1965 Mauritius race riots

May 1964 Riots at Trois Boutiques and Mahebourg

The 1964 Mauritius Trois Boutiques riots refers to a number of violent clashes that started in the village of Trois Boutiques, Souillac on 01 May 1964 and progressed to the historic village of Mahebourg. The unrest eventually led to the declaration of a nationwide State of Emergency on what was then a British colony. This was well before the subsequent 1966 riots and 1968 riots associated with the 1967 elections which preceded the country's independence of 12 March 1968. The riot was initiated by the murder of Police Constable Beesoo in his vehicle by a Creole gang. This was followed by the murder of a civilian named Mr. Brousse in Trois Boutiques. The Creole gang then proceeded to the coastal historic village of Mahebourg. They assaulted the Hindu and Muslim spectators who were watching a Hindustani movie at Cinéma Odéon. Mahebourg police recorded nearly 100 complaints of assaults on Indo-Mauritians.

Intervention by British troops from Yemen

British forces had mostly withdrawn their troops from the island of Mauritius by 1960. The King's African Rifles (KAR) regiment had been present there until 1960 for more than 150 years. At the time of the 1964 riots the local police force was in a state of transition as the Special Mobile Force had been created in 1960 as successor of the departed KAR regiment. The events of May 1964 caused a sense of fear and local forces were unprepared to deal with such violence. Thus a State of Emergency was declared on 14 May 1964 which lasted for the rest of that year. Operation Fishplate was initiated by Great Britain and this involved the mobilisation of Coldstream Guards from Aden, Yemen to the island of Mauritius. The Coldstream Guards eventually left Mauritius in December 1964.

Prior to these 1964 riots there had been a mostly uninterrupted period of peace in Mauritius since the Uba riots of 1937.