To India with Love - “Jis desh mein Ganga baheti hai...”
The land where mother Ganges flows freely
Thakur Ranjit Singh
As the Airbus 320 of Lufthansa Airlines nosed towards Delhi Airport on flight from Frankfurt Germany, around midnight of 20 October, 2003, I was filled with emotions and unprecedented feelings. I had pledged some years ago that I would go around the world and visit my grandfather’s birth land, India to trace my roots, and also visit the places that we only read in Holy Scriptures.
I had traveled with my wife from Fiji to Los Angeles, Sacramento, Vancouver, Calgary, London, Frankfurt and was on the final leg to my girmitiya (indentured labourer) grandfather Bansi’s birthplace, and back to Fiji.
From the aircraft I could see city lights and was filled with excitement. After the touch down, we descended on the land that my deceased grandfather and parents had craved to visit at least once in their lifetime, but could not achieve this. I touched the Holy earth and rubbed to my forehead as greetings the land of sages and Ram and Krishna.
I had good and exciting memorable times in tracing my roots to my lineage and the land of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, near Jaipur in a small town called Karauli in Rajasthan. This is very close to Vrindavan, Mathura and Taj Mahal, but those things some other day.
Today I take this opportunity to congratulate my Grand Motherland, India on the occasion of its 60th Independence Day celebration.
I submit this on behalf of Indian Diaspora in Auckland to mark this auspicious day. I am third generation Indo Fijian, displaced from India when my grandfather was torn and tricked from his roots by British to slave in Fiji to fill their coffers.
When the then Indian PM Indira Gandhi visited Fiji over three decades ago, she had good advice for descendants of indentured Indian labourers or girmitiyas as they are known there. She told Indo Fijians that Fiji was their country, they belonged there and they needed to have allegiance, loyalty and love for their country.
Very well said. However to what extent have the descendants of indentured labourers or girmitiyas been made to feel as if Fiji was their home and they belonged there? At the drop of a hat, the nationalist elements get ready to ship us back to motherland India because despite three generations and some 128 years, Indo Fijians are still regarded as vulagis or visitors in their place of birth.
The axis of evil that resulted in modified version of slavery, called indenture or girmit ran from Britain, India and Australia. Indian government cannot wash its hands off its forgotten children in a land where they are still treated like slaves. While free settlers and Gujerati businessmen give a semblance and façade of rich Indo Fijians in Fiji, a large majority of descendents of girmitiyas are still living below poverty level, and persecuted daily in various walks of life, with unequal treatment by a racist regime. When this abuse of democracy was taking place, both Australia and New Zealand governments were sleeping, and have woken up now when Bainimarama has removed a supposedly democratic regime to implant a fairer system with social justice.
While it is nice to see India providing assistance to Fiji’s sugar Industry, there are other forms of assistance Fiji needs from an economic giant that India has transformed into. This should especially be in uplifting the economic situation of many displaced Indo Fijians from native cane farms which are now overgrown in weed.
India needs to pay more attention to its forgotten grandchildren in Fiji in providing transfer of technology, especially cottage industry without need for much land so that descendants of girmitiyas stop serving indenture of poverty after three generations in a racist regime
When Fiji’s deposed Prime Minister Qarase visited India some years ago, he failed to learn anything from Indian hospitality. The uncrowned father of Indian movies, Raj Kapoor immortalized this aspect of Indian culture in his film, “Jis Desh Mein Ganga Baheti Hai” (the land where Ganges flows) with this song….”Mehmaan jo hamara hota hai, woh jaan se pyara hota hai, jyada ki nahin laalach humko thore mein gujara hota hai... hum us desh ke waasi hai jis desh mein Ganga baheti hai...” His song translates to say that we value our visitors more than our life; we do not lust or greed for much as we manage in little that we have... We hail from the land where the Ganges flows. And from that land if Qarase had learnt that language of Indian love, he may still be ruling Fiji today. But he failed to do so at his peril.
There was one very important lesson for Fiji’s Prime Minister and his group from the Indian visit. India is the only country on the planet where no Fijian Prime Minister would be able to sell the 'Indigenous Race Card' to justify Fijian nationalism, racism, and exclusive political control of the country.
Fiji’s nationalist’s leaders and others around the world should gain immensely from Indian history and way of life. Those Anglo Saxons, Europeans and other ignorant people who still regard India as a land of snake charmers and rope tricks need to see Akshay Kumar’s Bollywood movie Namaste London. (Greetings to London) They need to get a translation of episode where the hero shuts up the great grandson of an English East Indian Company employee who was running down India and its people.
