In Exile at Home-A Fiji-Indian Story Satish C. Rai Submitted in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Creati e Arts Copyright © 2010 by Satish Rai School of Humanities and Languages The (ni ersity )estern Sydney Sydney May 2011 Declaration I, Satish Rai, declare that the exegesis In Exile at Home-A Fiji-Indian Story is approximately 32,008 words in length including preface, notes, appendix, quotes and references. his thesis contains no material that has been previously submitted, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic diploma or degree, except indicated otherwise. his thesis is my own work, based on the findings of my primary and secondary research which have been acknowledged. Signature.......................................... (Date) '''''''' Name: Satish Chand Rai Student ID No: 9,031,0. Statement by Super isor he research in this exegesis was performed under my supervision and to my knowledge is the sole work of Mr. Satish Rai. Signature.......................................... (Date) ''''''' Name'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''.. Designation''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 2 ACK,O)L.D/M.,TS he candidature would not have been successfully completed without assistance from many people around the world and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all them. Naming all of these people is not possible but I would like to acknowledge the following individuals who were at the forefront with their assistance and without whom this thesis may not have been reali0ed. 1irstly, my heart2felt gratitude to Associate Professor 5udith Snodgrass, who provided much needed advice and guidance when the need was greatest. Professor Subramani is the only supervisor who supervised this candidature from its beginning to the end. 6is editorial support and comments, especially towards the final stages of the candidature, were crucial for its conclusion. My appreciation goes to Dr Mary 7reig, who supported my application for this candidature and guided me through its initial stages. My appreciation also goes to my other two supervisors8 Professor Ra9a 5ayaraman and Dr Anne Rutherford, for their support and guidance during the candidature. I also would like to thank Associate Professor 6art Cohen for his guidance, especially in the filmmaking component of the candidature. A number of people assisted me during the film production component. Special thanks go to An9ula Ram for providing film production and post2production equipment, without which this film could not have been produced. I would like to acknowledge the support of :isen Singh and Aslam Khan during filming in India. he following people provided support during filming in London: Mohammed Ahmedualla, Satnam Singh, Surinder Paul, Nigath Khan, Nayesh Radia, Dev :arrah and Parvinder Singh. hank you all. I acknowledge support of the following people for a month2long research and film production work in 1i9i in 5une/5uly 2007. I thank Dr 7anesh Chand for sponsoring the pro9ect and the 7overnment of 1i9i for approving it. 5ayant and Dr Shabnam Prakash for helping with accommodation and transport and Master Sukhdeo Singh for assisting with transport during filming of the 1i9i component. A special thank you for Ra9nel Prasad for 3 performing in the film and also for providing much needed assistance in casting other actors and assistance during filming. I would also like to acknowledge support of all the actors for their talents and time during rehearsals and filming. Very special thanks to the following academics and experts in the field of girmit in 1i9i for providing their valuable time for pre2production interviews and for filming within little notice: Professor Vi9ay Mishra, Professor :ri9 V. Lal, Professor Satendra Nandan, Professor Vi9ay Naidu, Professor :iman Chand, Dr 7anesh Chand, Dr Shaista Shameem, Dr Mohit Prasad, Dr Umanand Prasad, Dr Som Prakash and Dr Abdul Kadir :uksh. I would also like to thank Setareki ale and the staff at the National Archives of 1i9i for their support during the research and filming on the premises. I acknowledge the assistance and support provided by Dr Pavan 7upta during the middle part of this candidature and for his views on the rough cut stage of the film. A special acknowledgement to the late Dr Ahmed Ali for pointing out to me that approximately A0B of 1i9i girmitiyas had returned to India. Cithout this knowledge, I would not have embarked upon this candidature. My late fatherDs dream for me was to become a doctor. 6e was happy when in 197, I received a scholarship to study medicine at 1i9i School of Medicine. Although he never said a word to me when I gave up medicine two years later, I know he was hugely disappointed. It was my desire to obtain a doctorate for my father that kept me going during some difficult periods during this candidature. 