Aapravasi Ghat

Aapravasi Ghat, former immigration depot in Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius. It was the British government’s first site for processing indentured laborers as replacements for enslaved people. Aapravasi Ghat was used from 1849 to the mid-1920s as a depot that saw almost half a million indentured laborers pass through, having arrived mostly from India. Many of these laborers remained permanently in Mauritius, and their descendants make up more than 70 percent of the modern Mauritian population. The success of the system led to its adoption by other colonial powers, which changed the demographic makeup of several regions across the globe. Today Aapravasi Ghat stands as a testament to the system of indenture, and in 2006 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Meaning of the name

The name Aapravasi Ghat derives from the Hindi words for “immigrant” and “pier” (also translated as “landing place,” “shore,” or “depot”), respectively. The immigration depot was previously called “Coolie Ghat,” using the derogatory term coolie, which referred to unskilled workers from Asia. The current name was given by the Mauritian government in 1987.

Background

The island now known as Mauritius was long uninhabited. The Dutch took possession of it from 1598 to 1710 and named it for the Dutch stadtholder (chief executive) Maurice. After failed attempts to settle the island during that time, they abandoned it. The French occupied Mauritius in 1721, and by 1732 they had begun the construction of Port Louis in the Bay of Trou Fanfaron. This soon became a commercial center, settled by freemen as well as merchants. In the mid-18th century, sugar plantations were established in Mauritius, and enslaved people were deployed to work on them. In 1810 the British took over Mauritius and increased sugar production. After the British Empire abolished slavery in most of its colonies in 1834, it attempted a “Great Experiment”: implementing an indentured labor system. The British wished to demonstrate the superiority of indentured labor to slave labor.

Under this system, many contract laborers were transported primarily from China and India to newer colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Most of these laborers were unskilled and worked for very low wages. They ostensibly entered into work contracts voluntarily, but kidnapping, coercion, and fraud were common. Conditions on transport ships and in the colonies were harsh, with high mortality rates, but the promise of a return to the home country with a lump sum payment at the end of the contract period was sufficient incentive for many laborers. Some workers, when their contract ended, took a foreman’s job at a plantation instead of going back home. Mauritius, Fiji, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana were some of the countries that saw a huge influx of Indian laborers.

Mauritius, with its lucrative sugar plantations and close proximity to India, was the first place the British launched their “Great Experiment.” The first phase of laborer immigration to Mauritius ran from 1834 to 1849 and began with 36 indentured laborers arriving on November 2, 1834, from India on board the Atlas. There was no fixed depot during this phase, and multiple buildings on the Bay of Trou Fanfaron were used to process the newly arrived laborers. Many of the early laborers were victims of abuse, and, as a result, laborer emigration from India was suspended from 1839 to 1842.

Development of the immigration depot and later use

To improve the management of the immigration process, an existing French building was chosen for the site of an immigration depot in 1849, and additional buildings were constructed. Further enlargements were made in the 1850s and ’60s to accommodate the growing number of immigrants. Improvements were made, such as installing toilets and replacing the tin roofs with tiles for improved insulation and ventilation. By 1859 the site could accommodate 600 people, as per a report by the office of the protector of immigrants. In 1864 a new railway line divided the depot into two parts. New immigrants were managed on one side, and immigrants who were already contracted to work and those at the end of their contract and about to leave were managed on the other side.

In 1865 the depot had a range of facilities, including kitchens, a hospital, sheds and toilets for the immigrants, and a set of offices. All new arrivals had to climb a set of 16 stone steps from the wharf to the rest of the depot; these steps are regarded as the symbolic gateway to the island. A stone building housed the office of the protector of immigrants, where the immigrants’ records were maintained and related paperwork was processed, including the immigrants’ tax payments, marriage certificates, and land purchases. The office of the protector also carried out inspection of the estates on which laborers worked, to ensure fair conditions. Further modifications to the depot continued to be made even as immigration declined from the 1870s onward and ceased in 1910, when the indentured labor program in Mauritius ended. However, after that, immigrants looking for work continued to come to Mauritius, albeit it in far fewer numbers, and the depot site continued to be used for immigration purposes until the mid-1920s.

Once the influx of immigrants stopped, the buildings were no longer needed for processing them and hence were put to other uses. In the 1920s they were converted into offices for the Ministry of Social Welfare. During World War II (1939–45), they were used by the British War Department. In 1950 the Public Assistance Department was set up there. Ten years later the buildings at the site were damaged by Cyclone Carol. The immigration records, which had still been stored there, were moved to the Mahatma Gandhi Institute in nearby Moka in 1976.

Many of the immigration depot buildings were destroyed over time, first to make room for a bus station in the 1970s and then to accommodate a major roadway in the 1980s. It was only in 1987 that the Mauritian government recognized the site as a national monument and gave it the name Aapravasi Ghat. By this time all that had survived of the site were remains, including those of the hospital, immigrant housing, bathing and toilet facilities, the entrance gateway, and the steps to the wharf. In 1999 a renovation project was begun to preserve what was left of the site and examine the remains. Since then, additional renovations and archaeological investigations have been done.

An immigrant’s journey through Aapravasi Ghat

Indentured laborers arriving at Aapravasi Ghat would first take a bath after having spent several weeks at sea. They were inspected by the medical officer for diseases such as smallpox. Vaccinations were given to laborers not yet vaccinated, and, if anyone was found to be contagious, all the passengers from their ship were quarantined. A high standard of cleanliness and hygiene was maintained; for instance, such areas as the toilet facilities were cleaned several times a day. After indentured laborers were deemed healthy, officials collected their personal details and created records. Laborers typically stayed at Aapravasi Ghat for two days to complete this process and then left for the plantations to which they had been assigned.

Legacy

To commemorate the arrival of the first indentured laborers in Mauritius, November 2 was declared a public holiday in the country in 2001. A trust fund was established the same year to help maintain the Aapravasi Ghat site. In 2006 Aapravasi Ghat was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Today it is a popular site for tourists. It includes the Beekrumsing Ramlallah Interpretation Centre, a museum, opened in 2014, that examines the experience of indentured laborers in Mauritius and the role the country played in the history of indenture. The site has become a symbol of Indo-Mauritian ties and has been visited by several Indian leaders, including former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Aapravasi Ghat continues to stand as a legacy of the global indentured labor system and commemorates the experience of the laborers who passed through.