AN OPEN LETTER TO FIJI PM: THE GREAT FIJI HINDI DEBATE - AN ASSAULT ON FIJI INDIAN CULTURE THROUGH STEALTH

AN OPEN LETTER TO FIJI PM: THE GREAT FIJI HINDI DEBATE - AN ASSAULT ON FIJI INDIAN CULTURE THROUGH STEALTH

Dear Prime Minster,

Bula and Happy and a Prosperous New Year.

I lost all avenues and decided to take this unprecedented means to write this open letter to you through my blog, FIJI PUNDIT

This was to get your attention on a very crucial matter affecting my community in Fiji. My blog is seen and read by thousands of your supporters in Fiji Indian Diaspora spread around the world, through social media.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was seen as a ray of hope, and savior for Fiji Indians in the doom and gloom of  past ethno-nationalist leaders and Fijian Governments. He was seen by some as a reincarnation, as promised by Lord Krishn in Gita, that he would come back when people are in strife. Therefore this act of assault on Fiji Indian culture is seen as something foreign from his Government.

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain neutrality.

This was originally said by Dante Alighieri, an Italian poet, many centuries ago.

In our lifetime, Martin Luther King Jr, repeatedly quoted it with some addition: 

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

In fact this was also President John F Kennedy’s famous quote based on Dante’s Inferno (Hell), with a slight variation…”…: those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.

While initially uttered many centuries ago, they still ring true in case of Fiji today. 

This applies aptly to Radio Fiji’s unilateral decision to railroad Fiji Hindi in one of its stations, and many maintaining their neutrality in this time of moral crisis. And we do not know where this demolition of our culture will stop.

What I am questioning is not the fact that it has been done, but HOW and the manner of its implementation, and WHY.

Before I venture further, I have some questions, which themselves may be the answers to this sacrilege. Perhaps the public face of this desecration, CEO of FBC Riyaz Saiyad Khaiyum, Shammi Lochan and Roshika Deo can answer them.

It is time Radio Fiji grew up and became real voice of the nation and represents the people it serves. Is it worth for it to go against the majority wishes of its audience, assuming they ever cared to measure them at all?

Sir, I humbly pose these questions to you as well, as the last one refers to you directly.

And I also challenge those others with influence, power and authority who could have done something, but reserved their “hot places” by maintaining and preserving their “neutrality”.

Please, go ahead, make my day, and answer them:

1) Was such a crucial matter of cultural policy which has the potential to affect the life of a whole community now and into the future, debated in Parliament?

2) What do all those Fiji Indians on government benches think? Are they complicit in this arrant act of cultural vandalism and destruction?

3) Was there any wide public consultation from experts and interested parties instead of being railroaded in this unilateral fashion?

4) Who in and around FBC are even remotely experts in linguistics and effects and impacts of such “bastardization” of language on a culture?

5) And where is Fiji Broadcasting Commission Board? Were they ever consulted, and did they give their green light to fixing of something that was never broken? What are their priorities? Are they sleeping on the job?

6) Use of proper Hindi in Fiji Broadcasting Commission (FBC) was never questioned in its 66 years of existence by its highly QUALIFIED AND DESERVING (my emphasis) Board, CEO, celebrated management and announcers. In fact people studied Hindi to join Radio Fiji. Then who are these minnows to implement this controversial, questionable, unethical and immoral change?

7) And Sir, where are you? Sir, you projected yourself as the saviour of Fiji Indians when on 6 December, 2006, you deposed Laisenia Qarase because of SDL’s ethno nationalism that was hurting Fiji Indian community. Is not Radio Fiji repeating what an ITaukei ethno-nationalist government would have done?

Is there any monkeying around with Fiji Indian culture, with "bastardization" of Hindi in Mirchi FM?

Sir, the fact that Fiji tax-payer funded public broadcaster, FBC, running Mirchi FM has abandoned Hindi in favour of Fiji Hindi is not surprising at all. Many unilateral decisions taken in Fiji recently, without any consultation and discussion would raise some eyebrows.

