In an attempt to define the Indo-Fijian or Fiji Indian, my previous article provided a historical run through the tortuous route travelled by the girmitiya, the antecedents of the Fiji Indian. This one takes us beyond 1987 and brings us to the present nostalgia that is secretly ruminated on among those who have left Fiji.
After 1987
The surprise electoral victory by a Fijian-Indian coalition in April 1987 would have finally allowed the Fiji Indian to have a direct input in government. That was too much for elements who had never envisaged an Indian-dominated government. And a coup followed on 14th May; ironically on the very same day that the first girmitiya had set foot in Fiji after disembarking from the Leonidas.
The frugality, focus and persistence that had brought the girmitiya out of poverty was suddenly used to castigate and victimize him as his house was branded as the fruits of ill-gotten gain and his success ridiculed by people who had little to show in terms of labour or tax contributions to the country at that point in time.
Little is made of the fact that this was the period during which the painstaking persistence and sacrifice of the girmitiya was finally going to bear fruit. Many children had graduated from universities and colleges, grand-parents were expecting to see out their final years in their own homes knowing that they had made it, and parents were firmly ensconced in their farms and trades.
This was the period for the tree of dreams planted and nurtured over a century by the girmitiya to bear fruit. Instead, all came to naught with the wave of a gun and the girmitiya was again forced to leave behind a life and shattered dreams to restart his girmit elsewhere. Only this time, he had a choice and he didn’t look back as soon as the door opened in front of him.
The Exodus
Some 100,000 Indians have left Fiji since 1987 and the outflow of valuable skills, talent and capital continues. Those left behind dream every minute of making the same exit as soon as opportunity beckons. In fact if the doors were to be suddenly opened by Australia and New Zealand, Fiji’s Indian population would drop from the current 35% to less than 5% in a flash.
There is however, an irony to this. After making a new home (very often 2-3 homes) in their new country, the Fiji Indian constantly reminisces about life in Fiji with fondness and nostalgia that becomes bitter only when talk moves to politics. Discussions around the kava bowl invariably focus on wistful memories and upbringings.
They talk about this mango tree, or that coconut tree, the kariya jhinga (black prawn), the goat meat, fry macchri (coral fish), etc. unendingly. They talk about some accha (good) Fijian that featured in their lives as “my brother”. Then they try to rationalize that not all Fijians are bad; that’s when the confusion creeps in because all have had close Fijian friends and/or relatives.
Never Accepted
For the girmitiya, Fiji was the only place that he really understood as country. As he toiled for the pittance that came his way, he was subconsciously carving out a home for himself; he was staking his claim to a new life. And he believed that was the end of his search. That’s why all those impressive houses were built on leased farmland.
That’s why it was so heart-rendingly difficult to let go when the mataqali owners demanded vacation of their lands. The tales of extortion, threats, violence, sabotage, blatant destruction of gardens and livestock, etc. would move any listener. In one case, a dismantled house loaded onto a truck was blockaded and released only upon the payment of $500 “fine” on-the-spot. There are many more cases of this kind.
Unfortunately, the Indo-Fijian’s status was never clearly defined. When the Brits left at independence in 1970, it was left to the benign rule of Ratu Mara to resolve this. It didn’t take long for the Ratu and his Alliance Party to realize that Butadroka’s “Indians go back home” doctrine had potent political appeal.
Thus a pro-Fijian and anti-Indian political stance became the ticket to electoral success and Indian gravitation around the NFP was not going to break this duality. The 25% of Indians who had voted Alliance in 1972 dwindled drastically in 1977 and Butadroka took away 30% of resentful Fijians as the Alliance lost and the Indians were blamed for being covetous, contentious, dissatisfied, ungrateful, etc.
The bottom-line was that the Fiji Indian finally got a glimpse of the fact that his status in Fiji was not stable; it never had been. It took Rabuka to trigger the exodus in 1987; this got a new boost from Speight in 2000. The Fiji Indian’s search for acceptance and a permanent home, therefore, continues.
Confusions amid a Continuing Search
When the Fiji 7s rugby team plays, the immigrant Fiji Indian almost invariably wants the Fiji team to thrash any and every adversary. Many an elder and his Kiwi offspring argue over loyalties as the Fiji team weaves its magic on the rugby field. The jubilation is a thing to behold when we win.
Serebi (Serevi) is a superstar among the Fiji Indians, maybe more so than among Fijians themselves. When the Fiji Rugby Union politicked Serevi in 2009, it was the Indians who protested loudest. Very interestingly, when we lose, the blame is placed on Fijian management of the team.
This is a continuing hangover of the paradigm within which Fiji politics was framed and understood by the Fiji Indian. Everything that went wrong in governance in Fiji is blamable on the Fijian and his reluctance to accept readily available superior input from the Indian. This kink will take more time to straighten out, but there is little arguing the place Fiji holds in the Indo-Fijian heart.
So who is the Indo-Fijian?
This is the question that we began with and I will try to complete it at some later date after your repeated requests for a continuation of the Greed series is addressed to an acceptable extent. The search of the girmitiya continues.
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Subhash Appana is an academic and political commentator. The opinions contained in this article are entirely his and not necessarily shared by any organizations he may be associated with both in Fiji and abroad. Email subhasha@ais.ac.nz