Mauritianhood after fifty years of liberation from servility and the shackles of colonialism is a wonderful achievement. We have succeeded where others have failed in a world torn between dualities which nobody is capable of merging or melting into a unity of feeling – the survival of the human species.
It’s already fifty years and I have not lost my roots. I am wedged between my ancestral cultures and the course of a world which is seeking new perspectives and orientation without knowing where to land. But, to-day we know what we want. We have freedom and liberty. We need to fashion our way out in a tumultuous setting and to outshine those who are yet to understand the principle of unity in diversity.
The Mauritius of Mahashivaratree, Eid, Christmas and Spring Festivals is a unique model in the world. We love our neighbor and we don’t despise anyone. We share what we have and we live peacefully. The Mauritian identity and culture are at the crossroad of a new era.
To-day the crisis lies within each cultural component of the Mauritian society in the face of economic, political, social and personal choices. It has also to face the attempts of globalization hedged by an aggressive audiovisual technology.
At the dawn of independence, thousands flee Mauritius for fear of the night of poverty and doom that would strike the country under an apprehended hegemony.
I was there and I am still here. The Homo Mauricianus is a reality to-day. We have a bubbling but stable cultural agglomerate that has sustained the making of Mauritius from a cross-section of the world population and traditions.
Independence is the most precious gift of our political evolution. The new status gave us the freedom to define ourselves as ourselves and as part of a new nation with which we share affinities of history, heritage and hope.
Our plural society is destined to be more thoroughly plural after half a century of peaceful and fruitful cohabitation.
As a modern nation, each community is running their internal affairs in full autonomy. Our Constitution guarantees the freedom of our citizens to practice and live with a culture of their choice. All the communities forming the Mauritian Nation are the constructive elements of stable democracy.
It was a Golden Dream fifty years ago.
It is still a dream in Gold.
When the dream is reality, let this reality be.
Happy birthday Mauritius.
Islam Bhugan