Unfortunately Fiji Indians in general and Hindus in particular where this assault is directed seem to have lost the fight and vision that our forebears Girmitiyas possessed. One may question, where is Sanatan? Where is Arya Samaj? Where is Fiji Girmit Council, Brahman Sabha, Pundits and so-called guardians of Hindi Language? Have their respective leadership lost their manhood and become what we call impotent? Are people prepared to sell their souls for political favours, commercial gains and other self-interest through fear or favour? 

The lion-heart National President of TISI Sangam, Sadasivan Naicker, who did not mince his words when he rebuked Radio Fiji for this act, akin to blasphemy. He blamed them for "bastardization" of Hindi.

I must salute TISI Sangam, and its National President, Sadasivan Naicker who took the initiative and lead with a hard-hitting press statement without fear or favour. He delivered Radio Fiji a hard slap: 

This is unprofessional and unethical for any medium to promote Fiji Hindi. This is an insult and rape of Hindi language. Erosion of Hindi will have unprecedented negative effects on Hindu religion, and in effect is “standardization “of Hindi.

TISI Sangam was meekly followed by Sanatan, where its National Secretary took the platform of an International Hindi Conference to plead with Radio Fiji not to use a broken Hindi. Labour and NFP also opposed this move by Radio Fiji.

Unlike those who have imposed this unilateral decision to abandon Hindi for Fiji Hindi, I have experience in this matter. I was involved in promoting Fiji Hindi in Fiji media almost three decades ago. I wrote a weekly page in Fiji Times-owned Hindi Weekly, Shanti Dut, in Fiji Hindi, Lo Kar Lo Baat (Let’s talk) in 1990s.

Following popularity of that, Radio Fiji Two adopted that principle. I ran Fiji Hindi program in Radio Fiji in 1999 / 2000, Tanik humri bhi suno, (hey, dude, hear me out) and currently run similar programme, Lo Kar Lo Baat in APNA TV in Auckland. 

This was and is merely done to acknowledge FIJI HINDI as our mother tongue. We need to appreciate that in countries where Indian indentured labourers lost their mother tongue, they lost the umbilical cord to Hindi. Fiji was fortunate in that regard.

Fiji Broadcasting Commission which went of air in 1954, never had any complaints in its 66 years history from its Fiji Indian audience  that anybody had any difficulty in understanding Hindi. That appears to be an excuse for those behind the push for Fiji Hindi. The souls of its past departed management and some distinguished and honorable announcers like Pundit Devakar Prasad, Pundit Ambika Maharaj, Sami Mudaliar, Anirudh Diwakar, Bahenji Vaishnoi and Shabila Singh, among others, would be crying today seeing the gutter level to which their beloved station has degenerated into.

We had a different breed of Girmitiyas -ordinary people who did extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances. They preserved their language which in turn led to survival, and in fact, promotion of Hindi.

My use of Fiji Hindi in media was more for entertainment, and an acknowledgement and salute to our mother tongue, and also Hindi.

Eminent and distinguished Ba scholars and authors Jogindar Singh Kanwal and Rajendra Prasad reiterated the importance of Fiji Hindi in an earlier article. They likened Fiji Hindi as a jewel in the crown, Hindi. While a jewel adds colour, glitter and beauty to the crown, it itself can NEVER REPLACE THE CROWN.

Prime Minister Bainimarama has always been seen as somebody with a very huge heart for diversity and a sensitivity towards all people. Therefore what is happening at Radio Fiji seems odd. It appears,  he has been kept in the dark on this matter that could cost him election, as there is huge opposition to this controversial move.

I repeat the same thing, with an analogy to food. Fiji Hindi is chutney, condiments which add taste, texture, and flavour to the main course, HINDI. But, chutney cannot be the main course - hence, FIJI HINDI CAN NEVER BE THE MAIN FOOD. 

Sir, I plead that nobody has any business to replace Hindi as language in any public-owned radio station.

People of Fiji are worried about some controversial actions of your Government which appears to go against some objectives, intentions and promises you made when you displaced Qarase in 2006. One of them was to protect interests of Fiji Indians which the past ethno nationalist governments trashed on.
 

FIJI PUNDIT is reminding the Prime Minister Bainimarama that when he deposed and replaced SDL and Qarase in 2006, among others, he promised to rescue Fiji Indians from persecution of Fijian ethno-nationalist leaders and governments. Therefore, insensitivity shown to Fiji Indians in this Mirchi FM fiasco seems unusual - in fact, ironical.

