Sraddha Shivani Rajkomar - Hinduism and Creole Cultural Memory in Present-day Mauritius

Hinduism and Creole Cultural Memory in Present-day Mauritius
Sraddha Shivani Rajkomar Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Mauritius
The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius is home to hundreds of thousands of diasporic Hindus who ensure that their religious practices remain vibrant to this day and connected to what I have called ‘the divineland of India’ in my publications. The premise of this concept is that India was more than homeland or ancestral land for the Indian indentured labourers who were displaced en masse to the island following the abolition of slavery in 1835, and the establishment of indenture as the British Raj’s ‘great experiment’ with seemingly mobile and cheap labour that could replace slaves of mostly African and Malagasy origins in sugar plantation estates. Indentured labourers brought their religious practices, including what is often described as village or popular Hinduism, to Mauritius. They also brought their sacred texts, most notably the Ramacaritmanas which, more than any other, prompted Hindu Indo-Mauritians to start viewing India as the land where not only their ancestors, but their divinities also lived and moved around in challenging circumstances, bestowing upon it the status of divineland. With increased contact between India and Mauritius in the early 20th century, various Hindu movements relocated and spread their activities in the island, warranting that Hinduism and its many branches or modes of practice are safeguarded and thrive. Yet, the success-story of Hinduism’s survival in Mauritius has also had exclusionary meanings for a society that was and remains inherently creole due to plantation history, and where Hindus themselves were once subaltern and suffered from exclusionary discourses. Using Caribbean thinking on creolisation and Jan Assmann’s work on cultural memory, I have argued in my recent research that cultural memory in Mauritius cannot be any other than creole, and that Hinduism itself cannot escape the organic impetus of creolisation. This, I have concluded based on examinations of fictional, non-fictional as well as anthropological material that do not, in fact, clash with Hindu philosophy and need not cause a fear of creolisation or impurity that racial and ethnic discourses around the ‘Other’ have exacerbated, contributing to tragic consequences for the cultural memory of non-Hindus in Mauritius. My argument is that creole cultural memory exists and can emerge as a theoretical trend reflecting reality in colonial and contemporary Mauritian society, for nonexclusionary purposes and reparation towards colonialism’s subalterns. This creole cultural memory has the potential of showcasing the dynamism and profundity of Hinduism as articulated in its sacred texts, as well as that of other religious and sacred traditions. It highlights that Hinduism need not be in competition with ongoing efforts to protect it from contact with people of other religious and ethnic backgrounds - and ensuing social practices like inter-religious marriage - in highly multicultural spaces where maintaining social cohesion is a key mission. Although this certainly appears simpler where Hinduism remains the religion of the majority, as is the case in Mauritius, creole cultural memory can be a productive tool at least in other creole contexts, due 18 to the yearning for survival and creativity that naturally characterises creolisation, and despite the destructive conditions that birthed it.

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