For more information see the Mauritius profile.

Mauritius consists of one larger and three smaller islands east of Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean. One of these islands, Rodriguez Island, is 500 km. east of the others. Mauritius also lays claim to Diego Garcia and the Chagos archipelago. Tourism and textiles are now the mainstays of an economy that once was dominated by the sugar industry.

Mauritius was a French colony 1715-1810, then a British colony until independence in 1968. The nation is a parliamentary democracy, but with party politics dominated by ethnic and religious divisions.

Official freedom of religion is compromised by a strong tendency to imitate Hindu India. All religious and missionary activity directed toward Hindus is regarded with disfavor.