Development in Mauritius from 1950 to the late 1970s

Mauritius has over the years, since independence in 1968, faced various turns of events in its effort to create a sustainable economy. The country was uninhabited before it’s colonization and was the main Indian Ocean trading port for travelers and traders from Europe and the Far East. The successful economic story of Mauritius has earned it title “Model Micro-State” this was the result of creating a competitive economy, as well as the development of one of the highest GDP in Africa. This was in addition to having a nearly universal literacy (Ramtohul, 2016). The country has a diverse ethnic population from all over the world, which surprisingly created a positive and cohesive impact in the development of the nation as a global trading hub.

Mauritius has maintained strong economic relationships with other nations, such as India and China. To a lesser extent, Mauritius has worked with Western nations such as the French territories within the Indian Ocean region for their economic liberation. However the country has been facing the issue of marginalization by various minority communities. It has been able to maintain connections with the Middle East and has successfully secured the nation’s further economic progress. Since Mauritius obtained its independence from the United Kingdom, its primary goals have been to diversify its economy from sugar to tourism, manufacturing, fisheries, and offshore banking.

Mauritius has a population consisting of approximately 55% Hindus, 20% Catholics, 10% Muslims, 10% Tamils and 5% Buddhist. A factor that shaped the economic development of Mauritius was the reformulation of minority group consciousness that united all the different religious groups as one people and nation thus bringing a national sense of identity. The island has struggled for many years to develop a universal cultural identity that incorporates people of all different races and religion. Indian domination on the island has shaped the political situation in the country (Sutton, 2011). There have been cases where Muslims claimed that they were underrepresented in the countries affairs. The political marginalization is described as having been acknowledged as fact since the time of the radical “Mouvement Militant Mauricien” a political party, which was elected to power.

The Diego Garcia conflict has been the major foreign conflict in Mauritius. There are a series of Islands (Archipelago), and Diego Garcia is one of the islands, which, are situated between the Indian mainland and Mauritius. Before independence, the archipelagos were part of Mauritius. The British government leased Diego Garcia to the United States against war debt forgiveness. The island today serves as the US naval base. About 2000 people inhabited Diego Garcia during the time it was being leased to the US. These people were settled in Seychelles and Mauritius (Peter, 2009). During the UN General Assembly in 2015, the Mauritian Prime Minister stated that the Mauritian Government was fully committed to ensuring that decolonization process in the island is brought to an end. It was high time that the decolonization process is completed in Africa (Jugnauth, 2015). Mauritius’s Prime Minister requested the UN to resolve the Diego Garcia conflict also to address the problem that prevents Mauritius from experiencing autonomy over Tromelin and Chagos Archipelago as parts of Mauritius territory. The UK illegally detached the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius territory before the Mauritius achieved its independence in 1968. The British in total disregard of human rights forcefully evicted Mauritians who inhabited the island. The British Indian Ocean Territory was created in 1965 just three years before Mauritius got its independence. The stand of Mauritius, therefore, is that the Chagos archipelago has been and will always be part of sovereign territory of Mauritius.

After independence, Mauritius still had strong ties to France. The island received economic and political support and gained market for its sugar and other exportation of other products in the European market. Mauritius was also granted the permit to join the French sponsored Association of Malagasy and African States, hence, obtaining privileged access to the European Economic Zone (Houbert, 1981). The island country became the first commonwealth state to join the European community and was given a massive amount of technical assistance and direct donations compared to other African countries. Mosque and Islamic centers were also financed through contributions from Arabic nations to sustain and promote the Islam on the island. Governments and banks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Abu Dhabi supported various Mauritian development projects where Muslims were involved (Sambajee, 2015). This was a direct attempt to make the minority of Muslims merchants and traders more relevant within a largely Hindu majority of political majority.

