GUADELOUPE, April 9, 2016 (News Gram): Guadeloupe is situated in the Northern Caribbean and French is spoken on the island. In the mid 1860’s around 45,000 people were brought to here by the French government from south India to work in the sugar plantations.
When the British government adopted a policy against hiring people from other territories, the French government immediately stopped bringing people from India. Due to this, Indians had to face a lot of hardship and around 9,000 people left the island. But hundreds of them had to stay back either to start a new life or because their bond documents were burnt by their officials. Indians who became businessmen and landowners chose to stay back.
The French government estimated that 55,000 Indians were present in Guadeloupe. In Guadeloupe most of the Indians were Tamils and the Island is one of the largest Tamil populations in the Caribbean. There are several associations formed by Indo-Guadeloupe to promote Indian culture. Among these associations the largest association consists of 300 members and 2,000 associates. This association is named L’Association Culturelle Guadeloupeenne des Amis de L’Inde. With Indian citizens holding higher positions in all fields and politics in Guadeloupe, people were longing to rediscover and re-cover their Indian history, heritage and culture.
More of this history at “source”.