## Introduction  
Because of its colonial past and its geographical position, Mauritius is a meeting point for three continents - Asia (India and China), Europe and Africa - and illustrates the Indian presence on Creole land. Here, Indianness and creolity merge together, a situation not dissimilar to that in the West Indies and the Caribbean islands in general, though with a more prevalent Asian influence. Forged by the maritime history of Indian trade, particularly from Gujarat, and reinforced by the history of indentured servitude, ${ }^{1}$ economic, political, religious and cultural ties between India and Mauritius have long been evident (Carsignol, 2010, p. 321; Grégoire, 2014). Yet as Dev Virahsawmy, the champion of the Creole language, proclaims, lor nou lil, nou tou kreol isi: 'On our island, we are all Creoles' (Virahsawmy, 2004, p. 37). Since the early days of indentured servitude, Indian communities have established unions with Mauritian women of African descent (Teelock, 2009, p. 254).  
Between 1839 and the end of the nineteenth century, biological and cultural mixing continued and intensified, adding European, Indian and Chinese elements into the then mostly black and Malagasy population. Several  
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[^0]:    1 A system of hiring under contract started in colonial times, after the abolition of slavery in 1834.