Sir, as raised in the last question above, among other things, you removed Laisenia Qarase because of SDL’s ethno nationalism that was hurting Fiji Indian community.

Is not Radio Fiji repeating what an ITaukei ethno-nationalist government would have done?

Sir, I plead to you. Perhaps it is time you sat back into Fiji Government’s driver’s seat when it comes to such crucial national matters affecting Fiji and its community.

It cannot be left to amateurs – bereft of any vision. 

Sir, I remain a humble servant of the community.

Sincerely,

Thakur Ranjit Singh,
FIJI PUNDIT

[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is an Auckland-based journalist and a media commentator, who runs his blog, FIJI PUNDIT. He also retains his Fijian citizenship. He has wide and long association with Fiji media, and is a former Publisher of Fiji’s Daily Post newspaper which Qarase’s SDL government closed down]

FIJI HINDI:A JEWEL IN THE CROWN THAT CANNOT, AND SHOULD NOT BE THE CROWN

Fiji Hindi: A Jewel in the Crown That Cannot, and should not be the Crown

Guest Writer - Rajendra Prasad

[First published in Fiji Sun in January, 2011]

Eminent educationist, author and poet, Jogindar Singh Kanwal of Ba gave his well-considered expose on Fiji Hindi debate on 16 December, 2010 in Fiji Sun. He emphatically maintained that Fiji Hindi is a jewel that can beautify the crown, but it in itself can never be the crown.

What he meant was that while it has its place in our everyday life, it has no place in formal occasion, or being formalized or taught. We are fortunate to have the good fortune of sharing the wisdom, knowledge and experience of a person of such repute and to make an informed decision on this sensitive issue. I share his sentiments.

JOGINDAR SINGH KANWAL- an author, educationist, philanthropist and supporter of both Fiji Hindi and Standard Hindi. He published an article a decade ago, and gave respect for the place of Fiji Hindi in our society. But unlike the action of Fiji Government, he believed that Fiji Hindi should never be formalized, and is not proper to be taught or replace Hindi. The decision by Radio Fiji to have Fiji Hindi in one of its stations would have really hurt him. He maintained, while Fiji Hindi is a jewel in the crown which adds value and beauty to  it, this jewel cannot itself replace the crown, Hindi, as Mirchi FM have implemented.

Indeed, Fiji Hindi is strongly rooted within Indo-Fijians and it is a robust language spoken across the world wherever Indo-Fijians live. They relish their language and they speak Fiji Hindi gleefully among themselves, particularly those who now live abroad because it evokes nostalgic memories and longing for the land of their birth. While it may lack dignity of Hindi and may be labelled as crude, however it is a treasure to our community that has given identity and dignity to our distinct Indo-Fijian culture.

Indeed, Fiji Hindi is embedded in our culture and is its official voice. What others say, how they perceive and react has really not bothered us because Fiji Hindi is a creation of our forebears that germinated in the turbulence of history, nurtured in poverty and today resonates as the badge of our identity. 

Historically, Fiji Hindi evolved in an environment that was both traumatic and chaotic. It was the hostile environment of Girmit where people from different parts of India, speaking different dialects and with different customs and traditions were herded together for a common purpose. For their masters, the British and the CSR Company, the Girmitiyas were nothing but units of labour that had to be exploited in the sugarcane fields of Fiji. It increased the profits of the CSR Company and maintained the economic viability of the colony. In this concept, the Girmitiyas were treated like the drought animals of the CSR Company and as serfs to the colonial Government. The atrocious conditions brought pressure on them to seek a middle ground to communicate with each other. 

In Fiji, the victims of pain and suffering united, as they leaned on each other for comfort, care and support. The only jewel in their possession was their culture and language of communication and when they could not understand each others dialect, they began sharing it.

Those that spoke Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialects comprised the majority and these dialects underwent a process of fusion, giving birth to Fiji Hindi. Essentially, it became a ‘kaam chalaao’ (make do) language through use and abuse but found refinement, as Hindi began to be taught in schools. However, it is not structured and will crumble when scrutinized for grammar and syntax.