The struggle for independence in Mauritius received little to no support from the local communities leading to an increase in ethnic friction. The first independent government was formed through the coalition of two political parties; their efforts were supported by the elite and aimed at preventing communism from taking power. The Indo-Mauritian and Sino–Mauritian coalition government and their successors concentrated more on the creation of wealth, racial harmony and sharecropping. The Government had a clear agenda not to nationalize industries but instead had a clear dual policy, which was the State affairs, belonged to the Indo-Mauritians and the economy remained controlled by the Franco-Mauritians. The policies were a section of a dual-track strategy that opposed financial reforms because the Government was not ready to address wealth inequality issues. Within the first three decades after independence, the country changed from a polarized to a consensual democracy, which was development, oriented (Auty, 2010). The government adopted a system that was able to pursue a coherent economic policy that created social mobility.

People of Indian ancestry primarily populate Mauritius. Slave trade was abolished by the British in the early 1830s which led to the African slaves abandoning the sugar plantations and perusing other forms of employment that were more self-reliant (Ramtohul, 2016). After India got independence, a diplomatic relationship between Mauritius and India was established. The independence in India would later lead to the creation of a movement for the Indo-Mauritians to fight for their independence. After independence in India, Indo-Mauritians were challenged, and they created a movement to fight for independence in Mauritius.

The country faced challenging issues when it tried to develop its economy into a global transition system. This was because of the existence of a multi-cultural society in the country. People of different ethnicities were in different geographical locations; they concentrated and continued to maintain their ethical, religious and cultural practices. The existence of a diverse community in the region, evolved from being a State challenge in the recent age of globalization. The community created multiple significant economic development opportunities since it enhanced a diaspora allegiance. This resulted in a more open and acceptable structure in the eyes of other nations. The desire to keep close ties with their original homeland has allowed the advantage of culture, language and personal ties in trading with those countries of origin (Ramtohul, 2016). Mauritius has been able to avoid most of the worst impacts of global restructuring, due to the presence of a multilingual community that makes it possible to bridge the gap, which might exist between global and local ties. Mauritius recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of 1 billion dollars in the late 70s. The capital GDP was $1290 indicating a more than triple increase from its 1970 GDP, and a $1.57 billion export. Over the years, the economic state of Mauritius has integrated into a new world-class economy, earning the title of “Model Micro-State”. In 1982, the country’s economy was marked as the best economy in Africa (Ramtohul, 2016). The island had the lowest rate of unemployment of approximately less than 6 percent. Mauritius was able to pay all of it’s debts with the International Monetary Funds as well as recorded a 5–6 percent economic growth rate.

Over the years, the island was able to create a well-established commercial and legal infrastructure and financial sector, in addition to a high literacy rate and a skilled labor force. The existence of a transitional economic community created the advantage of monetary prosperity instead of the prior financial uncertainty in the island. The development of transportation and communication networks in the region, linked the disperse minorities financially, culturally and physically. The Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs, who had dual citizenship, worked and lived in more than one location. They were always involved in social movements, as they engaged in their daily businesses. The Chinese financiers and traders operated in a network that was based on kinship. This made them able to access labor, skills, technology, manufacturing abilities, funds and contacts that aided them in controlling substantial financial resources. Therefore they could move swiftly and efficiently to support profitable, economic developments (Srebrnik, 1999). Similarly the Indians and Indian diaspora in Mauritius functioned like the Chinese in order to achieve success. They specialized in different trading activities and liberal professionalism in Britain, East Africa and America.

In the 1960s, the geographic location of Mauritius and its collectivism halted the economic growth. The situation has changed in the late 1970’s; it evolved into an interconnected and globalized system where the prevailing ethic situation in Mauritius proved to be economically beneficial. The island of Mauritius is of great significance to the Indian Ocean trade for African countries, China, India and French overseas territories. Because of the engagement in the trading relationship with all its partners, Mauritius was able to make excellent use of their ability to increase economic benefits. In most of the countries that Mauritius has signed tax treaties with; most of them have Indian and Chinese business communities (Srebrnik, 1999). Mauritius became an industrialized country with growth mostly driven by exports. Its emerging role became India, East Africa and South African trading center. The progress recorded in Mauritius provided a clear indication that the island State could serve as a trading center for the economies emerging in that region.

