sal UTaT ions To P ro F essor B ri J lal WH o G aV e Voi C e To Voi C eless G ir M i T i Yas

for Girmit Day Public Holiday and Professor’s ashes and family be allowed back into Fiji.

The new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, being an honourable and compassionate leader, lived up to both the promises.

as the plane carrying the ashes of Professor Brij Lal, accompanied by his widow, Dr Padma Lal landed on an overcast sky at Nadi Airport in February 2023, it heralded banishment, exorcism and dispossession of another curse of Fiji First dictators from Fiji. That curse was forced exile of professor while alive, and stopping his ashes when he passed away.

It was Bainimarama and Khaiyum who had exiled in an extremely undignified way, the most famous Girmitiya son of Fiji who both of them, even collectively could not match in stature.

It was indeed an honour for the new Government of Fiji to have allowed the ashes of the greatest Girmitiya son to return home to be amongst his Tabia.

FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION

NZ was blessed with the presence of Professor and his good wife Dr Padma Lal in 2014, when they were our Chief Guest in Auckland. Many of us have fond memories and memorable photos. And he said many profound things and enlightened us. He was the one who blessed us and helped put up ‘GIRMITIYA” as a legitimate historical vocabulary.

It was because of his immense contribution to Girmitiyas that when Rabuka visited Auckland before the Fiji election in 2022, the Foundation held a meeting with him, and among others requested the repeat request

Apart from being the Chief Gust in 2014, during the 140TH GIRMIT Anniversary in Auckland in 2019, Professor Lal was awarded FIJI GIRMIT LEGACY AWARD in Literature. We had intended to hand it over to him as the Chief Guest again on Fiji Girmit Foundation’s 10th anniversary in May, 2022, but this did not eventuate. Time goes, you say. Ah no, alas, time stays, we go. Professor was snatched from us untimely in the biggest loss our Girmit Diaspora has suffered.

Professor Lal passed away on Christmas Day in 2021 in Brisbane. He is survived by his wife, Padma, two children – Niraj and Yogi – and five grandchildren.

Unlike many Girmitiya 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. Thankfully, that is where he found his salvation now.

Professor Lal was born on August 21, 1952, in Tabia, Labasa, the grandson of a Girmitiya 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 his highly recommended ‘Mr. Tulsi’s Store: A Fijian Journey’, in the first chapter titled ‘Tabia’ Brij proudly introduces his Girmit background and the community he was brought up in.

As stated, Aucklanders were blessed by the noble feet and presence of the Professor, thanks to FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION NZ.

While many have written about him, few wrote what he said, and I was fortunate to transcribe what he said during his visit to Auckland in 2014. Some philosophical and reflective things 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