It was formed in 1966 to unite the Labour Party (Mauritius), Independent Forward Bloc (IFB) and Comité d'Action Musulman (CAM) at the time when the island nation was a colony of Great Britain.
The main objective of forming an alliance of the 3 political parties (Labour, IFB and CAM) was to represent the voters who supported independence from colonial power Great Britain which had administered the island since 1810.
[2] Since 1960 the British administration had started discussions with local representatives regarding their departure from the colony as it withdrew its military regiment from the island in the same year.
In government the priorities of the Independence Party were education of the masses, control of the high population growth, reduction of unemployment, improvement of healthcare, water and sanitation.
The Independence Party was only partially economically liberal especially given the predominance of private ownership of the mills and plantations of the sugar industry, and advocated limited government intervention in the economy.
By the end of that term the leader of Labour Party already started to work closely with what used to be his ideological rival Gaëtan Duval at PMSD, so much so that they collaborated to amend the Constitution in 1972 to cancel the planned general elections.