Thakur Ranjit Singh
Auckland, May 15, 2022
Standfirst: The Fiji Girmit Foundation New Zealand marked its tenth anniversary with more than 1000 people in attendance on May 14, 2022 in South Auckland. The event was organised primarily to to commemorate the 143rd Anniversary of the arrival of the first batch of indentured labourers from India. Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan was the Chief Guest at the event, at which many members of the Fiji-Indian community were honoured. A detailed report will appear in our next issue.
So much has been written about Professor Brij Lal since his untimely death on Christmas Day in 2021, that any more writing will be a repetition of what has been said.
Fiji Girmit Foundation New Zealand was blessed with the presence of Professor and his good wife Dr Padma Lal in 2014, when they were our Chief Guests in Auckland. Many of us have fond memories and memorable photos. And he said many profound things and enlightened us, as he had already done to Fiji Girmitya Diaspora and the international community. He was the one who blessed us and helped put up Girmitya as a legitimate historical vocabulary.
Humble beginning and lofty end
Apart from being the Chief Guest in 2014, during the 140th Girmit Anniversary in Auckland in 2019, he was awarded the Fiji Girmit Legacy Award in Literature. We had intended to hand it over to him as the Chief Guest again on our 10th anniversary on May 14, 2022.
Time goes, you say. Ah no, alas, time stays, we go. Professor Lal was snatched from us untimely in the biggest loss our Girmit Diaspora has suffered after passing away of Pundit Totaram Sanadhya.
Professor Brij Lal passed away on Christmas Day in Brisbane in 2021 and is survived by his wife, Padma, two children – Niraj and Yogi – and five grandchildren.
Unlike many Girmitya descendants who are rich and have done well in the community, there was one thing the late Professor Brij Lal took great pride in – it was his humble beginnings in the little sugarcane settlement of Tabia outside Labasa Town on Vanua Levu Island of Fiji.
A proud Girmitya descendent
Professor Lal Brij Lal was born on August 21, 1952, in Tabia, Labasa, the grandson of a Girmitya or indentured labourer who arrived in Fiji in 1908. who was among the 60,000 labourers to make the crossing from India to Fiji under the most wretched conditions between 1879 and 1916.
Aja, as he called his paternal grandfather, had him at his feet, he was told of the stories of the backbreaking work in the plantations, starting at the first light of day and the extreme violence – often at the hands of cruel overseers desperate to command the favour of their European masters.
In the first Chapter titled, ‘Tabla,’ of his highly recommended book, ‘Mr Tulsi’s Store: A Fijian Journey,’ he introduces his Girmit background and the community in which he was raised.
Brij Vilash Lal was emeritus professor of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University until his retirement. He received his tertiary education at the University of the South Pacific, the University of British Columbia and the Australian National University, and later taught history at the University of the South Pacific, the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Australian National University.
Philosophical musings
Some philosophical and reflective things that he said need to be repeated here:
“One of my life’s ambitions has been to remember what others have forgotten or chosen to forget – to give our people a voice and a modicum of humanity, to give them a place at the table of history. We need to remind the new generation about our history: history doesn’t only belong to the victors but to the vanquished as well.
“One thing I have done in life before I go is to give these voiceless people a voice – a sense of place, a sense of purpose. People will remember this aspect by history. I do not celebrate struggles and sacrifices and sufferings of our people. What I marvel at is how ordinary people did extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances.
“We, their descendants, have inherited those traits and legacy of our forebears. And that is that even in difficult circumstances, we never give up and we never compromise. There is a kind of dignity within us, where did it come from? It comes from people who travelled thousands of miles in difficult circumstances, but never gave up. This is the legacy of Girmit that I think we are celebrating, not those horrible things we read in books many years ago.”
Memories and Lessons
We reminiscence and have nostalgic memories of those profound lessons imparted to us by the greatest Girmit Historian who left an everlasting legacy for the coming generations.
Perhaps after Mahatma Gandhi, a feeble person who evoked great fear among the might of British Empire, Professor Brij Lal was such a comparison in Fiji.
A person, barely 5 feet and weighing 60 kgs, with failing eyesight and greying hair, armed merely with a pen and a brilliant mind, Brij evoked fear among the leadership in Fiji, with thousands in its Military with deadly weapons. The fear for the Fiji First government was so great that he, together with his wife, were banned from Fiji.
The fear was so immense, that even, as per his last wishes, his ashes were denied entry to Fiji. For a small person whose ashes aroused such fears in the Fiji regime, itself speaks volumes for his huge stature. It is only hoped Karma hits those blinkered leadership in Fiji, which may be blessed with new visionary leader after the general elections, who would allow his last wishes for his ashes to be brought to his beloved Tabia.
So long Professor, hope God does not stop incarnating future proud sons like you.
Thakur Ranjit Singh is a founding Trustee of Fiji Girmit Foundation New Zealand, a media commentator, a journalist and publisher of blog Fiji Pundit, based in Auckland. Email: thakurjifj@gmail.com