By clasping his hands, he says that when we Indians greet each other in the tradition of 5,000 year old civilization, we fold our hands close to heart in Namaste because we believe that God resides in the heart of every human being.
We come from a nation where we allow a lady of Catholic Religion to step aside for a Sikh to be sworn as the Prime Minister by a Muslim President to govern a nation with over 80% Hindus.
It may also interest you to know that many versions of English language come from Sanskrit. For example, matr becomes mother, bhrata becomes brother, jamity become geometry and trikonmity becomes trigonometry.
English is spoken and read more widely in India than in England. We have 5,600 newspapers, 35,000 magazines and 21 major languages with combined readership of 120 million, many more than in England. We have reached the moon and back but yet many Anglo Saxons still feel that we have reached only as far as gourd flute of snake charmers. We have third largest pool in the world of doctors, scientists and engineers. All these are of the details of our intellectual might, now look at our physical might.
May be the English grandfather did not tell that we have the third largest army in the world, and even then I clasp my hand in humility because we do not believe that we are above or beneath any individual. Well said Puttar
So next time you are confronted by an ethnocentric individual who runs down Bharat Mata (Mother India) then you repeat the above to shut him. Some good movies to enlighten you and your children on pride of India are Manoj Kumar’s Upkar and Poorab aur Paschim.
Unfortunately for many Indians abroad, the Indian pride is confined to Bollywood movies. They still speak English in their homes and look down on anything Indian.
As a representative of Indian Diaspora, I am proud to say we Indo Fijians, despite three to four generation and 128 years apart, are still as much, perhaps more, Indian as my third and fourth cousins in Karauli in Rajasthan. Jai Hind
E-mail: thakuji@xtra.co.nz
(About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is a third generation Indo Fijian. He was born in Fiji Islands. His indentured labourer grandfather, Bansi was from Karauli in Rajasthan. He is also a holder of People of Indian Origin (PIO) passport issued by the Indian Government that allows him free access into India anytime, just like an Indian citizen. )
The 12 million strong girmit dispora is now a significant part of the Indian diaspora. Descendants of 1.2 million girmitiyas transported to Mauritius, French Reunion, South Africa, Surinam, Guayana, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaic and Fiji have now a become global community. For many years focus of the Indian diaspora and India has been on the NRI's (Non-resident Indians who migrated to the west post Second World War, at the expense of the PIOs (People of Indian Origins), mainly the descendants of girmitiyas.
However recently some people from the girmit dispora have become assertive and are rallying for a girmit identity within the framework of Indian diaspora.
With common regional origins in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhiya Pradesh, Andhara Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and shared Jahaji Bhai (ship brotherhood) and girmit experiences in the colonies, the girmitiyas forget strong and unique cultural identies. These cultural identies have been preserved over 183 years of girmit history and today exhibit strong resemblance in all the girmit communities globally. One has only to watch video footages of girmit folk songs posted on the utube from across the world to realise this. Radio stations in Holland, Surinam, Guyana,South Africa, Surinam, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaic and Fiji also play similar girmit folk songs and speak about girmit history and experience in similar language.
With so much common historical and cultural similarities it remains a mystery why the people of girmit diaspora have not come together on a common platform so far.
It is amazig that despite taking different routes to different corners of the world the girmitiyas cooked dhal puri in Guyana in same way as the Fiji girmitiyas cooked dhalbahri roti. Kaddu (pumpkin) curry cooked in any girmit community will taste same. Bhajans, sohars, birahs, qawallis sung in any of these communities will sound similar. Laawa songs sung by Rikki Jay in Trinidad & Tobago is same as those sung by ladies during Bhatwaan ceremony in Fiji. Weddings, births and funerals are performed along same rituals throughout the diaspora.
We will bring to you examples of these cultural items or provide links to sites where you can experince cultures from many of the girmit communities.
We will also provide articles and thoughts of people who share view that the girmit diaspora should come together on a common platform.
Guyana
If you want to watch the first feature film produced in Guyana on Girmit please click here The site will inform you how to obtain a copy of this film and you can watch trailers of Guina 1938 starring Kumar Gaurav.
