 After the abolition of slavery, John Gladstone sought indentured servants from India to work in his sugar plantations.Knowing that a number of Indians had been sent to Mauritius as indentured labour, Gladstone expressed a desire to obtain free labour from India for his plantations in the West Indies in a letter dated 4 January 1836 to Messrs Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co. of Calcutta.Gladstone was also interested in politics.