The Vagrant Depot of Grand River North West was opened on 23rd February 1864 and extends over an area of almost two acres. Today marks the 141st anniversary of the opening of one of the most important historical and heritage sites which is closely linked with the history of the Indians in Mauritius during the nineteenth century.

● The Convict Barracks

During most of the 1800s, the structures of the Vagrant Depot of Grand River North West have served as a place of incarceration for individuals who were brought from the Indian subcontinent to British Mauritius such as the convicts and indentured and non-indentured labourers.

Between 1816 and 1853, hundreds of Indian convicts were kept at the Convict Barracks or Convict Headquarters of Grand River. In 1853, the Convict Barracks was closed down and during the mid-1850s, occasionally, vagrants from the Port Louis Prison were imprisoned there.

In 1864, the Convict Barracks was converted into the Vagrant Depot of Grand River or the colony?s Central Depot. Between 1864 and 1886, tens of thousands of Indian and non-Indian vagrants were imprisoned at the Grand River Depot. It was closed in early 1886.

The Definition of a ?Vagrant?

During the nineteenth century, a vagrant, in the eyes of British colonial officials and according to colonial laws, was someone who did not possess a ?valid pass? (or ticket) as well as someone who did not have a permanent place of residence and not working under a labour contract. At the same time, a vagrant was also considered to be a deserter or a labourer who had escaped from his master?s employment, usually on a sugar estate. Between the late 1830s and early 1900s, the term ?vagrant? was applied in particular to newly introduced indentured labourers or New Immigrants as well as to ex-indentured Indian labourers or Old Immigrants.

● Establishing the Vagrant Depot

In February 1864, in order to deal with the worsening problem of vagrancy in the colony, Governor Barkly and the Council of Government ordered the conversion of the Convict Barracks at Grand River North West into a depot for 300 vagrants. The Vagrant Depot was officially opened on 23rd February of the same year when it received its first prisoners. During the following month, Ordinance No. 4 of 1864 was enacted and it provided the legal framework for the erection of the Vagrant Depot at Grand River (or also known as the colony?s Central Depot).

Between January 1865 and December 1867, the Surveyor General?s Office, through the use of vagrant labour and at a total cost of more than 6,700 pounds sterling, a dormitory or two large associated wards for the prisoners, quarters for the prison staff, six new prison cells, a boundary wall, and a small hospital, with a surgery, were built. Between September 1866 and February 1867, a new guard room and office and six prison cells were constructed at a cost of more than 1000 pounds sterling.

● The Vagrant Depot Prisoners

According to the annual returns for the Vagrant Depot of Grand River from the Mauritius Archives, it is estimated that between 1864 and 1886, more than 60,000 vagrants were imprisoned there. Furthermore, during that period, there was a common practice of transferring vagrants from the Port Louis Prison and other district depots and prisons to the Grand River Central Depot.

The overwhelming majority of the vagrants of the Depot of Grand River North West were: Adult males; between 18 and 50 years old; first time offenders who served mostly a three-month sentence; old & new immigrants

The Depot had a heterogeneous population which consisted of the following: Indians from India; Indo-Mauritians or Mauritians of Indian origin; Mauritian Creoles (many of them descendants of slaves); local born Chinese labourers; a few Europeans.

The Depot prisoners were adherents to a number of important religions such as: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam & Buddhism.

Some of the prisoners of the Vagrant Depot could also read and write. These prisoners were used mainly for outdoor labour such as breaking stones, constructing roads, cleaning streets, and repairing the public buildings mostly in the Port Louis area and its suburbs.

● The Heritage Value of the Depot

In early 1886, the Vagrant Depot was closed and its prisoners transferred to the Port Louis Prison and the newly built Beau Bassin Prison. More than seven decades later, in 1958, it was decreed national monument by Governor Sir Robert Scott through Government Notice No. 614. As a national monument, the Vagrant Depot is a heritage site which is worthy of being preserved.

Today, it is a matter of public interest because between 1864 and 1886, it formed one of the pillars of the colony?s repressive state apparatus to control the movement, labour, and lives of the Indian and non-Indian labourers. Therefore, this heritage site is tangibly linked with the lives of the Indian and non-Indian labourers who struggled to carve a place for themselves in a highly controlled and stratified Mauritian colonial society.

The Vagrant Depot is an important lieu de mémoire which bears testimony to the trials, tribulations, and the struggles of more than 60,000 indentured and non-indentured labourers between 1864 and 1886. Hopefully, in the near future, the Vagrant Depot of Grand River North West will form part of a local as well as an international Indenture Route Project which will link Mauritius with other countries where the Indian diaspora took place.

Satyendra PEERTHUM & Ally Hossen ORJOON