Tamil Mauritians are the descendants of Tamil migrants to Mauritius. The original immigrants from Tamil were craftsmen and tradesmen, and arrived when Mauritians was ruled by France. The island nation has a Tamil population of 115,000. Most were brought by the British from Tamil Nadu after 1727 to serve as labourers on the sugar cane plantations. Around 15 percent of Indo-Mauritians are Tamils. The community includes a Hindu majority, and the rest are Christians (largely Roman Catholic). They account to 55,000 of the Mauritian population. Of this number, around 7000 people reported that they spoke Tamil. Most tamils in Mauritius are Hindus. A large population of the Tamils in Mauritius lives at Rose-Hill.