1inally I may be able to fulfil his dreamE his thesis, however, is dedicated to all the girmitiyas for their hard work, sacrifices, pains and successes in 1i9i. hey gave me inspiration throughout this candidature and acted as a beacon in my life. 4 Table of contents Preface , Introduction and Methodology 13 1FExile Of 1i9i GirmitiyasF he Main Sub9ect Of he 1ilm 17 2FSearch 1or A Style 1or he 1ilm .3 3F he Making Of he 1ilm 72 AFConclusion 8. :ibliography 90 Appendix 9, 5 0reface his DCA is essentially concerned with researching and making a film about the exile of approximately ,0B of the indentured Indians laborers in 1i9i who are now commonly known as girmitiyas. 1irst let me briefly explain this term as it is repeated throughout this paper and the film. Girmit and girmitiya are derived from the word IagreementD under which the Indian indentured laborers were taken to 1i9i. hey could not pronounce the word IagreementD, calling it —girmit“. he word became part of the local language and today the indenture system is referred to by most historians as the girmit system and the indentured laborers as girmitiyas. o many descendants of 1i9iDs indentured Indian laborers, the word girmit and the girmitiyas meant little8 the same was true for me for a ma9or part of my early life. hese terms began to have meaning for me when I started searching for my identity after feeling exiled in the United Kingdom after the two coups in 1i9i in 1987. his study, therefore, is the result of a search for self2identity8 it involved research into my girmit history. A chance discovery that some forty percent of 1i9iDs girmitiyas had returned to India ultimately led to an application for this doctoral research. I was born in a little village of Natabua in Lautoka, the sugar city, which lies in the middle of the sugarcane belt in Viti Levu, the largest of some 300 islands that make the Republic of 1i9i. he village lies in a valley, with a small hill flanking it on the Northwest and a river bordering it on the Southeast. During my childhood the village was comprised of some twenty household, all Indo21i9ians, a little more than fifty percent being 6indus and the rest Muslims. My childhood was mainly spent in this village, with occasional visits to relatives in nearby villages of Vaivai and awakubu and infrequent visits to the city, which lay some fifteen kilometers from our village. So I was basically shaped by the culture of my village. 6 Even after I started my secondary school education in the city, which lasted till 197., contact outside the village was minimal. Apart from going to and from the school, I seldom went outside the village, except for visits to the city on weekends to watch :ollywood films and occasionally to play soccer. It was not until I received a scholarship to study medicine at the University of the South Pacific in 197, that I went to the capital city, Suva, situated about 2.0 kilometers away on the opposite side of the island. All throughout this period I had never heard the words girmit or girmitiyas. I was however, aware that our ancestors were somehow linked to India because of references to Bharat (India) in the 6oly Scriptures, the Ramayana and the Maha harata. I had started reading them at an early age and later encountered episodes from them in Bollywood mythologicals. I had little understanding of the time or space that separated my ancestors from me and them from India. No one ever felt it necessary to explain to me, (or some thirty first cousins that lived together on our farmstead), about our girmitiya ancestors and I never had any reason to inquire about them. o me at that time, girmit and girmitiyas were non2 issues, and India was a distant and exotic place from which our ancestors had IfledD centuries ago. he notion was so vague that even when, during my childhood, I had talked to old :hola, the only girmitiya that I have ever met in my life, I could not believe that he was actually born in India and had come to 1i9i during the girmit era. Old :hola looked like any of us but he spoke 6indi slightly differently and loved talking about his childhood in India. Most of my cousins ignored him8 for some strange reason I felt pity on him and listened to his stories that made little sense to me at that time. In 1979, as an undergraduate in Suva, I went to a park where the girmit centenary celebrations took place. Even then I did not properly understand why the celebrations were taking place8 my reason for going to the celebrations was purely for entertainment. After I migrated to the United Kingdom in 1980, 1i9i and girmit was thrust into the background as I got totally absorbed in making a home for my new family and myself there.