Rashmi Mourya

RASHMI MOURYA
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF INDIAN DIASPORA IN SEYCHELLES, ITS STATUS AND ITS VISION 2030

Migration of people from India to different parts of the world is not a new phenomenon. It was in the year 1770 that a small group of five Indians landed in Seychelles as plantation workers along with seven African slaves and 15 French colonists, and were recorded as the first inhabitants of the Islands.

During the British colonial period, Seychelles was governed from the Bombay Presidency for some time, with regular shipping links and flow of goods and essential commodities from India. These trade links facilitated migration of an Indian trading community looking for greener pastures having reached a saturation point in East Africa.

Later, as colonial plantations and road construction work started, a larger group was brought in not as slaves, but as indentured laborers. The descendants of those indentured workers, merchants and traders have established themselves as an integral part of Seychelles society and these Indian diasporas are constituting six percent of the total population of Seychelles. The diaspora linkages between India and Seychelles are strongest bridge which actually connected them.

This paper will briefly look at the historical roots of Indian diaspora and Indian migration in Seychelles. This paper tries to examine current sociopolitical status of the Indian diaspora and also look for the future prospects in the era of globalization with its vision of 2030.