The Truth and Justice Commission

In November 2011, a Truth and Justice Commission (TJC) that had been estab­lished to enquire into the legacies of slavery and indentured labour submitted its final report.^[92] Constituted in March 2009, subsequent to the Mauritian Truth and Justice Act 2008, the Commission understood its mandate as an investi­gation of “the continuities in history up to the present”, specifically “from an economic and social perspective” and with a particular focus on issues relating to “colonialism, slave trade, slavery and indenture”.^[93]

Alexander Boraine, who took over as chairman of the Commission in 2010, stated in an interview that what distinguished the Mauritian TJC from other commissions was the remoteness in time of the issues under scrutiny.

The author of this work similarly does not favour seeking to attribute blame for the past, which in the Mauritian context is considered inappropriate. This shared epistemological standpoint notwithstanding, it is submitted that the lack of rig­our in seeking to clearly identify, where possible, root causes of certain inequali­ties, is problematic. The document largely reads as a reiteration of the situation as it is today. The findings recognize the disproportionate disadvantage suffered by Afro-Malagasy Mauritians, the concentrated influence of Franco-Mauritians in the private sector and the broad success enjoyed by Indo-Mauritians in forming a large swath of the middle-class.

For instance, in its Executive Summary, under the rubric “Indentured Labour” the TJC's report states: “To the credit of the Indian immigrants and later on their descendants is the faith which they had in the promotion of their chil­dren through education. Education was and continues to be the priority. The privileged position held by people of Indian origin in government institutions is due to investment made in higher education for their children.”^[96]

This statement raises more questions than the one it purports to answer. How the development is “to the credit” to those of Indian origin is not clear. Is it to the “discredit” of the other groups of society, that a similar achievement for their posterity has not been attained? Did they not have an equal “faith” in education? Were they not able to make a likewise investment for their children? If so, why?

In the same section, under “Economy”, the TJC provides the following list of reasons for why certain inequalities have endured: “Land speculation, poverty, greed of some family members, the corruption of officials and professionals, an ever-encroaching sugar industry and laws that protect the traditional economic structure”.^[97] Who are these “family members”, “officials” and “professionals”? Broad and emotive concepts such as “poverty”, “greed” and “corruption” require explanation and rational dissection, however these findings are not clearly iden­tifiable in the main submissions and it is only upon closer inspection of the sup­porting materials that the context of these claims can be deduced.^[98]

It is submitted that Professor Boraine and his fellow commissioners succeeded in precisely their aim noted above: the production of a mirror.

The work at hand cannot hope to remedy this gap entirely, focused as it is specif­ically on the issue of labour during the 19th century, and not covering in any detail the issues which have arisen since then. This research does however aim to provide some insights, through its investigation of how Mauritian society was assembled, as to the mechanics by which social segregation was established and maintained in the early years, and from which one might speculate as to what kind of social and legal change was needed for it to be unravelled. The detailed findings of the TJC report are hereby given due consideration and are discussed in Chapter 7.

1.3.4