Margaret Mishra - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Margaret Mishra

Journal of indentureship and its legacies, Jun 28, 2024

in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence ... more in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence of the 'suspicious circumstances' surrounding her death (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? How much do we really know about the mother of depot baby 7480 and how did her indentured status and interlocking variables such as ethnicity, caste and colonialism trickle down to her daughter? What response should we offer to the allegation by British Colonial Secretary A. R. Coates that the infant's death was the result of neglect, 'probably intentional on the mother's part' (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? This article grapples with these questions as it sets out to recover a series of anecdotal fragments for history. These comprise birth and death records, emigration passes, annual reports, witness testimonies and minute papers from The National Archives of Fiji. When these forgotten relics are retrieved and reevaluated, a discursive pattern emerges; one that exposes how the transference of blame onto indentured women for 'maternal negligence' was strategic and not accidental. Thus, it becomes possible to argue that 'doublespeak' or the process of distorting language for political purposes, originating from George Orwell's 'doublethink' (Orwell), was used by colonial and patriarchal authorities in Fiji to obfuscate the 'truth'. Political economist and media analyst Edward Herman elaborates on the function of this term: 'What is really important in the world of doublespeak is the ability to lie, whether knowingly or unconsciously and to get away with it; and the W

This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the a... more This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field.

Womens History Review, Feb 1, 2008

This article traces the etymology of Indo-Fijian (Fiji Indian) feminisms in Fiji. In the first se... more This article traces the etymology of Indo-Fijian (Fiji Indian) feminisms in Fiji. In the first section, the resistances of female indentured laborers (for example, Sukhrania, Naraini and Kunti) are recovered as reflections of early forms of individualized feminisms in the early 1900s. In the second section, it is proposed that the informal and organic, yet socially significant movement of Indian women laborers in Fiji in the 1920s comprised one of the first collective intersections of gendered, classed and ethnicized relationships in Fiji. The 1930 (post-indenture) women's movement, with its main emphasis on economic empowerment, is included in the discussion of Indo-Fijian feminisms in the third section. The conclusion highlights that while each phase of the early feminist movement in Fiji focused on a different set of concerns that impacted on the lives of Indo-Fijian women, this group of women have played and continue to play a prominent role in furthering the rights of women nationally and regionally. Like Griffen, other women from Fiji 5 argue that a Fijian feminist movement-one that advocated women's social, cultural, economic and political rights on the grounds Margaret Mishra was born in the Fiji Islands and lived and worked there until 2001. She then moved to Melbourne and wrote her doctoral dissertation on the history of the women's movement in Fiji at Monash University.

Journal of international women's studies, Jul 1, 2016

This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any ... more This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2016 Journal of International Women's Studies.

Journal of Women's History, 2012

Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women ... more Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women workers pioneered 'embryonic agitations' (evidenced through strikes, physical confrontations and written petitions) against exploitative colonial officials and Indian overseers. The 1920s saw a shift in the nature of women's activism towards a discourse of economic empowerment, with the rise of indigenous, organic, organizations like Qele ni Ruve. This was followed by the transcultural platform of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asian Women's Association in the 1940s and the contemporary women's movement of the 1960s led by the Fiji Young Women's Christian Association. The latter was marked by convergences with and divergences from transnational discourses. The focus-feminisms of the 1980s brought human rights to the forefront of women's activism. This has continued until the present day, although there is now an emphasis on peace and reconciliation in post-coup Fiji. Situating Fijian Women's Resistances Shameem suggests that the Fijian 1 women's movement developed in a lateral fashion, sometimes receding into conservatism then jumping in a very radical way. 2 She explains: 'its articulation was at different levels depending on what else was going on' 3 in the country, the region and the world. Following Shameem, this article situates the multiple resistances of Fijian women within an intricate historical, socio-cultural, economic and political milieu. 4 It will argue that each stage of Fijian women's organizing was distinct, depending on intersections with global, regional, and national networks, discourses and brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tue... more The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tuesday, March 11, 1890, eighteen year old Mawlee was brutally killed at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba, Fiji. After an interval of six to eight weeks, this crime was reported locally in The Fiji Times ('Murder in Fiji', 1890: 6) and internationally in The Advertiser ('Dreadful Murder at Fiji', 1890: 7) and Auckland Star ('Murder at Fiji: A Dreadful Affair', 1890: 5). The publication of these stories coincided with the death sentence meted out to indentured labourer, Dhunnoo, by the Supreme Court in Nausori. On May 5, the Court heard that the accused and deceased were living together as man and wife until Mawlee left Dhunnoo to live with indentured labourer, Badloo. Then on March 11 as Mawlee was returning from work carrying a bundle of firewood, a hoe and a billycan (a metal pot used to carry food), she was confronted by Dhunnoo and dragged into the cane.

