Aapravasi Ghat
Aapravasi Ghat
In the district of Port Louis, lies the 1,640 m2 site where the modern indentured labour diaspora began. In 1834, the British Government selected the island of Mauritius to be the first site for what it called ‘the great experiment’ in the use of ‘free’ labour to replace slaves. Between 1834 and 1920, almost half a million indentured labourers arrived from India at Aapravasi Ghat to work in the sugar plantations of Mauritius, or to be transferred to Reunion Island, Australia, southern and eastern Africa or the Caribbean. The buildings of Aapravasi Ghat are among the earliest explicit manifestations of what was to become a global economic system and one of the greatest migrations in history.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Aapravasi Ghat
Ce site de 1 640 m2 situé dans le district de Port Louis est l’endroit où commença la moderne diaspora des travailleurs sous contrat ou « engagés ». En 1834, le gouvernement britannique choisit l’île de Maurice pour en faire le premier site de sa « grande expérience », l’utilisation de travailleurs libres plutôt que d’esclaves. Entre 1834 et 1920, presque un demi-million de travailleurs sous contrat arriva d’Inde à l’Aapravasi Ghat pour travailler dans les plantations sucrières de Maurice ou pour être transférés de là à l’île de la Réunion, en Australie, en Afrique australe et orientale, dans les Caraïbes. Les bâtiments de l’Aapravasi Ghat sont l’une des premières manifestations explicites de ce qui devait devenir par la suite un système économique mondial et l’une des plus grandes vagues migratrices de l’histoire.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
آبرافاسي غات
في هذا الموقع الذي تبلغ مساحته 640 1 م2 والقائم في مقاطعة سان لويس ظهر الشتاتُ الحديثُ لما يعرف بالعمّال المتعاقدين. ففي العام 1834، اختارت الحكومة البريطانيّة جزيرة موريشوس كأول موقعٍ لإجراء "تجربتها الكبرى"، أي استخدام العمّال الأحرار بدلاً من الرقيق. وبين عامي 1834 و1920، وصل حوالي نصف مليون عامل متعاقد من الهند إلى آبرافاسي غات للعمل في مزارع السكر في موريشوس أو للعبور إلى جزيرة ريونيون وأستراليا وأفريقيا الجنوبية والشرقية والكاريبي. كما أن موقع آبرافاسي غات يشكل أحد أوّل المعالم الجليّة لما سيشكل في فترةٍ لاحقةٍ جزءاً من النظام الاقتصادي العالمي وأحد أكبر تيّارات الهجرة في التاريخ.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
阿普拉瓦西•加特地区
1640平方米的路易斯港地区是现代有契据的劳动力移民的起源地。1834年，英国政府选择毛里求斯岛为第一处试验地进行所谓的“伟大试验”，用自由劳动力代替奴隶。在1834年到1920年间，近50万名有契约的劳动力从印度来到阿普拉瓦西•加特地区，在毛里求斯的制糖厂工作，或被运送到了澳大利亚留尼汪岛、南部和东部非洲，或加勒比地区。阿普拉瓦西•加特地区的建筑是最早清晰展示未来世界经济体系的建筑之一，也是历史上最伟大的移民见证。
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Ааправаси-Гхат – иммиграционный терминал (город Порт-Луи)
Этот участок портового района в городе Порт-Луи, площадью 1640 кв. м, послужил местом, где зародилась современная диаспора завербованной рабочей силы. В 1834 г. Британское правительство выбрало остров Маврикий в качестве опытного полигона для «великого эксперимента» по использованию «свободных» рабочих для замещения ими рабов. Между 1834 г. и 1920 г. почти полмиллиона завербованных рабочих было доставлено из Индии в Ааправаси-Гхат для работы на плантациях сахарного тростника на Маврикии, или для перемещения на остров Реюньон, в Австралию, Южную и Восточную Африку, или на Карибские острова. Постройки Ааправаси-Гхат относятся к самым ранним и явным свидетельствам того, чему суждено было стать одной из крупнейших миграций в истории человечества.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Aapravasi Ghat
Este sitio de 1.640 m2, situado en el distrito de Port Louis, es el lugar donde comenzó la diáspora moderna de los “trabajadores contratados”. En 1834, el gobierno británico escogió la isla de Mauricio para aplicar en ella por primera vez lo que llamó “el gran experimento”, o sea la utilización de trabajadores libres en vez de esclavos. Entre 1834 y 1920, llegaron desde la India a Aapravasi Ghat casi medio millón de “trabajadores contratados” para trabajar en las plantaciones de caña azucarera de Mauricio, o ser transferidos a la isla de la Reunión, Australia, el África Meridional y Oriental, y el Caribe. Los edificios de Aapravasi Ghat son uno de los primeros exponentes materiales de lo que llegó a convertirse en un sistema económico de envergadura internacional, causante de uno de los mayores movimientos migratorios de la historia de la humanidad.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
アプラヴァシ・ガート
アプラヴァシ・ガートは、モーリシャスの首都ポートルイスにある広さ1640㎡の一角。1834年、英国政府はモーリシャス島を、奴隷の代わりに「自由」労働者を雇用するという「偉大なる実験」の場とした。同年から1920年の間に、ほぼ45万人の契約労働者がインドからアプラヴァシ・ガートに到着し、島内の砂糖農園や、当時英国領だったレユニオン島、南アフリカ、東アフリカやカリブ海に送られたのである。石造りの倉庫や病院など1860年代に建てられた移民局関連建造物群は、この場所が、今や世界中に広まった「契約労働」システム発祥の地であり、歴史に残る大規模な労働者の移住が行われたことを示すものである。source: NFUAJ
Aapravasi Ghat
Aapravasi Ghat – 1.640 vierkante meter groot – ligt in het district Port Louis. Hier begon de moderne diaspora van contractarbeiders. In 1834 koos de Britse regering het eiland Mauritius uit als het eerste gebied voor ‘het grote experiment’ om gebruik te maken van ‘vrije’ arbeidskrachten in plaats van slaven. Tussen 1834 en 1920 kwamen bijna een half miljoen contractarbeiders uit India naar Aapravasi Ghat om op de suikerplantages van Mauritius te werken of om overgebracht te worden naar andere landen. De gebouwen van Aapravasi Ghat tonen de eerste expliciete manifestaties van een mondiaal economisch systeem en van een van de grootste migraties uit de geschiedenis.
