Politics of the Collectivity of Saint Martin Politics of the Collectivity of Saint Martin Saint Martin was a French commune for many years and formed part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas "région" and "département" of France and is therefore in the European Union. In 2003, the population of the French part of the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity (COM) of France. On 9 February 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both the French part of Saint Martin and neighbouring Saint Barthélemy. The new status took effect once the local assembly
Hinduism in New Caledonia Hinduism in New Caledonia Hinduism originally came to New Caledonia with Indians who worked as indentured servants of European settlers of the island. There are about 500 New Caledonians of Indian Tamil descent. They were known as Malabar and originally arrived in the 19th century from other French Territories, namely Réunion. New Caledonia has several descendants of Tamils, whose parents intermarried with the local population in the 20th century. New Caledonia requires a special study since a large number of Tamils went there as laborers and a report in a book published about 1919 states that of the Chinese, Indians