A TIME FOR FIJI INDIANS IN NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA TO BE COUNTED AS "FIJI INDIANS"

THAKUR RANJIT SINGH

This article was first written for NZ Census. But since Australians are also going through one, I wish to share the enlightenment for FIJI Indians in NZ as well as AUSTRALIA. 

Please note the difference between NATIONALITY, AND ETHNICITY (Race). We may be Fijians by Nationality, but are FIJI INDIANS as a race or ethnic category. The census issue is about ETHNICITY, OR RACE.

Fiji Indians are not new to New Zealand and Australia – so many came as contracted labourers and stayed back. But larger numbers continued coming and we had large influx after 1987 coup and this migration continued. My estimate is that there are over 100,000 Fiji Indians in NZ and not sure about the numbers in Australia.

But nobody can be sure, as they have never been counted or identified separately as FIJI INDIANS either in NZ or AUSTRALIA. They have been  mistakenly treated as “Indians , Asians or South Asians”, which they are in a wider context.

However, they are a distinct Pacific (Pacifica) people who need to be identified as such.

FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION in NZ are fighting for their true identity as Pacifica people and we urge all Fiji Indians to be counted-and counted properly as who they are – FIJI INDIANS. We also request Fiji Indians in Australia to do the same-be counted as FIJI INDIANS….Please read on why……..

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. 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.

Australia also comprise a huge number but the have never been recorded separately as FIJI INDIANS.

The next generation after Girmit: The second-generation of descendants of Fiji 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 as those who descended from them- FIJI INDIANS.

At the moment there is no consistent term that refers to Fijians of Indian descent-some call us Indo-Fijians, 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. 

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.

FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION NZ is having discussion with NZ Government is 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.

Pacific Islanders with lower numbers get special recognition and government assistance programmes, while Fiji Indians surpassing island numbers get lost in Indian and Asian identities, and miss out on those benefits. 

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.

The irony is that Indians 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 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. Why? Were they frustrated from moving back, to slave for Colonial Sugar Refining (CSR) Company’s sugar plantation? Were they seen as cheap labour for the British? 

Really. But that is another story for another day, to be answered by former Ba Town Clerk, Rajendra Prasad’s next blockbuster book to remove many myths about Girmit history and a failed leadership in Fiji. His next book,” Enslaved in Paradise”, a sequel to his successful historical tear-jerker Fiji Girmit history, “Tears in Paradise,” answers this mystery as to why many Indians who finished their indenture did not return.

Leonidas was the first ship to arrive in Fiji on 14 May, 1879 with the first batch of Girmitiyas-indentured labourers. There were a total of 87 voyages that 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.

Leonidas was the first ship to hit Fiji with Indentured Labourers. As India was a British Colony that time, the British and Australians found India a fertile ground for cheap labour for cane 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. 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. But we never seemed to have belonged 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. Educational opportunities 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 singing and cultural songs, which were rooted in India but changed and adopted with local flavour. 

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

A distinct Fiji Hindi language also transformed with a mixture of Hindi and other languages and local dialects of Girmitiyas. Fiji Hindi initially started as Lingua franca, a bridging language, but later took root as a language of Fiji Indians. This is spoken by all the descendants of Girmitiyas. 

Hence time is ripe for Fiji Indians to be counted in New Zealand and Australia –as a distinct race of people. One may hazard a question to two prominent people identified as Fiji Indians in NZ, as to what they will fill as race: Former MP, Rajen Prasad and former Governor General, Sir Anand Satyanand? 

Whatever they fill, all the other Fijians of Indian descent in New Zealand and Australia are requested to be counted and have pride in their Girmit legacy and heritage -and counted properly as who they really are – FIJI INDIANS.

[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is a third generation Fiji Girmitiya descendant, now settled in Auckland. He runs blog, FIJI PUNDIT and is a media commentator. He has filled his race/ethnicity in the census as "Fiji Indian" and urges others like him from Fiji to do likewise, to be counted properly as FIJI INDIAN]