Source: unesco.nl
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Located on the bay of Trou Fanfaron, in the capital of Port-Louis, the Aapravasi Ghat is the remains of an immigration depot, the site from where modern indentured labour Diaspora emerged. The Depot was built in 1849 to receive indentured labourers from India, Eastern Africa, Madagascar, China and Southeast Asia to work on the island’s sugar estates as part of the 'Great Experiment’. This experiment was initiated by the British Government, after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, to demonstrate the superiority of ‘free’ over slave labour in its plantation colonies. The success of the 'Great Experiment' in Mauritius led to its adoption by other colonial powers from the 1840s, resulting in a world-wide migration of more than two million indentured labourers, of which Mauritius received almost half a million.
The buildings of Aapravasi Ghat are among the earliest explicit manifestations of what would become a global economic system. The Aapravasi Ghat site stands as a major historic testimony of indenture in the 19th century and is the sole surviving example of this unique modern diaspora. It represents not only the development of the modern system of contractual labour, but also the memories, traditions and values that these men, women and children carried with them when they left their countries of origin to work in foreign lands and subsequently bequeathed to their millions of descendants for whom the site holds great symbolic meaning.
Criterion (vi): Aapravasi Ghat, as the first site chosen by the British Government in 1834 for the ‘great experiment’ in the use of indentured, rather than slave labour, is strongly associated with memories of almost half a million indentured labourers moving from India to Mauritius to work on sugar cane plantations or to be transshipped to other parts of the world.
Integrity
The setting of the property was altered by the construction of a road that cuts across it. At present, less than half of the Immigration Depot area as it existed in 1865, survives. However, original structural key components still stand. These include the remains of the sheds for the housing of the immigrants, kitchens, lavatories, a building used as a hospital block and highly symbolical flight of 14 steps upon which all immigrants had to lay foot before entering the immigration depot. However, the property is vulnerable to the development in the buffer zone, some of which is unregulated.
Authenticity
The property represents the place where indentured immigrants first arrived in Mauritius. Archival and architectural drawings of the complex at the time of its alteration in 1864-1865 give evidence of its purpose as an immigration depot. The surviving buildings reveal significant aspects of the history of the indentured labour system and the functioning of the immigration depot.
While there was little detailed documentation of conservation work undertaken prior to 2003 , the more recent work, including the removal of the undesirable additions of the 1990s, has been based on archaeological investigation and detailed archival documentation, including the complete set of drawings of the Immigration Depot at the time of the complex’s remodelling in 1864-1865.
Prior to the launching of the recent conservation work and restoration work, two technical reports for the conservation were prepared respectively in December 2003 and May 2004 by ICOMOS-India. Complete photo documentation as well as architectural documentation of the site were undertaken before initiating the conservation works and during the conservation process. These were compiled as part of the periodic conservation reports of the property.
Protection and management requirements
The Aapravasi Ghat site is owned by the Ministry of Arts and Culture. The property is protected as National Heritage under the National Heritage Fund Act 2003 and the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund Act 2001. The Buffer Zones are regulated by the Municipal Council of Port-Louis under the Local Government Act. Day-to-day management of the site is the responsibility of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund. The Board of the Trust Fund consists of representatives of key institutions such as the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Arts and Culture, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the Ministry of Tourism and the National Heritage Fund. A technical team of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund reviews all conservation works at the site with International experts.
The Management Plan of the Aapravasi Ghat site (2006-2011) addresses the strategy and the vision for the long term sustainable development of the property. One of the key objectives expresses the need to put legislative back-up in place for the Buffer Zones and to establish a clear management structure. It involves setting up a legal protection for the Buffer Zones through the promulgation of a Planning Policy Guidance. The objective is to orientate development towards the valorisation and revitalization of the area, which holds attributes associated to the outstanding universal value of the property. The key objectives also include the development of a comprehensive Conservation Plan, the need to foster links with the local community in the Buffer Zones, the implementation of a Visitor Management Plan and the setting up of an interpretation centre for the property. Research objectives focus on the Buffer Zones and on intangible heritage with a view to produce an inventory of intangible heritage related to indenture.
In order to protect the setting and context of the property, it will be necessary in the medium term for progress to be made with putting in place adequate tools to facilitate the management and conservation of the property and its buffer zone and to allow engagement with inhabitants of the surrounding town in order that the relationship between the property and its buffer zones is better understood.
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