De L'Estrac: 'Division Creates Tensions, Not the Other Way Around'

Jean-Claude de L'Estrac, one of Mauritius's most prominent public intellectuals and former politicians, has spoken out on the social tensions gripping the country, offering a pointed diagnosis of what he sees as the true problem.

"It is not tensions that divide the population — it is division that creates the tensions," de L'Estrac told Le Défi Media. The statement, delivered with characteristic directness, cuts to the heart of a debate that has intensified in the wake of recent unrest across parts of the island.

De L'Estrac is a well-known figure in Mauritian public life. A former journalist, politician and diplomat, he served as Secretary-General of the Indian Ocean Commission, an intergovernmental organisation that groups Mauritius with its regional neighbours including Madagascar, the Comoros, Réunion and the Seychelles. His voice carries weight across political and civil society circles.

His remarks challenge a narrative that has circulated in some political commentary — that social tensions are an organic outgrowth of recent events, or of policing and economic pressures alone. De L'Estrac's argument inverts this: the underlying fractures in Mauritian society, whether along communal, economic or political lines, are what generate unrest in the first place. Address the division, he implies, and the tensions lose their fuel.

Mauritius is a diverse society built from waves of migration and shaped by colonial history. Its population includes communities of Indian, Creole, Chinese and European descent, with religious diversity spanning Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism. For the most part, this plurality has been managed peacefully, and the country is often cited as a model of multicultural coexistence in the region. But critics, including de L'Estrac, have long argued that communal identity is sometimes exploited for political purposes, deepening social fault lines rather than bridging them.

The comments come at a sensitive moment. Mauritius has seen a curfew imposed following nights of looting and disorder in several areas, including the ransacking of the Bambous District Court and disturbances stretching across the west of the island. Authorities have made dozens of arrests. Religious and political leaders, including Bishop Durhône and former Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, have called for calm.

What this means: De L'Estrac's framing is a call for political and civic leaders to look beyond the immediate disorder and ask harder questions about the structural divisions — economic inequality, communal politics, social exclusion — that may have made that disorder possible. His intervention is less a comment on policing or curfew enforcement, and more a challenge to Mauritius's leadership class to confront the deeper work of national cohesion.

Source: Le Défi Media