Our forgotten girmitiyas: Colonial indentured slavery marks 132 years
Writer: Thakur Ranjit Singh- Auckland , New Zealand
5/13/2011
“The woman turns around in fear, and puts her hands in entreaty.
“The whip comes down upon her half-naked back and legs.
“The child is struck also. Both are crying and screaming and the mounted brute almost puts his horse’s hoofs upon her….”. This is an account of violence and atrocities of indenture, referred to as girmit, as recorded in former Vaqia, Ba, resident and former Ba Town Clerk, Rajendra Prasad’s “Tears in Paradise .”
In his historic account of personal anguish, Rajendra Prasad further adds:
“Pain from the wounds of girmit resided in the hearts and minds of its victims and their families, but it failed to find expression publicly or in history books.
…the Indo-Fijians, who were a significant part of Fiji and had made an enormous contribution towards its economic, social, cultural and political development, had escaped the history books”
What that effectively means is that there is a vacuum as far as contribution on Indo-Fijians to Fiji ’s history is concerned.
Those who came through Fiji ’s education system would recall that in primary and secondary school history, you learned about the early history of the indigenous Fijians, about provincial tribal wars and their legends.
You would have also learned about the prowess and courage of various European explorers and seamen like
Captain James Cook, Captain William Bligh, Vasco da Gama, who ventured out to seek new lands, the history of British royal family, contributions of British in developing the earth, the virtues of Commonwealth, the penal history of Australia, and so on about the glory of white men’s contributions in carving out the destiny of the world.
However, as far as Fiji ’s development history is concerned, apart from a few sentences about indentured labourers from India brought to work on cane farms, there is no account of what went on in the whipping, punching, kicking, suiciding and raping in the cane fields of early Fiji .
They were completely missed from the radar of Fiji ’s history books, written by the British and the Europeans.
Tears in Paradise also raises this issue. Rajendra Prasad inquires, why despite enormous contributions to Fiji ’s development, Fiji Indians escaped the history books. Former Prime Minister of India , Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru very aptly summed up this phenomenon in his book, The Discovery of India, as quoted by Prasad in his book:
“History is almost always written by victors and conquerors and gives their viewpoint; or, at any rate, the victor’s version is given prominence and holds the field.”
Therefore, in case of Indo-Fijians, history was deliberately concealed to cover up the crimes of British and the Australian Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR).
Since the British were the colonial rulers of Fiji for around a century, they had a distinct advantage in manipulating history. That is why, as already stated, all we learned in history lessons in schools was about British or indigenous Fijian history.
The little history of India that we learned in schools covered the perspective from the British side, missing out the real treachery of the coloniser, in India and Fiji .
In some opinions, writers have likened indenture or girmit to slavery. In fact, some have dubbed slavery as being better, because, at least in slavery, people got better food and shelter.
The author, Rajendra Prasad, laments lack of history of Fiji Indians and wonders what happened to the account of indentured labourers. The supposedly custodians of girmitiyas, the British owed a duty of care to record history as it really and actually unfolded rather than how they wanted it to be told. They abrogated their responsibility by manipulating history of girmitiyas, thus leaving a community wounded.
“Tears in Paradise”is an attempt to fill that vacuum and tell the new generation of Indo-Fijians about the suffering and sacrifices of our forebears from India .
On 15 May (some claim it to be 14th), 1879 the first batch of 497 Girmitiyas (indentured labourers) were brought to Fiji by the British on board the vessel Leonidas. This trend continued till 1920 by when some 60,357 Girmitiyas were brought to Fiji .
This year marks the 132 years of the first arrival of Indians. While Indo-Fijians in Wellington , Melbourne , Sacramento and Surrey ( Vancouver ) have their plans to mark this day, one wonders what is the fate of Fiji Girmit Council which is supposed to be the representative body of all Indo-Fijians vested to uphold the heritage of girmit.
Nevertheless, it is pleasing to see the Fiji Museum and Fiji Government taking the initiative in marking this day that the history books of Fiji have ignored. During the last ANZAC day on 25 April, we marked this day in New Zealand with great prominence and the solemnity and sanctity the day deserved.
The New Zealand community marked the sacrifices of their forebears during the war and even the very young ones woke up early in winter for dawn services at 5am . One wonders whether the Indo Fijians, both in Fiji and those who have migrated in search of greener pastures, possess that same passion and desire to remember the sacrifices of their forbears.
