Malbars

Not to be confused with Malabars.
Malbars
Total population
180,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Saint-André, Saint-Denis
Languages
French, Réunion Creole, Tamil.
Religion
Hinduism, syncretic religion, Indic religions
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Réunionnais, Tamils, Telugus

Malbars or Malabars are an ethnic group of South Indian origin (primarily from a Tamil background) in Réunion, a French island in the Southwest Indian Ocean, The Malbars constitute 25% of the population of Réunion and are estimated to be around 180,000.[2]

There have been people of South Indian origin on the island since the 17th century, and those were mostly from Pondicherry.[3] Most were originally brought in as indentured labourers in the second half of the 19th century and were mostly South Indian Tamils.[4] Since then, the Malbars have developed some patterns of behaviour that are not quite those of their ancestors from Tamil Nadu nor those of the other inhabitants of Réunion.

  1. ^ [1] Archived 2010-08-21 at the Wayback Machine (page 8)
  2. ^ "Réunion" (PDF). The Indian Diaspora. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-21.
  3. ^ de Garine, Valerie (2001). Drinking: anthropological approaches Volume 4 of Anthropology of food and nutrition. Berghahn Books. p. 225. ISBN 9781571818096. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  4. ^ "The Indian Diaspora". indiandiaspora.nic.in. Archived from the original on 2010-08-15. Retrieved 2020-03-23.