Sulliman Issop, a 55-year-old-journalist from Reunion who celebrated the New Year in Chennai, was more lucky as he knew his Indian origins on his father’s side.

“My father was about 10 years old when he left Gujarat along with his five-year-old brother after an epidemic took the lives of his parents and sister. They were sheltered and educated by an uncle settled in the Reunion,” he says. His aunt actually told him that his father came from the village of Kamboli in Gujarat and he first went there in 2001. “People showed me the mosque, the orphanage and the school built with the money he had sent.”

There must be around 45,000 Gujarati Muslims in Reunion now according to writer Ismael Daoujee. “The first wave of Indo-Muslim immigration was in 1860,” Daoujee explains. Most of them came as free merchant or workers in the jewellery sector.

“The famine in Gujarat between 1899 and 1902 brought a second wave of Muslims, who were employed by those who got there before,” he adds. But despite the onslaught of French culture, the Indians in Reunion have hung on to their cultural legacy. The Tamils still eat on banana leaves and wear saris on special occasions. Hinduism is still vert dynamic on the island.

“More than a hundred fire walks are organised every year,” says Govindin, adding that animal sacrifices too are very popular along with Deepavali celebrations. But mixed weddings are getting more common. “More and more Indians are marrying outside their community, especially when they go to mainland France,” says Ramsamy.