This article sets out to retrieve two accounts of female deviance in colonial Fiji. It will posit... more This article sets out to retrieve two accounts of female deviance in colonial Fiji. It will posit rule-breaking behavior as a reaction to colonial and patriarchal efforts to regulate female behavior and sexuality. The article simultaneously aims to undo rigid categorizations of female deviance by relating such acts to historical circumstance. Police records, court proceedings and news items from The National Archives of Fiji are cited to show how indigenous Fijian woman, Davilo, and indentured Indian woman, Sukhrania, transgressed socially constructed paradigms of morality by procuring abortions in 1884 and engaging in prostitution in 1909, respectively. By relabeling these alleged acts of deviance as survival strategies emerging out of women’s experiences of ‘double colonization’, this article will reconstruct two ‘minor’ anecdotal fragments awkwardly wedged within the realm of ‘mainstream history’

Journal of international women's studies, 2016

Introduction How is one to deconstruct colonial and patriarchal constructions of female deviance?... more Introduction How is one to deconstruct colonial and patriarchal constructions of female deviance? What apparatus can we use to rouse the subaltern subject who silently sleeps within an oppressive, discursive memory? Is it possible to undo history's spell on 'bad women' by repositioning the focus from moralistic accounts of rule-breaking events to historical circumstance? This article grapples with these questions by relating deviance, 'a matter of interpretative judgment occurring in an established historical, cultural and situational context', (2) to two anecdotal fragments fleetingly noted in colonial records in Fiji, anecdotes yearning for a fitting context, anecdotes refusing to be dismissed as 'the residuum of a dismembered past'. (3) The first one appears as a short entry in a 'Prisons Office Report' reprimanding indigenous Fijian woman, Davilo, for procuring abortion in 1884. (4) The second anecdote surfaces as a one-line notice in 'The...

This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the a... more This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field.

Australian Humanities Review, 2012

Journal of international women's studies, 2018

This article sets out to undo colonial constructions of the ‘madwoman’ in Fiji during the indentu... more This article sets out to undo colonial constructions of the ‘madwoman’ in Fiji during the indenture period. It will critique how lunacy, or more specifically the condition of dementia, was sometimes presented as the colonial response to ‘uselessness’ in the sugarcane plantations. When archival fragments relating to an indentured woman named Dhurma, are retrieved and situated within a historical context they demonstrate how unproductivity was perceived as a signifier of an ‘unsound mind’ because it conflicted with the utilitarian logic of universal and individual economic advancement espoused by the British colonial administration. The article will also present brief accounts of other indentured women who were diagnosed with ‘dementia’ to illustrate how the ‘useless madwoman’ phenomena was not an isolated one. If the allegations of dementia presented here are reassessed in light of definitions of lunacy including the usage of this term in The English Lunacy Act of 1838, it may be pos...

in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence ... more in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence of the 'suspicious circumstances' surrounding her death (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? How much do we really know about the mother of depot baby 7480 and how did her indentured status and interlocking variables such as ethnicity, caste and colonialism trickle down to her daughter? What response should we offer to the allegation by British Colonial Secretary A. R. Coates that the infant's death was the result of neglect, 'probably intentional on the mother's part' (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? This article grapples with these questions as it sets out to recover a series of anecdotal fragments for history. These comprise birth and death records, emigration passes, annual reports, witness testimonies and minute papers from The National Archives of Fiji. When these forgotten relics are retrieved and reevaluated, a discursive pattern emerges; one that exposes how the transference of blame onto indentured women for 'maternal negligence' was strategic and not accidental. Thus, it becomes possible to argue that 'doublespeak' or the process of distorting language for political purposes, originating from George Orwell's 'doublethink' (Orwell), was used by colonial and patriarchal authorities in Fiji to obfuscate the 'truth'. Political economist and media analyst Edward Herman elaborates on the function of this term: 'What is really important in the world of doublespeak is the ability to lie, whether knowingly or unconsciously and to get away with it; and the W

