National and Ethnoreligious Identities in Multicultural Mauritius: Group Positions and Belonging

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of ethnic and religious identities to the construction of national identity in Mauritius, a small Indian Ocean island state. First, the sociohistorical context of Mauritius, a past Dutch, French, and British colony (in that order), is described with reference to the group positions of the different ethnoreligious groups. This serves to highlight that ethnic identity and acculturation can be studied in both majority and minority groups. The chapter then reviews empirical work on the positive associations among superordinate (national) and subgroup identities (ethnic/religious) and the negotiation of multiple identities. The factors that facilitate compatibility between national and ethnic identities are discussed in terms of normative representations of the national category. These two dimensions, namely, compatibility between ethnic and national identities and normative representations of the nation in terms of cultural diversity, are the two main Mauritian “exports” that can be potentially applied across social contexts.