RAJENDRA PRASAD is the Guest Writer for FIJI PUNDIT. This article was first published a decade ago, and he supports J.S Kanwal that this jewel, Fiji Hindi, cannot and should not be the Crown, which is Hindi. Rajendra is author of two books on Fiji's history.  tells the history from a non-academic angle, and hence told history without fear or favor, as his work did not depend on lucrative funding for politically correct history. His work, apart from numerous articles, includes TEARS IN PARADISE,  and ENSLAVED IN PARADISE

Interestingly, during the indenture period and up to the 1960s, people who originated from South India spoke their own dialects, namely Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam. It was even taught in schools established under the Sangam umbrella but the power of Hindi films, songs and dominance of North Indian dialects in Fiji gradually saw these dialects dissipate, as Fiji Hindi comprised of Bhojpuri, Awadhi and original Hindi consolidated. 

Historically, Fiji Hindi has considerably refined but is inextricably linked to the Hindi language. It cannot and must not be separated because Fiji Hindi is like a stream that will eventually end up in the river of Hindi language. It will be a natural consequence, as it grew out of it. But Fiji Hindi, within the foreseeable future, will retain its distinctiveness and remain part of our community. 

I agree that Fiji Hindi cannot and should not be taught in schools, as it also lacks the basics to capture emotions effectively. Items in English or any other language cannot be translated to give its emotional effect in Fiji Hindi. However, same can be most effectively translated in the Hindi language, echoing the heart-touching emotions.

Also, eulogies delivered at funerals are always delivered in proper Hindi and never in Fiji Hindi because Fiji Hindi lacks the essential texture to capture the dignity or solemnity of the occasion. Indeed, no one would have the courage to use Fiji Hindi on such occasions for fear of being reviled or ridiculed. 

Even on religious occasions or marriages the Pundits use proper Hindi and Fiji Hindi is never used and cannot be used because it is extremely shallow on impact. Indeed, any Pundit using  Fiji Hindi in conducting poojas is more likely to lose his punditry and would generally be regarded as shallow, illiterate and become object of ridicule.

Politicians too use proper Hindi when addressing public gatherings and any politician addressing such gatherings in Fiji Hindi would be assured to spend time outside and not inside the Parliament!

Further, few writers have tried to write in Fiji Hindi and the most notable work has been done by Professor Subramani who wrote ‘Dauka Puraan’. It is an outstanding attempt by a person whose proficiency in both Hindi and English is respected. However, most people found Dauka Puraan a difficult read and it did not ignite a desire in Indo-Fijians to take Fiji Hindi to the next level. The version of Fiji Hindi used in Dauka Puraan in Vanua Levu remarkably differed from that used in Viti Levu

DAUKA PURAAN was a mammoth effort by Professor Subramani of USP to write this 520-page novel in Fiji Hindi. As it was mostly in Vanua Levu version of Fiji Hindi, I, with others found difficulty in getting used to his version. While it was very commendable, no other huge work has been taken to write another novel in Fiji Hindi.

Other attempts by various writers, outside our community, have also failed to see Fiji Hindi established as a written language.

I strongly share the views of Mr. J.S. Kanwal and would like to see Fiji Hindi retain its place, as a ‘conversational language’ within our community. It is our heritage and a legacy to be left for successive generations. It is a beautiful language that is Fiji made and has served our community through every season and situation. We have an emotional attachment to it but this is not a reason for it to be de-linked from its origins. Hindi language will remain its solid anchor. 
Even many of our Fijian brothers and sisters have learnt it and it is a pleasure to hear them speak because they add a distinct flavor to it! Indeed, Fiji Hindi will not dissipate or diminish because it is firmly rooted in the fertile roots of our community. 

It is a treasure that needs to be promoted among the future generations so that we can retain our cultural distinctiveness. 

It is a historical treasure that must not be squandered. 

[Rajendra Prasad is the author of book, Tears in Paradise – Suffering and Struggles of Indians in Fiji 1879-2004. Subsequently he authored Enslaved in Paradise - A history of Mammoth Betrayals of Fijians by the British, Chiefs and Leaders of Fiji 1876-2006. This is an edited version of Fiji Sun article of January, 2011]