It may sound bizarre but it is an unpleasant truth that successive generations of Indo-Fijians have grown or are growing ignorant of and oblivious to their history.
It is a British legacy and denial of Indo-Fijian history was a discreet British colonial policy in Fiji. The British left in 1970 when Fiji gained its independence but Indo-Fijians, to this day, remain estranged from learning their history.
It was a fault of the British then, but it cannot continue to be a reason for Indo-Fijians to remain ignorant of a fascinating history of struggle, suffering and sacrifice.
Struggle left a legacy of fortitude; suffering left a legacy of endurance and sacrifice left a legacy of magnanimity, perhaps unmatched.
They struggled, suffered and sacrificed but did not seek applause or recognition. The debt of accrued gratitude is far heavier on the community, as the echo of their cries is becoming more audible now than ever before.
Haunting voice
The unmarked graves of the Girmityas are scattered all over Fiji; they may not have spoken about their tragic life but in their silence is a haunting voice that cannot and must not be ignored. They were manipulated, dominated and exploited.
They were robbed of their youth, as most Girmitiyas were in their late teens. The fracture of their lives followed when the ‘aarkathis,’ the ruthless recruiters in India, trapped them in their net of deceit.
The rupture of Girmit made them ‘glorified’ slaves, leaving them with broken bodies, tormented minds and without the right to seek redress for their sufferings.
For all intent and purposes, they were slaves, and instead of being called slaves, they were called ‘indentured labourers,’ the name changed but the stigma of slavery was contained under the cover of a glorified name.
Exclusive name
Indentured labour was a contractual agreement for five years and in Fiji, the indentured labourers called it Girmit and they came to be called Girmitiyas.
It is an exclusive name that is tied to Fiji and a name that is embedded in the history of Indo-Fijians. Historically, it is claimed that slavery ended in 1834 but the truth is that the wheels of slavery was reinvented and slave trade continued until the indenture system ended on December 31, 1919.
A lie perpetuated by the British and other colonial powers of the system of slavery became an uncontested historical truth!
Having sapped the physical and mental faculties of the Girmitiyas in five years, they were left to dry out for another five years before they qualified for a return trip to India. One would indeed argue as to the reason for this injustice.
The Girmitiyas served their five-year term should have been paid their return passage to India. Behind this apparent anomaly was a British ploy. It wanted the Girmitiyas to re-indenture for another term. Very few re-indentured as most opted to engage in subsistence farming for their livelihood.
Homeland detached
The Government knew that the majority would not have saved enough in five years to pay their return passage to India and would be de-rooted and settle in Fiji, providing for the labour needs of the Colony. This plan succeeded.
In ten difficult years, most of the Girmitiyas had become detached from India and opted to settle in Fiji. Subsequently, many engaged in sugarcane farming and became the backbone of the sugar industry in Fiji.
The sufferings of the Girmit era eased but the rewards for their toil eluded them, as the Government and the CSR Company, the dominant sugar miller, colluded in systemically robbing the illiterate farmers in the post-indenture period.
Sinister Plan
To keep them a labouring class, the Government devised another sinister plan. Education was denied to the children of Indian immigrants, ensuring that they never became a threat to European dominance.
It did not encourage nor did it make provision of schools for Indo-Fijian children. With widespread illiteracy among the Indo-Fijians, the Government was sure that it would succeed in this endeavour.
It was a miscalculation, as Indo-Fijians united in their resolve to invest in the education of their children. They held a collective view that only education would liberate their children from the conspiring and conniving Government and the CSR Company. They did not want their children to continue to be menial servants, serving their white masters.
This view became a communal obsession, as schools began to sprout in villages wherever Indo-Fijians lived. They did not wait for Government funding or support but established them out of their own poverty.
Unable to restrain Indo-Fijian advance, the Government, upon pressure from India, began to invest in schools established in the villages. The small spark of education, ignited by our Girmitiya forebears, liberated our community from servitude and, much to the annoyance of Europeans, their dominance was challenged.
K L Gillion, in his book, ‘The Fiji Indians – A Challenge to European Dominance 1920-1946,’ said, “By any measure, it was a remarkable transformation of a community from being slaves to challenging their masters.”
The true warriors
True to their religious and cultural heritage, they did not do it with malice or hatred. They were violated, exploited and robbed of their freedom, rights and justice. They went to their graves with physical scars of whips, kicks and sticks – emblems of a decadent era.
The Girmitiyas were the warriors of toil and soldiers of peace. They retained a morbid silence on the injustices and indignities visited on their lives by their white masters. Illiterate and poor, the much-lauded British system of justice was manipulated to work against them. They had no one to turn to but to bear the unbearable in silence.
One would have expected that successive generations of Indo-Fijians would have stood up to demand justice for the Girmitiyas. However, the might of the British prevailed and injustices it perpetrated were buried in the debris of British Empire’s toxic stockpile of injustices.
Twisted history
Unfortunately, history is not always a true record, as it is always manipulated by the oppressors, rich and powerful. The voice of the oppressed and suppressed are snuffed, as the world accepts and learns the sanitized version of history. Indo-Fijians do not even have a sanitised version, except blank pages left by the British, now being filled by Indo-Fijian writers.
Sadly, it is not being embraced by Indo-Fijians as many imprudently seem to think that they can simply ignore and forget it.
No community can grow in the ignorance of its past, as it is a legacy that must nourish successive generations.
Any generation that terminates this legacy will be guilty of failing in its duties and obligations to their own children. Our early history cannot be delinked. History has given us our own Indo-Fijian culture, language and identity and all of it is inseparably linked to Girmit in Fiji.
Rajendra Prasad is a thinker, columnist and author of ‘Tears in Paradise Suffering and Struggles of Indians in Fiji 1879-2004.’ The book, released by Sir Anand Satyanand (who was then an Ombudsman) at the Ellerslie War Memorial Hall on August 21, 2004 and thereafter in many other parts of the world has now run into several editions. It is a tearful account of a tumultuous past. Every person keen on understanding the cruel fate of a lost generation, especially Indo-Fijians, must read the book to understand the trials and tribulations of their ancestors. The book can be purchased by contacting Mr Prasad. Email: raj.prasad@xtra.co.nz
Photo :
1. Sir Anand Satyanand presents a copy of ‘Tears in Paradise’ to Judge Ajit Singh at the book’s launch on August 21, 2004. Seated behind is Dr Rajen Prasad
2. A sketch of ‘Leonidas,’ the first ship to arrive in Fiji with Girmityas in 1879
3. Women in working clothes as indentured labourer
4. Front cover of the author’s book in Third Edition