In a series of columns published in Australian newspapers in the 1920s, Australian journalist Tho... more In a series of columns published in Australian newspapers in the 1920s, Australian journalist Thomas M’Mahon, declared that Indigenous Fijian women in the upper echelons of society were ‘emancipated’ as a consequence of the good work of the colonial administration and the missions in Fiji (1922a, p. 8). Yet when his rather sensationalized accounts relating to women’s education, modernity, marriage, and motherhood are closely scrutinized, it is clear that M’Mahon’s perception of ‘women’s emancipation’ is synonymous with the attainment of Western, middleclass ideologies of domesticity and not the quest to obtain equal rights for women by removing gender discrimination. The purpose behind his columns is to applaud the efforts of the British colonizers in Fiji—the projected emancipators of chiefly women. This article makes a contribution to women’s history in Fiji by challenging M’Mahon’s colonially skewed representation of the concept of ‘women’s emancipation’. It does this by juxtapos...

The Journal of Pacific History, 2020

When the second indenture ship, Berar, arrived in Fiji on 29 June 1882, the names and particulars... more When the second indenture ship, Berar, arrived in Fiji on 29 June 1882, the names and particulars of the Indians on board were recorded in the General Register of Indian Immigrants. The 'Indian Indentured Labour Series List' in the National Archives of Fiji and later historical accounts conclude the head count of immigrants on the Berar with E-Pass number 887. Curiously, these records have omitted a minute historical detail captured in the General Registerthe scrawled entry relating to an Indian woman called Montowinie hastily appended at the end of the records, after the infants. Although she was not assigned an Emigration Pass at the point of departure from Garden Reach in Calcutta, Montowinie was allocated a most unusual pass number, 887½. This historical account sets out to rescue this pass-less indentured woman from the margins and reclaim her as a missing body from Fiji's indenture history.

The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tue... more The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tuesday, March 11, 1890, eighteen year old Mawlee was brutally killed at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba, Fiji. After an interval of six to eight weeks, this crime was reported locally in The Fiji Times ('Murder in Fiji', 1890: 6) and internationally in The Advertiser ('Dreadful Murder at Fiji', 1890: 7) and Auckland Star ('Murder at Fiji: A Dreadful Affair', 1890: 5). The publication of these stories coincided with the death sentence meted out to indentured labourer, Dhunnoo, by the Supreme Court in Nausori. On May 5, the Court heard that the accused and deceased were living together as man and wife until Mawlee left Dhunnoo to live with indentured labourer, Badloo. Then on March 11 as Mawlee was returning from work carrying a bundle of firewood, a hoe and a billycan (a metal pot used to carry food), she was confronted by Dhunnoo and dragged into the cane.

Womenʼs History Review, 2008

... life'. 9 In other instances, women were bribed from their villages by unscrupulous recru... more ... life'. 9 In other instances, women were bribed from their villages by unscrupulous recruiters. 10 Indo-Fijian feminist Shireen Lateef confirms the trickery of some recruiters as she relates how her grandmother came to Fiji: While ...

Women's History Review, 2008

... The order of the tribal hierarchy was as follows: turaga (chiefs of the leading mataqali), sa... more ... The order of the tribal hierarchy was as follows: turaga (chiefs of the leading mataqali), sauturaga (executive mataqali), matanivanua ... 1920 riots were led by Fulquhar, Rahiman, Rachael, Sonia, Mungri, Kalan, Ladu, Majullah Khan, Hansraj, Dareemal, Janki, Dwarka, Junkoma ...

Journal of Women's History, 2012

Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women ... more Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women workers pioneered “embryonic agitations” (evidenced through strikes, physical confrontations, and written petitions) against exploitative colonial officials and Indian overseers. The 1920s saw a shift in the nature of women’s activism towards a discourse of economic empowerment, with the rise of indigenous organic organizations like Qele ni Ruve. This period was followed by the transcultural platform of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asian Women’s Association in the 1940s and the contemporary women’s movement of the 1960s led by the Fiji Young Women’s Christian Association. The latter was marked by convergences with and divergences from transnational discourses. The focus-feminisms of the 1980s brought human rights to the forefront of women’s activism. This phase has continued until the present day, although there is now an emphasis on peace and reconciliation in post-coup Fiji.

