| Total population | |
|---|---|
| A majority (85%) of Indo-Mauritians | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Majority in 7 out of 10 districts (Pamplemousses, Rivière du Rempart, Plaines Wilhems, Flacq, Moka, Grand Port, Savanne | |
| Languages | |
| Mauritian Creole, French, English, Bhojpuri | |
| Religion | |
 Hinduism (majority),  Islam (minority) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bhojpuri people, Indian diaspora, Indo-Mauritian, Indo-South African, Indo-Surinamese, Indo-Guyanese, Indo-Trinidadian, Indo-Fijian |
Bihari Mauritians are descendants of predominantly Bhojpuri-speaking migrants from Bihar who moved to Mauritius. A majority of Indo-Mauritians are of Bihari origin, and most Mauritians are Indo-Mauritian. Caste-wise, many Bihari Mauritians are Vaishyas, with notable groups including Bhumihars, Brahmins, Rajputs, Koeri, Chamars, Yadav, Kurmis, Banias, and Kayastha. Except for one, all Mauritian Prime Ministers have been of Bihari Vaishya descent.[1][2][3] The community includes a Hindu majority with a Muslim minority. About 65.7 % of the 1.3 million population of Mauritius is of Indian origin, most of them from Bihar state, with Bhojpuri as their ancestral tongue.[citation needed]
Bihari Mauritians primarily originated from the Gaya, Chhapra, Bhojpur, Gopalganj, and East and West Champaran districts. During the early period of migration, the laborers referred to Mauritius as "Marich." Amitav Ghosh's novel, Sea of Poppies, is set in this era and depicts the plight of impoverished Bihari migrants who undertook journeys to Mauritius and other distant colonies of the empire.
- ^ "Never leave home: Finding a slice of India in Mauritius". Indian Express. 20 May 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
- ^ The Indian Diaspora Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bates, Crispin (2016). Community, Empire and Migration: South Asians in Diaspora. Springer. p. 14. ISBN 978-0333977293. Retrieved 2020-07-01.Some 'castes' in Mauritius in particular are quite unrecognizable from a subcontinental perspective, and may incorporate mutually antagonistic castes from an Indian setting into a single group. A 'Rajput' in Mauritius is of a Shudra caste, the title having been usurped by this group in the nineteenth century. Ethnolinguistic distinctions differentiate Bhojpuri/Hindi speakers from Tamil, Telugu speakers and Marathi speakers despite all being Hindus they maintain certain regional endogamy. Even Gujarati speakers are seen as a separate community, from a trading rather than an indenture background, and maintain a social distance from descendants of 'coolies'. The former Brahmin elite are referred to as the 'Maraz' and together with the former Rajputs and other Kshatriyas, now called 'Babujis', enjoy the prestige conferred by high-caste status, whilst politically they complain of marginalization.