fame and is set for a facelift as it has been officially identified as the native place of former Mauritius prime minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam.

Harigaon in Bhojpur district, about 60 km from here, was like any other village in rural Bihar without roads, electricity connection and a health centre.

The Bihar government will now develop it as a model village with basic infrastructure and turn it into a historical place to attract tourists, particularly from Mauritius.

Ahead of Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam's visit to the village Feb 19, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with top officials went to the village Saturday, and announced a spate of measures including construction of roads, a hospital, a school and other basic facilities.

'Nitish Kumar visited Harigaon to take stock of the amenities available in the village before the Mauritius prime minister's visit,' a senior official of the Chief Minister's Office said here Sunday.

Nitish Kumar has invited Navinchandra Ramgoolam to visit his ancestors' village. Navinchandra Ramgoolam will also unveil a statue of Seewoosagur Ramgoolam in the heart of Patna.

Late Seewoosagur Ramgoolam was prime minister of Mauritius from 1961 to 1982. He is considered the father of the nation as he led his country to independence from Britain.

According to experts, his grandfather was one of the hundreds labourers from different villages across Bihar forcibly taken by the British to work in Malaysian sugarcane plantations in 1871.

A large number of people from Bihar travelled to various parts of the world, including Mauritius, in the 19th century to serve as indentured labourers - sometimes referred to as girmitiya - in sugarcane and rubber plantations.

Most of them were from districts like Bhojpur, Chapra, Gopalganj and East and West Champaran.

About 60 percent of the 1.2 million population of Mauritius is of Indian origin, a large number of them from Bihar with Bhojpuri as their mother tongue.

My Mauritius Trip and My Impression - our Reader Santosh Ojha writes

I had the opportunity to go to Mauritius last week with my family for a vacation. While the country is even prettier than what we had thought, it is the warmth of the people which bowled us over. I am writing this post to share our experiences with the Bhojpuri speaking people there.

Nearly two-thirds of the total population of 12 lakhs consists of people of Indian origin. They are very proud of having Indian origins and several persons we spoke with said that Mauritius is a small India! It was indeed amazing to see the way Hindu Indo-Mauritians have preserved the culture, language, food habits etc.

It was such a delight to converse with them in chaste Bhojpuri. While their common language is Creole (a dialect of French), within their families they speak in Bhojpuri. The moment we told them that we are Bhojpuri speaking people, they would switch over from
English/Hindi and talk to us in Bhojpuri. This Bhojpuri was absolutely pure without any mix of English/French/Creole. We could have been right in Ara jila (my family's native place) going by the language we spoke! Our two young sons ("chhokdas" as they were
commonly referred to by the Mauritians!) would sometimes respond in Hindi to them. They were promptly admonished by them for not speaking their matri-bhasha!

The Bhojpuri region food is available across the island. Our hotel was full of European tourists, but we had our fill of paratha ("faratta" is the spelling there!) and tarkari even there! And of course the bajka (called "baja") and pakodas available so commonly. The dalpoori (spelt alternately as dholl puri or d'holl puri) we had was so delicious that we
thought of packing some and carrying it with us to Bangalore where we stay currently! Gobhi, baingan, lauki, konhda etc are widely used. And the style of cooking, even in the hotels and markets is the same as one would find it at home in India!

The Hindu Indo-Mauritians are deeply religious. Every village has a "shivala" and each house has the pratima of Hanumanji installed at the entrance. Even the tourist cars we traveled in had pictures of Shivji,Durga mata, Hanumanji. We visited the Shiv Temple at
Ganga Talao (Grand Bassin). We were told that during Shivratri all the Hindus gather here. This place also attracts a large number of tourists from various parts of the world through the year. We were there during the week of Navratri and all the Hindus there were observing the festival.

Another striking feature was that all married women wore their sindoor very prominently. Poora maang bhar ke! Many also wore a "mangalsutra". Saree and Salwar Kameez is the most common dress there. Women there are active in jobs and businesses but their adherence to the dress and "sindoor" was always there.

We discovered that the marriage rituals are pretty much the same; tilak, hardi, chauthaar and gauna even!!

Many of the people we met wanted to invite us home for a meal. Unfortunately the trip was too short for this. Maybe in the next trip we will do that as well!!

We returned totally impressed by the people there. The Mauritians who are a part of this group and reading this post, please accept our thanks for having preserved our culture so well even after nearly 150-200 years. To all the Indians reading this mail I would seriously recommend a trip to Mauritius to experience this great preservation of culture and to meet the very hospitable and friendly Mauritians.

Santosh Ojha