Journal of indentureship and its legacies, Jun 28, 2024

in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence ... more in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence of the 'suspicious circumstances' surrounding her death (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? How much do we really know about the mother of depot baby 7480 and how did her indentured status and interlocking variables such as ethnicity, caste and colonialism trickle down to her daughter? What response should we offer to the allegation by British Colonial Secretary A. R. Coates that the infant's death was the result of neglect, 'probably intentional on the mother's part' (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? This article grapples with these questions as it sets out to recover a series of anecdotal fragments for history. These comprise birth and death records, emigration passes, annual reports, witness testimonies and minute papers from The National Archives of Fiji. When these forgotten relics are retrieved and reevaluated, a discursive pattern emerges; one that exposes how the transference of blame onto indentured women for 'maternal negligence' was strategic and not accidental. Thus, it becomes possible to argue that 'doublespeak' or the process of distorting language for political purposes, originating from George Orwell's 'doublethink' (Orwell), was used by colonial and patriarchal authorities in Fiji to obfuscate the 'truth'. Political economist and media analyst Edward Herman elaborates on the function of this term: 'What is really important in the world of doublespeak is the ability to lie, whether knowingly or unconsciously and to get away with it; and the W

This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the a... more This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field.

Womens History Review, Feb 1, 2008

This article traces the etymology of Indo-Fijian (Fiji Indian) feminisms in Fiji. In the first se... more This article traces the etymology of Indo-Fijian (Fiji Indian) feminisms in Fiji. In the first section, the resistances of female indentured laborers (for example, Sukhrania, Naraini and Kunti) are recovered as reflections of early forms of individualized feminisms in the early 1900s. In the second section, it is proposed that the informal and organic, yet socially significant movement of Indian women laborers in Fiji in the 1920s comprised one of the first collective intersections of gendered, classed and ethnicized relationships in Fiji. The 1930 (post-indenture) women's movement, with its main emphasis on economic empowerment, is included in the discussion of Indo-Fijian feminisms in the third section. The conclusion highlights that while each phase of the early feminist movement in Fiji focused on a different set of concerns that impacted on the lives of Indo-Fijian women, this group of women have played and continue to play a prominent role in furthering the rights of women nationally and regionally. Like Griffen, other women from Fiji 5 argue that a Fijian feminist movement-one that advocated women's social, cultural, economic and political rights on the grounds Margaret Mishra was born in the Fiji Islands and lived and worked there until 2001. She then moved to Melbourne and wrote her doctoral dissertation on the history of the women's movement in Fiji at Monash University.

Journal of international women's studies, Jul 1, 2016

This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any ... more This journal and its contents may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. ©2016 Journal of International Women's Studies.

Journal of Women's History, 2012

Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women ... more Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women workers pioneered 'embryonic agitations' (evidenced through strikes, physical confrontations and written petitions) against exploitative colonial officials and Indian overseers. The 1920s saw a shift in the nature of women's activism towards a discourse of economic empowerment, with the rise of indigenous, organic, organizations like Qele ni Ruve. This was followed by the transcultural platform of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asian Women's Association in the 1940s and the contemporary women's movement of the 1960s led by the Fiji Young Women's Christian Association. The latter was marked by convergences with and divergences from transnational discourses. The focus-feminisms of the 1980s brought human rights to the forefront of women's activism. This has continued until the present day, although there is now an emphasis on peace and reconciliation in post-coup Fiji. Situating Fijian Women's Resistances Shameem suggests that the Fijian 1 women's movement developed in a lateral fashion, sometimes receding into conservatism then jumping in a very radical way. 2 She explains: 'its articulation was at different levels depending on what else was going on' 3 in the country, the region and the world. Following Shameem, this article situates the multiple resistances of Fijian women within an intricate historical, socio-cultural, economic and political milieu. 4 It will argue that each stage of Fijian women's organizing was distinct, depending on intersections with global, regional, and national networks, discourses and brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tue... more The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tuesday, March 11, 1890, eighteen year old Mawlee was brutally killed at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba, Fiji. After an interval of six to eight weeks, this crime was reported locally in The Fiji Times ('Murder in Fiji', 1890: 6) and internationally in The Advertiser ('Dreadful Murder at Fiji', 1890: 7) and Auckland Star ('Murder at Fiji: A Dreadful Affair', 1890: 5). The publication of these stories coincided with the death sentence meted out to indentured labourer, Dhunnoo, by the Supreme Court in Nausori. On May 5, the Court heard that the accused and deceased were living together as man and wife until Mawlee left Dhunnoo to live with indentured labourer, Badloo. Then on March 11 as Mawlee was returning from work carrying a bundle of firewood, a hoe and a billycan (a metal pot used to carry food), she was confronted by Dhunnoo and dragged into the cane.

This article sets out to retrieve two accounts of female deviance in colonial Fiji. It will posit... more This article sets out to retrieve two accounts of female deviance in colonial Fiji. It will posit rule-breaking behavior as a reaction to colonial and patriarchal efforts to regulate female behavior and sexuality. The article simultaneously aims to undo rigid categorizations of female deviance by relating such acts to historical circumstance. Police records, court proceedings and news items from The National Archives of Fiji are cited to show how indigenous Fijian woman, Davilo, and indentured Indian woman, Sukhrania, transgressed socially constructed paradigms of morality by procuring abortions in 1884 and engaging in prostitution in 1909, respectively. By relabeling these alleged acts of deviance as survival strategies emerging out of women’s experiences of ‘double colonization’, this article will reconstruct two ‘minor’ anecdotal fragments awkwardly wedged within the realm of ‘mainstream history’

Journal of international women's studies, 2016

Introduction How is one to deconstruct colonial and patriarchal constructions of female deviance?... more Introduction How is one to deconstruct colonial and patriarchal constructions of female deviance? What apparatus can we use to rouse the subaltern subject who silently sleeps within an oppressive, discursive memory? Is it possible to undo history's spell on 'bad women' by repositioning the focus from moralistic accounts of rule-breaking events to historical circumstance? This article grapples with these questions by relating deviance, 'a matter of interpretative judgment occurring in an established historical, cultural and situational context', (2) to two anecdotal fragments fleetingly noted in colonial records in Fiji, anecdotes yearning for a fitting context, anecdotes refusing to be dismissed as 'the residuum of a dismembered past'. (3) The first one appears as a short entry in a 'Prisons Office Report' reprimanding indigenous Fijian woman, Davilo, for procuring abortion in 1884. (4) The second anecdote surfaces as a one-line notice in 'The...

This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the a... more This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field.

Australian Humanities Review, 2012

Journal of international women's studies, 2018

This article sets out to undo colonial constructions of the ‘madwoman’ in Fiji during the indentu... more This article sets out to undo colonial constructions of the ‘madwoman’ in Fiji during the indenture period. It will critique how lunacy, or more specifically the condition of dementia, was sometimes presented as the colonial response to ‘uselessness’ in the sugarcane plantations. When archival fragments relating to an indentured woman named Dhurma, are retrieved and situated within a historical context they demonstrate how unproductivity was perceived as a signifier of an ‘unsound mind’ because it conflicted with the utilitarian logic of universal and individual economic advancement espoused by the British colonial administration. The article will also present brief accounts of other indentured women who were diagnosed with ‘dementia’ to illustrate how the ‘useless madwoman’ phenomena was not an isolated one. If the allegations of dementia presented here are reassessed in light of definitions of lunacy including the usage of this term in The English Lunacy Act of 1838, it may be pos...

in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence ... more in Fiji who rouses the attention of the colonial recordkeepers on 17 July 1889, as a consequence of the 'suspicious circumstances' surrounding her death (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? How much do we really know about the mother of depot baby 7480 and how did her indentured status and interlocking variables such as ethnicity, caste and colonialism trickle down to her daughter? What response should we offer to the allegation by British Colonial Secretary A. R. Coates that the infant's death was the result of neglect, 'probably intentional on the mother's part' (CSO, 'Reporting the Death')? This article grapples with these questions as it sets out to recover a series of anecdotal fragments for history. These comprise birth and death records, emigration passes, annual reports, witness testimonies and minute papers from The National Archives of Fiji. When these forgotten relics are retrieved and reevaluated, a discursive pattern emerges; one that exposes how the transference of blame onto indentured women for 'maternal negligence' was strategic and not accidental. Thus, it becomes possible to argue that 'doublespeak' or the process of distorting language for political purposes, originating from George Orwell's 'doublethink' (Orwell), was used by colonial and patriarchal authorities in Fiji to obfuscate the 'truth'. Political economist and media analyst Edward Herman elaborates on the function of this term: 'What is really important in the world of doublespeak is the ability to lie, whether knowingly or unconsciously and to get away with it; and the W

