The Plight and the Metamorphosis of Indo-Fijians (Indo-Fijian Diasporic Writings)
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International Journal of Scientific Research and Review ISSN NO: 2279-543X The plight and the metamorphosis of Indo-Fijians (Indo-Fijian Diasporic Writings) Indo-Fijians are people born in Fiji, but are ethnically Indian. The constitution of Fiji defines "Indian" as anybody who can trace, through either the male or the female line, their ancestry back to anywhere on the Indian subcontinent [1]. In between 1879 and 1916, Fiji's British colonial rulers brought Indian indentured labourers to work on Fiji's sugar plantations. New plantations, industrial and commercial ventures in European colonies created the need for large supplies of labour. With the abolition of slavery in the British, French and Dutch colonies respectively in 1834, 1846 and 1873, there was a severe shortage of work force in sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, rice and rubber plantations in the colonies. To fulfill the enormous demand for cheap labour, the colonial authorities introduced indentured system in India in 1834. Under this system, millions of indentured Indian labourers were taken to various colonies. Indenture was a signed contract to work for a given employer for five years. During this period the emigrant was entitled to receive a basic pay, accommodation, food rations and medical facilities. After completing five years, the emigrants were given liberty to re- indenture or to work elsewhere in the colony. After ten years, depending on the contract, the labourer was permitted to a free or partly paid return way to India or a piece of crown land in lieu of the fare. Fiji is a small but complex colonially created society.The Fiji islands lie in the southwest Pacific between 15 and 22 degrees south latitude and between 175 degrees east and 177 degrees west longitude, spanning the 180th meridian. The land area of 7,055 square miles is scattered across some 250,000 square miles of water. The islands numbering to about 332 are mostly rugged with sharp mountain peaks, deep winding valleys, and sudden crags. Indo-Fijian history in Fiji began with “Girmit” which stood for “agreement” [2]. The first ship Leonidas carrying Indians as indentured labourers to work on the sugarcane plantations arrived in Fiji on 4th March, 1879. This system went on for thirty seven years and came to an end in 1920. During the period eighty seven ship voyages were made carrying 60,965 Indians. The final voyage was of SS Sutlej with 888 girmityas, which arrived on 11 1 Volume 8, Issue 8, 2019 Page No: 25 International Journal of Scientific Research and Review ISSN NO: 2279-543X November, 1916. Girmit was abolished in the same year. All contracts were cancelled on second January, 1920. Girmitya descendants known as Indo-Fijians today have become an integral part of Fiji's multi-racial population. During the hundred years that followed, the girmitya descendants’ culture and identity underwent significant transformation through interaction with Fijian and western traditions.Fiji got its independence in 1974. But all was not well between the Indo-Fijians and native Fijians.Their relations were dictated by racial politics which lead to a number of coups in its later history. Sakeasi Butadroka, the leader of the Nationalist Taukei Movement put up a parliamentary motion in 1975 that Indians should be repatriated by the British as it was they who brought them to Fiji islands. The same sentiment was expressed in 1987, after the coup in the slogan “Fiji for Fijians.” [3] First the Bavadra government and later Mahendra Chaudhary government were crushed under the coups. Indo-Fijians started to migrate once again to other countries, this time in search of safety and security. But things began changing again now for better. Peace and democracy restored, the new Constitution of 2012 promised to treat all as equals and as Fijian citizens,the lives of Indo-Fijians are journeying back to normalcy. Indo-Fijian writing is unique. The writers re-present the diasporan situation. Being the descendants of girmityas, they inherited along with the collective memory of suffering and servitude, the girmitya attachment to the Indian traditions, customs, values, religions, languages, music, arts, food and fashion. The girmityas’ memories about India united them, made them distinct and helped them create a home away from home. But what was important is in all these aspects, the girmityas adopted an egalitarian ethos and practicality and changed themselves. Totaram Sanadhya, Subramani, Raymond Pillai, Satendra Nandan, Sudesh Mishra, Mohit Prasad, Vijay Mishra, Brij Lal, Kavita Nandan have emerged as the most prominent Indo-Fijian voices. They preoccupy themselves with reassessing their past and present, living in the mini-Indias created by their ancestors. They re-create their Indian identity through “recreation, continuance, maintenance and nurturing of their social and cultural uniqueness.” Bhabha describes this as “the celebratory romance of the past.” (Sarwal 159) [4] Sudesh Mishra describes their writing as “a subaltern knowledge category,” (Mishra 15) [5] as it grew out of and is occupied with the indenture past. Vijay Mishra calls the Indo-Fijian “frozen in time,” [6] and Brij Lal describes them as “ship wrecked by fate and caught between tensions of culture and history.” [7] 2 Volume 8, Issue 8, 2019 Page No: 26 International Journal of Scientific Research and Review ISSN NO: 2279-543X Diaspora is associated with Exile, Nostalgia, Longing for return, Alienation, Assimilation, Liminality, Hybridity etc. These characteristics find a distinct voice in the literary writings of diaspora writers. A writer searches for a sense of belonging in his sense of displacement. Diasporic writings are concerned with memory, exile, diasporic consciousness, alienation, longing for return, nostalgia, sense of belonging and search for identity. The two sections are devoted to an examination of the Indo-Fijian writers’ contribution, evaluation and the critical arguments pertaining to the Indo-Fijian psyche. The Indo-Fijian writing mainly constitutes poetry, fiction, essays, short stories and memoirs. One finds a sense of dislocation, pathos and nostalgia in the writings due to their experience of disruption and displacement. The literary writers gave voice to the girmitya suffering, their rebellious spirit, and above all to the feelings of exile and nostalgia. The present generation of writers being involved with the tragedies of their ancestors, make it as the central narrative in their works. A passing reference is made in the last section to the critical constructs through which Indo-Fijian writing was evaluated. Vijay Mishra advances the theory that Girmit ideology informs Indo-Fijian literature, culture and consciousness. The study moves away from 'canonised' Indo-Fijian writing/writers to that of the writings by many first-time writers [8]. The three books Mr. Tulsi's Store, Bittersweet and Stolen Worlds recount, reflect on and give experiential solidity to a lived space. Memory of childhood, school and the formative period of early adulthood is a prime and common subject in all. They establish a connection between a collective past and individual present. Brij Lal and a gallery of writers, academics, poets, and memoir writers narrate their personal histories and memories in a unique manner. They transport one to the multiple worlds and perspectives present in the modern Indo-Fijian literature. Memoir and associative writing brings in elements of recollection. Brij Lal becomes a teller of memories and narratives of the Indo-Fijian diaspora and in particular his family in Mr Tulsi's Store. Bittersweet and Stolen Worlds were edited and brought out by Brij Lal and Kavita Nandan on the occasion of the celebration of one hundred and twenty fifth year of Indian arrival in Fiji. Brij Lal by profession is a historian of the Pacific islands and especially of Fiji. But he is well-known for his creative writings, which he calls as “factions.” [9] Faction is the attempt to bring together 'fact' and 'fiction' into writing. 3 Volume 8, Issue 8, 2019 Page No: 27 International Journal of Scientific Research and Review ISSN NO: 2279-543X Brij Lal likes to use the term “journeys and transformations” to denote phases of one’s life and experiences [10]. Grandson of a girmitiya, he was fascinated by the surviving girmitiyas. As a child, Lal was very close to his grandfather. He used to sleep with him, go round with him, and hear stories about his life in India, the reasons for coming to Fiji and experiences on the plantations. For Lal history and how it is written mattered. He moves between writing about the past in the conventional scholarly fashion and writing imaginatively about the world of living memory. To accomplish this he turned to conventional published and unpublished sources as well as to oral and impressionistic evidence. The “oral and impressionistic evidence” was the use of folk narratives and songs, which appear throughout girmitiya life. There is a peculiar relationship between historian and history. The act of writing can never be a historical, as it is influenced by the perspective of the writer. Girmitya history narrated by Brij Lal is filtered through the origins and consequences of girmitya life. Nostalgia and wistfulness evoke sadness and pleasure at the same time, when recalling one’s past. Belongingness is the feeling of being a part of a larger whole be it a family, society, community or nation. There are two ways in which a sense of belongingness is constructed: through the history of the settlement or through the everyday relations between the communities. Indo-Fijians feel that the coups deprived their sense of belongingness. The contributors of the three volumes advocate and search for an inclusive lived space. By 1920, when the indenture system was abolished, four years after all indentured shipments had ceased, the Fiji Indian community had come a long way from the modest and uncertain beginnings.