We just hope that the next generation will somehow learn about the sacrifices of the Girmit era and pay homage to those who delivered us to the comforts of Australia , New Zealand Canada, USA and other developed nations.
To awaken and jolt the conscience of Indo-Fijians towards their Girmitiyas, I end with the following powerful quote from the pages of Rajendra Prasad’s “Tears in Paradise ”.
“Even in the stillness of cane stalks, one can almost feel the powerful presence of the spirits of sorrow and grief exuding from these sugarcane fields. They are the spirits of our ancestors.”
The desperate cries of the Girmitiyas echoed from 1879 -1919 in the fields, but it was not until later that the outside world came to their rescue. When their white masters turned away their faces and the victims seethed in agony, the girmitiyas found comfort in relating their anguish to the trees and plants around them. A folk song called bidesia, a lamentation, composed under these traumatic circumstances by one of the girmitiyas, reflects the depth of their suffering:
Churi, kudaari ke sung, ab bitay din aur ratian, Ganne ki hari hari patiya, Jaane hamari dil ki batiyaan
In these couplets, the lyricist tells of the widespread suffering of the girmitiyas’ work in the sugarcane fields, saying that knife and hoe are their companions day and night.
Atrocities against them are so blatant that even the green leaves of sugarcane bear witness to the flames of anguish that consumes their heart.
As we mark the 132 years of indenture, this article is meant as a wreath on the graves of girmitiyas (shradhanjali ke do phool) to whom the whole of Fiji owes its gratitude. And so do we, the descendants of the Girmitiyas (indentured labourers).
May the soul of our departed Girmitiyas, our forbears, rest in peace!
(Thakur Ranjit Singh is a second generation Indo-Fijian whose grandfather Bansi arrived in Fiji in 1915 from Karouli, Rajasthan , India , and served his five-year indenture in Ba. Thakur visited India in 2003 to trace his roots to Rajasthan.
He is a media commentator and a community worker and resides in Auckland .)
E-mail: thakurji@xtra.co.nz
GIRMIT FESTIVAL USA
By Dr H Koya
By Dr H Koya
The FIJI SUN USA wishes to extend to you and your festival committee hearty congratulations on hosting the first GIRMIT FESTIVAL in Sacramento, USA.
For all Fiji Indians GIRMIT is central to their origin. It is also a reminder of the Indian heritage and memories of their true motherland India.
It has been over 100 years since their grandparents were lured and cheated into coming to FIJI by false presences and fake promises. In scores of cases they were coerced into leaving their beloved motherland. This was a horrific breach of trust by the British trading companies and their agents who defrauded our forefathers.
Much work still remains to be done to accurately document the entire history of Fiji’s GIRMIT community.
Let not the passage of time burry and push into oblivion the treacherous circumstances in which our forefathers were lured into embarking on an unknown journey with unclear hopes for safe return home to India.
The alleged “agreement” under the Indentured Laborer System that came to be known as “GIRMIT” was a document that was beyond the understanding of those who signed it to get what was presented as a job opportunity. At a time when British was assailed for practicing slavery system and hue and cry were raised in the British Parliament to abolish the practice, the British Trading companies adopted a new language “The Indentured Laborer System” coning a new term for “slavery” to escape further bashing and legal challenges.
Those who left India under the GIRMIT came to be known as “GIRMITIYAS” (new name for slaves). For many of us the descendants of the GIRMITIYAS it is difficult to believe that we are children of Indian slaves. But that is the hard fact. By the time the alleged GIRMIT expired or was completed many had lost contacts with relatives and friends and many their hopes to go back home to India.
Only a handful that had some reading and writing ability were able to establish contacts either return or remained in touch with folks back home. Vague memories that haunted the surviving GIRMITIYAS in Fiji were retold in the form of storytelling or self-styled distorted and unclear country folk songs.
The hard working laborers came with a few virtues from home, the ability to save money and passion to educate their children. With the savings from the meager income soon they would stand up on their own feet, build their home and move ahead in comparison to the local indigenous people and start their own schools under tree shades.
The first descendants of the GIRMITIYAS for the most part became an educated and elite class in Fiji paving the way for a progressive community in the tiny Island nation. One of the sons born to this class is Dr. Brij Lal, now a professor at the Australian National University, has retraced some of the history of the GIRMITIYAS in his books and writings.
It is my hope that the Sacramento GIRMIT festival will set a tone for similar observations throughout USA and Canada for continued education of our heritage and culture