What’s it like in the Hindu majority?

Is there something inherent to the language that the songs in it no matter who writes them canrsquot resist a dollopdose of random obscenityrdquo I wonder as my Mauritian friend Shivaranjali says she doesnrsquot listen to local Bhojpuri numbers She finds them ldquovulgarrdquo This is said for Bhojpuri songs seven samundar apart in Bihar too as we speakNot true though for the MauritianBhojpuri starsinger the late Sona Noyan Irsquove been tripping on latelymdashespecially his 2010 Sankranti show on YouTube His tracks seem to be about chilling eatingmdashlsquokalundirsquo mushroom over dalpurimdasheven chikungunya mosquitoes for godrsquos sakeUnlike his starrival Basant Soopaulmdashwho turns romantic Bollywood tracks into bhajans but also specialises in suhaagraat numbers Naughty teases even hurling cussesabuses are part of Bhojpuri folksong traditionmdashnamely lsquogamatrsquo entertainment performed during weddingsfamily functionsI recognise Basantrsquos surname Soopaul from a small district in Bihar My friend Shivaranjalirsquos last name Virasami sounds decidedly South Indian Hence the parts of India I suppose that their ancestors must have reached Port Louisrsquos Apravasi Ghat frommdashin the 19th Century to work on Mauritian farmlands for freeAlso Read 2023 reasons to hope againShivaranjali like Mohan Sanjay Anil Sakshi and others I bump into comprise their nationrsquos 50 per cent evidentlydevout Hindu populationmdashmaking Mauritius a uniquely Hindumajority state full of deitiesrsquo statues and temples in Africa With of course a Constitution that explicitly debars any discrimination basis religion and indeed grants citizens the right to practice preach convert to whichever faith they likeMuslims mainly Sunnis make up about 17 per cent As with Hindus their ancestors about five to six generations ago came from India There was obviously no Pakistan then I try to gauge if therersquos any HinduMuslim animosity in Mauritiusmdashof the sort embedded in Indiarsquos modern history peaking with PartitionNonemdashwhatsoever For some reason both Hindus Muslims take maximum pride in telling me an Indian about how they cohabit like good neighbours ldquoWe got no God problemrdquoIf anything both seem unhappy with ldquoappeasement politicsrdquomdashdirected at the Creoles Thatrsquos Christians of African originmdashrelatively poor therefore beneficiaries of statewelfare schemesFrankly if Mauritians did nothing for a living theyrsquod be fine forevermdashhealth and education is free travel is taken care of for the really old and young unemployment benefits including state housing is available on eligibility tooThis when the Mauritian with an average income of over US25000 per year Irsquom told pays around 15 per cent tax In a tiny island of 13 million that has to import everything to survivehellip What explainsBesides a sugarbowl and an unbelievably pristine touristparadise Goa without a population that Mauritius ismdashthe secret to its ldquomiracle economyrdquo is as locals hush ldquoEvasion fiscale paradisrdquo Pardon the French I hear evasion fiscal paradise tax havenWhile everyonersquos probably a chiller here in casual chats brown Hindu Muslim folk lament to me about how the black community particularly must work harder rather than laze or indulge in petty crimes I sense a bias Reminds me of the Arabic proverb ldquoMe and my brother against my cousin Me and my cousin against the strangerrdquoThe chronology of their migration is simple The French brought in Africans from Madagascar and other parts as slaves early 1700s The British took over early 1800s They importedenforced indentured labour from their colony ie IndiaLording over browns and blacks are Mauritiusrsquos small white population stillmdashof European descent mostly FrancoMauritians who continue to own massive sugarcane farms bungalows and big money Mauritius gained independence from the colonial Empire in 1968So then Well unlike say Indian Independence which overthrew the British bringing politics economy under control of localsmdashthe fact is until the Europeans Mauritius had no localsThe majority then whether of Indian or African origin are Mauritians because ofmdashand technically as much asmdashthe Europeans too There is no legal case for them to throw out the FrancoMauritian landlords eitherWhat Brexit did for Mauritius is of course grant their citizens the right to directly elect their own head of state whorsquos their Prime Minister In 1992 it became a republic Meaning the Queen of England as the figurehead got replaced by the President designed to be a lsquorubberstamprsquo like IndiarsquosAs per The Economistrsquos Democracy Index Mauritius is the only African country thatrsquos a ldquofull democracyrdquo The other three democracy categories are ldquoflawedrdquo ldquohybridrdquo and ldquoan authoritarian regimerdquo There are only two other nations in the world with Hindu majoritiesmdashIndia is deemed a ldquoflawed democracyrdquo and Nepal ldquohybridrdquoEqually evident is that people in Mauritius vote along religious lines Practically all Mauritian PMs have been Hindusmdashalthough essentially between the Jugnauth and Ramgoolam households Current PM Pravind Jugnauth is son of Anerood the PM before him Navin Ramgoolam before that was son of Seewoosagur Mauritiusrsquos first PM after independencePravind is in power because his father Anerood passed on his chair to him midway into his 201419 term Pravind got reelected in 2019 A better way to tell a ldquofull democracyrdquo is how easily people can bitch about their leader without any fearBesides messing with the citystatersquos precious nightlife Pravind Irsquom often told ldquocanrsquot stand dissent hersquos locked up his critics delved in lsquostate capturersquo subverting independent institutions like the Election Commission judiciaryrdquoHmmmMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper