166,000 Girmitiya in 1956

IN 1956 there were over 166,000 Indians in the colony with the South Indians constituting about a fifth of the total Indian populations at the time. Details of the Indian community then and its growth were detailed by the Then India Valibar Sangam of Fiji during its silver jubilee celebration.

The religious organisation highlighted the difficult journey that the immigrants had taken and how they built communities in Fiji.

According to the organisation the first Indians to arrive in Fiji from their mother-land came in the year 1879, in the vessel Leonidas which reached Levuka after a difficult voyage of 72 days from India.

The organisation reported that the immigrants numbering 81 were brought by the British Government on a ten-year contract to work on the sugar plantations and found the country to their liking, remained, multiplied and prospered.

“The next lot of immigrants to arrive was brought by the sailing ships, Berar and Poonah, respectively on June 29 and September 17 of 1882 and those voyages were followed later by Bayard in the year 1883.

At the end of 1883, according to the organisation there were over 2300 Indian residents in the colony.

“The indenture system continued until 1916, under it some 60, 500 Indians were brought into the colony.

“Of these South Indians (Madrassi) numbered about 15,000.

“The total number of Indians repatriated to India was about 24,000, South Indians numbering about 6000.

“As for the early social conditions of the Indian people, the caste system did little to hamper intercourse in Fiji.

“The process of integration perhaps commenced at the immigration depots at Calcutta and Madras.

Hindus and Muslims, high and low-caste met together and fraternised as they had never done before.

They were ship-mates bound for a distant shore and threw aside the ideas of caste superiority that were common in those days.

The organisation reported that on board they contacted each other and ate together and obeyed all rules made by persons not concerned with caste but to some extent there remained upon arrival at vestige of the Brahman’s superior standing.

Gradually the distinction disappeared through many of their menfolk marrying women of lower caste and this integration according to the organisation was undoubtedly beneficial to them.

“It saved women from being subjected to the purdah system and widowhood, prevalent then and it also helped them in participating in each other’s social and religious functions.

“Marriages between members of different religions were common and relationships cordial.

“The early community was undoubtedly backward in the educational and social fields.”

The organisation said it was thankful and indebted to the government and the various Christians religious bodies for their pioneer work in the educational progress of the colony and to the educational institutions in New Zealand and other countries for accommodating the Indian pupils from Fiji.

The organisation added that South India, the mother-land of its Sangam pioneers, had given the world many great religious teachers and philosophers.

The article was published in The Fiji Times on Wednesday, October 10, 1956.