" Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands
located between four and five degrees south of the equator on
the western part of the Indian Ocean. It is a paradise of
islands floating like tiny gems in the clear waters of the
Indian Ocean. It is a little over one thousand miles from India
and Sri Lanka in the northeast, from the eastern coast of Africa
in the west and from Mauritius in the south. The population is
just over 80,000, 90% of whom live on the mainland of Mahe with
Victoria as its capital. The rest of the population is spread
over in about thirty inhabitable islands.
Although recorded history has it that the Portuguese first
sighted these islands and French settlers landed in 1770, there
is ample evidence to show that Asians such as Arabs, Chinese and
Tamils visited these islands during the 15th and 16th centuries.
From time immemorial timber from Seychelles was transported to
Pondicherry for shipbuilding and rich Tamil merchants from
Cauvery delta had trade dealing with Seychelles.
The first Tamil, Ramalingam from Reunion, came to Seychelles in
1789 as an advisor to the Governor and was endowed with large
areas of land for his services. In 1864 the Naiken family
established their business followed in 1874 by Kandasamy Chetty
in business. Now one may see Tamil influence here in the
frequency of common Tamil names such as Pillai, Chetty, Govindan,
Naiken, Kandasamy and Vadivelu and a large number of them are in
the business community...more
