Jawaharlal Nehru University [India] to promote a novel tie-up with Reunion island

Parul Sharma - The HINDU, Sunday, Feb 15, 2009

A delegation from a little island in Indian Ocean -La Réunion– comes calling

NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru University here will soon host a high-profile delegation from an island in the Indian Ocean -- La Réunion -- that had some of its first indentured labour from India way back in the 19th Century.

La Réunion is located east of Madagascar, about 200 km south-west of Mauritius.

The little island has a mix of different races as it was inhabited by scores of indentured labourers from India, from Africa and other countries, who went there to work in the mid 19th Century. La Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France and an integral part of the French Republic.

The visiting delegation is scheduled to be in Delhi in the last week of February. It will be headed by Paul Verges, President of the Regional Council of La Réunion. He was the founder, in 1959, of the Communist Party of Réunion, a party which he led until he retired in 1993.

Documentation centre

A memorandum of understanding was signed between JNU and the University of Reunion in April 2007 for collaboration between the two educational institutions.

As a follow-up of that agreement, the delegation from La Réunion will announce a grant to establish a documentation centre on Indian Ocean Studies at JNU’s Centre for French and Francophone Studies at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies here.

“During colonial times, the colonial masters got manpower from different parts of India and other countries to work as indentured labourers in that island. Though La Réunion is a completely French-speaking territory, a number of its inhabitants are descendants of South Indians, Bengalis and Gujaratis. The literature of the island is very dynamic and engaging,” informs Prof. K. Madavane of JNU’s Centre for French and Francophone Studies.

“The people of the island want to know more about India. They want Indians to talk about Indian history, its culture, as so far they have heard it only from other sources, mainly from France. They also want JNU to collaborate on an ambitious cultural project called the ‘Museum of Civilisations and the Unity of Réunion’,” he added.

Prof. Madavane said the documentation centre on Indian Ocean Studies should be functional within the next six months.

Later, a chair on Indian Ocean Studies may be created.