Our Second Leader- May 1, 2020 Issue
This is a Curtain-raiser for our 141st Girmit Anniversary overage (May 14, 2020)
In two weeks from now, the world will quietly add yet another year to the Girmit Period that rocked the lives of more than 60,000 men and women from India for 40 years, immersing them into a subjugated state of slavery and deception.
The story of the Indo-Fijians as indentured labourers is one of betrayal, torture, sacrifice and death. Successive generations have heard how their ancestors suffered the brutality of their colonial masters, whipped like animals and were pushed towards suicide- many of them ended their lives either hanging at home or falling into the nearby river; many others simply perished as a natural outcome of physical and mental abuse.
There are undoubtedly a number of success stories of people who have established their presence commercially and lifted Fiji’s economy in later years, especially after the country gained independence in 1970.
Trials and tribulations
But they did not achieve success overnight; they too struggled, alongside their compatriots, risked their fortunes and promoted businesses. It is said that without Indo-Fijian enterprise, the country’s economy would be far more impoverished and regressive than it is today.
The reason for the massive abuse of Indians by the Colonial Sugar Research (CSR) Company is not known but it is assumed that they practiced subjugation through terror was far more effective in gaining control over the migrant workers than letting them live and work in dignity.
The first shipload of Girmitiyas aboard Leonidas, accounted for 522 men and women, who were apparently taken from various parts of India on false pretences. If those people sported a dream of making it in Fiji through hard work followed by happiness and prosperity, they only got the former.
Indo-Fijians are among the most hardworking and enterprising people in the world.
We salute them on this Girmit Anniversary. As we have done for the past 21 years, we will mark the Anniversary on May 14, 2020 with special articles.
