A TIME FOR GIRMITIYA DESCENDANTS TO BE COUNTED AS "FIJI INDIANS" IN NZ AND AUSTRALIA

Girmitiyas who were honoured during Fiji Girmit Remembrance Day in Auckland in May, 2014. Our request to Fiji Indians filling out future census forms in NZ and Australia is to reflect our RACE/ETHNICITY/ ANCESTRY as those who descended from them- FIJI INDIANS.

FiJiANs of Indian descent in New Zealand and Australia comprise a huge number, but nobody knows how many, as we have never been recorded separately. We have either been counted as INDIANS, or have eclipsed in ‘ASIAN” or "SOUTH ASIAN" category or some other others. No efforts have been made to identify us separately.

Some claim that if recorded properly in NZ, we may even surpass Tongans and Niuean, and come only second to Samoans as the largest number of people of the Pacific in New Zealand. One estimate put our numbers at over 100,000.

Fiji Indians in Australia also comprises a huge number but they have never been recorded separately as FIJI INDIANS.

At the moment there is no consistent term that refers to Fijians of Indian descent-some call us IndoFijians, some Fiji-Indians and others Fijian Indians. Whatever the most accepted terminology, our first issue is to be identified separately in New Zealand and Australian Census, where we comprise more than most other Pacific Islanders as Pacifica people, not Asians.

That is why in 2018 NZ Census, Fiji Indians were urged to record their ethnicity as “Other” and record it as “Fiji Indian”, so that we are correctly recorded as who we are. At the moment, we are a lost race. We have to first identify as “FIJI INDIANS” and then decide on the appropriate terminology for us.

Bansi Chauhan, a Girmitiya from Karauli, Rajasthan, India, who arrived in Fiji in 1915, served his Girmit in Ba, Fiji and settled there. Like him, other 60,500 came and majority settled back in Fiji and produced a new culture and breed of people: FIJI INDIANS. The author of this article, Thakur Ranjit Singh is Bansi’s grandson, a third generation FIJI INDIAN.

FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION

NZ is having discussion with NZ Government to give us our identity and amend forms to show a box as FIJI INDIANS. Australians need to do the same as FIJI INDIANS exceed many other ethnicities. Whether this is done or not, we in the meantime need to register our ETHNICITY, RACE or ANCESTRY, as OTHERS, and record it as FIJI INDIANS.

Pacific Islanders with lower numbers get special recognition and government assistance programmes, while Fiji Indians surpassing island numbers get lost in

Leonidas was the first ship to arrive in Fiji on 14 May, 1879 with the first batch of Girmitiyas-indentured labourers. A total of 87 voyages from India brought some 60,500 indentured labourers to Fiji. Some 25,000 returned after their indenture, and the rest settled in Fiji and the Fiji Indians descended from them.

Indian and Asian identities, and miss out on those benefits.

The irony is that Indians (from India) in New Zealand and Australia do not regard us as Indians while Fijians (ITaukei) do not accept us as Fijians. Special benefits available for Fijians in New Zealand do not reach Fiji Indians because they are not identified as Pacifica Fijians. So, Fiji Indians with a distinct culture and language became lost and drifted without any recognition, opportunities or benefits that were earmarked for us as Fijians. Special programmes reserved for Fijians ignored us.

Fiji Indians are a distinct breed of people - they are not Indians - ask any Anglo

Saxon (European). Our history in the Pacific started in the eighteenth century.

Over 14 decades ago, the first Indians from mostly Northern India were shipped to Fiji as Indentured Labourers. Between the next 37 years, from 1879 to 1916, some 60,500 Girmitiyas, or indentured labourers were brought to Fiji by 87 ship voyages. Of these, some 25,000 were successful to move back to India after indenture, while the remainder stayed back. And we are their descendants.

Leonidas was the first ship to hit Fiji with Indentured Labourers. As India was a British Colony that time, the British and the Australians found India a fertile ground for cheap labour for cane

Key Verse:

The Glory of Zion plantations in Fiji. India washed its hands on the suffering and plight of people in Fiji, and paid only token attention of cries from Fiji.

Indo-Fijians, Fiji Indians, or Fijian Indians - whatever you call us, we are Pacific people rooted in Fiji. We descended from Indian Indentured labourers-but are rooted in the Pacific. Hence New Zealand and Australia have to recognise their descendants as such- FIJI INDIANS, Pacifica people.

Even when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Fiji in 1980s, she reminded Fiji Indians, that they were no longer Indians, but belonged to Fiji. And unfortunately, Indians in NZ and Australia also think the same. However, we never seemed to have belonged anywhere, what in Fiji Hindi we call, “latkan pappu”, something hanging in air, not belonging anywhere.

Through vision of Girmitiyas, we stood tall. This is because they vowed never again to allow a situation where their children would suffer like them. Hence, they concentrated on education and future well-being of their children. Such vision, suffering and sacrifices they made for their future generations are enumerated in many historical writings.

The new breed of Indians in Fiji shed the vices that still are a curse in India, like caste, dowry or female foeticide (killing female foetus), among others. They made a fresh start. And so began a distinct culture, and religious traits. As they stayed on cane farms spread sparsely, they formed Mandalis or religious groups, and thus began distinct religion, local