Mauritius unlike other developing countries did not restrict the ownership of companies by foreigners. This move by the Government, not to create political influence regarding the ownership of foreign-owned industries, attracted many investors from China and other countries (Srebrnik, 1999). Mauritius wisely began development that was export-oriented at the right time, since during that period intercontinental circumstances had produced geographically, culturally friendly and an environment for countries that were looking for investment opportunities and a new place to hide their money (Dommen, 1999). The economic development in the country led to an industrial modernization. A result of this sudden and rapid development created a labor shortage that required the women’s population to enter the manufacturing and service industry labor forces in large numbers. This expansion provided women with economic power both at home and at work because their participation in the job market became vital to Mauritius’s economy. Furthermore it created an insightful social changes as well as an increased the rate of women’s emancipation and rights. Trade relations increased and the value of imports from countries that were closer to Mauritius started rising, at a higher rate. Mauritius was identified by India, as a place with a friendly business environment. Most African countries have welcomed Indian and Chinese investors within their borders in contrast with prior over-dependence on Western nations. In the early development of Mauritius, India invested an estimated of $7 million (Sutton, 2011). Indian companies have employed a large number of Mauritian in their companies that exported large quantities of goods to East Africa and South Africa. The Government’s strategy of shifting from reliance on sugar to expanding trade and developing technologies has propelled vast economic development. Apart from this financial advantage, the new policies led to the displacement of both political and economic power from the old dominant Franco-Mauritian group that had hegemony in the business communities (Dommen, 1997).

Mauritius initially faced the problems involving crop production during its early years, after gaining independence. The termination of land boundaries in the 1960’s caused crop production to stagnate. The island moderated the situation by recommending the diversification of the economy through various industries, which were import substituted (Dommen, 1999). The import-substitution strategy increased the dependence on renting land to sharecroppers. The newly developed industries matured at a prolonged rate that failed and did not expand rent efforts. The established companies were cost intensive and created very few employment opportunities, forcing the Government to enlarge the public sector jobs to one-sixth of the total labor force. The over-dependence on the rent produced from sugar led to an increase in public land debt and at the same time intensifying land scarcity. The Mauritian Government applied different strategies from those that were applied within the Ivory Coast and Kenya. It limited windfall taxation with the purpose of making the 1970’s sugar windfall controlled by private producers. Gross income increased by 7.8 percent from 1970–1972 and sugar cane farmers capitalized some windfall income (Auty, 2010). An Export Processing Zone (EPZ) established by the State, which, was comprised, of tourism and manufacturing, that was labor intensive. The second approach adopted by the Government was defined as the supported rent sector dominated by the Government. During the sugar boom period, the GDP increased by 4 percent, undercutting the political opposition that was radical (Tinker, 1977).

The expansion of an EPZ, led to an increase of the per capita GDP up to 6 percent yearly, during the late 1970’s, when the growth in population decreased by 1 percent. The sugar cane dominance led to a low-rent modest industrialization model of rent-cycling theory. The manufacturing export played a big role in the industrialization of the Mauritius. The EPZ increased the rate of employment by three times the initial rate, making the rate of unemployment decrease by 17 percent. The land scarcity influenced the decisions of early

Mauritian elite property landowners. They prioritized the creation of wealth that led to the development of an economy that was labor intensive and a strict system of governance that benefitted them. Most of the Government resources and rent related income were guided via trade as opposed to patronage channels. Overall, as presented, the history of Mauritius from the mid 1950s to late 1970s was one of transition socially, economically, politically and philosophically. Therefore I have presented an in-depth overview, which I would like to augment by closing this paper with a few visual photographs of my Mauritius.

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