During the days of the British Empire, the Brits sent indentured servants to Mauritius, an island off the coast of East Africa, to work sugar cane fields and the like. Some of these Indians spoke the Punjabi language as do their descendants today. There were women among the Punjabis, and many of these married Chinese men who also migrated to this island nation.
21st century Punjabis are living much better than the ones who first came to Mauritius. Punjabis, and other Mauritians of Indian descent, have dominated the political landscape of this island nation for many years. Indians make up over half of the population of Mauritius today.
The Punjabis live mainly in the few urban centers of Mauritius such as Port Louis. Others live in smaller places like Quatres Bornes. They tend to congregate at their places of worship known as gurdwaras.
Many of the Punjabis in Mauritius are working in the high tech and banking industries. They are highly educated and noted for their abilities in business and computer programming.
Most of the Punjabis in Mauritius are Sikhs, though there are a couple of Hindu Punjabis families among them. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak, who tried to bring together the best teachings of Islam and Hinduism at a time when there was much fighting between the two religious communities.
The Punjabis in Mauritius are doing well economically, but they are on the wrong track in terms of their spiritual direction. Though Guru Nanak taught the Sikhs some good moral teachings about helping the poor, he did not point the way to the only Savior of all mankind, Jesus Christ.
* Pray that the Holy Spirit will thrust out ambassadors to the Punjabis with the eternal gospel.
* Pray for the Holy Spirit to move in Punjabi hearts so they will understand that they need a savior.
* Pray for the highly literate Punjabis to form Bible studies in their language.
* Pray that these Bible studies will result in Christ-oriented fellowships throughout Mauritius.
Profiles written by Global Prayer Digest
|Profile Source: Keith Carey|
|People Name General||Punjabi|
|People Name in Country||Punjabi|
|Population in Mauritius||25,000|
|Pioneer Workers Needed||1 to 2|
|Progress Scale||1 ●|
|Alternate Names||Eastern Punjabi, Gurmukhi, Mirpur Punjabi, Panjabi, Sikh|
|Primary Language||Punjabi, Eastern (25,000 speakers)|
|Language Code||pan Ethnologue Listing|
|Dialect Code||761 Global Recordings Listing|
|Language Written||Yes ScriptSource Listing|
|People Groups||Speaking Punjabi, Eastern|
Primary Language: Punjabi, Eastern
|Bible Translation ▲||Status (Years)|
|Bible-New Testament||Yes (1815-2011)|
|Possible Print Bibles|
|Forum of Bible Agencies|
|World Bible Finder|
|Resource Type ▲||Resource Name|
|Audio Recordings||Audio Bible teaching (GRN)|
|Audio Recordings||Online New Testament (FCBH)|
|Audio Recordings||Online Scripture (Talking Bibles)|
|Audio Recordings||Oral Bible|
|Audio Recordings||Story of Jesus audio (Jesus Film Project)|
|Film / Video||Eyes of the Heart (Indigitube.tv)|
|Film / Video||Following Jesus (India, JF Project)|
|Film / Video||God's Story Video|
|Film / Video||Jesus Film: view in Punjabi, Eastern|
|Film / Video||Magdalena (Jesus Film Project)|
|Film / Video||Sikh Contextual Gathering (Indigitube.tv)|
|Film / Video||Sikh Punjabi Music Video (Indigitube.tv)|
|Film / Video||Story of Jesus for Children (JF Project)|
|General||Got Questions Ministry|
|Text / Printed Matter||Bible-in-Your-Language|
|Text / Printed Matter||OneHope resources for children and youth|
|Text / Printed Matter||Online Bible (Bibles India)|
|Text / Printed Matter||World Missionary Press Booklets|
|Primary Religion:||Other / Small|
|Major Religion ▲||Percent *|
|Christianity (Evangelical 1.50 %)||
|Other / Small||
|Christian Segments ▲||Percent|