In a series of columns published in Australian newspapers in the 1920s, Australian journalist Tho... more In a series of columns published in Australian newspapers in the 1920s, Australian journalist Thomas M’Mahon, declared that Indigenous Fijian women in the upper echelons of society were ‘emancipated’ as a consequence of the good work of the colonial administration and the missions in Fiji (1922a, p. 8). Yet when his rather sensationalized accounts relating to women’s education, modernity, marriage, and motherhood are closely scrutinized, it is clear that M’Mahon’s perception of ‘women’s emancipation’ is synonymous with the attainment of Western, middleclass ideologies of domesticity and not the quest to obtain equal rights for women by removing gender discrimination. The purpose behind his columns is to applaud the efforts of the British colonizers in Fiji—the projected emancipators of chiefly women. This article makes a contribution to women’s history in Fiji by challenging M’Mahon’s colonially skewed representation of the concept of ‘women’s emancipation’. It does this by juxtapos...

The Journal of Pacific History, 2020

When the second indenture ship, Berar, arrived in Fiji on 29 June 1882, the names and particulars... more When the second indenture ship, Berar, arrived in Fiji on 29 June 1882, the names and particulars of the Indians on board were recorded in the General Register of Indian Immigrants. The 'Indian Indentured Labour Series List' in the National Archives of Fiji and later historical accounts conclude the head count of immigrants on the Berar with E-Pass number 887. Curiously, these records have omitted a minute historical detail captured in the General Registerthe scrawled entry relating to an Indian woman called Montowinie hastily appended at the end of the records, after the infants. Although she was not assigned an Emigration Pass at the point of departure from Garden Reach in Calcutta, Montowinie was allocated a most unusual pass number, 887½. This historical account sets out to rescue this pass-less indentured woman from the margins and reclaim her as a missing body from Fiji's indenture history.

The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tue... more The purpose of this article is to recover a minor historical event 13 the event of murder. On Tuesday, March 11, 1890, eighteen year old Mawlee was brutally killed at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba, Fiji. After an interval of six to eight weeks, this crime was reported locally in The Fiji Times ('Murder in Fiji', 1890: 6) and internationally in The Advertiser ('Dreadful Murder at Fiji', 1890: 7) and Auckland Star ('Murder at Fiji: A Dreadful Affair', 1890: 5). The publication of these stories coincided with the death sentence meted out to indentured labourer, Dhunnoo, by the Supreme Court in Nausori. On May 5, the Court heard that the accused and deceased were living together as man and wife until Mawlee left Dhunnoo to live with indentured labourer, Badloo. Then on March 11 as Mawlee was returning from work carrying a bundle of firewood, a hoe and a billycan (a metal pot used to carry food), she was confronted by Dhunnoo and dragged into the cane.

Womenʼs History Review, 2008

... life'. 9 In other instances, women were bribed from their villages by unscrupulous recru... more ... life'. 9 In other instances, women were bribed from their villages by unscrupulous recruiters. 10 Indo-Fijian feminist Shireen Lateef confirms the trickery of some recruiters as she relates how her grandmother came to Fiji: While ...

Women's History Review, 2008

... The order of the tribal hierarchy was as follows: turaga (chiefs of the leading mataqali), sa... more ... The order of the tribal hierarchy was as follows: turaga (chiefs of the leading mataqali), sauturaga (executive mataqali), matanivanua ... 1920 riots were led by Fulquhar, Rahiman, Rachael, Sonia, Mungri, Kalan, Ladu, Majullah Khan, Hansraj, Dareemal, Janki, Dwarka, Junkoma ...

Journal of Women's History, 2012

Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women ... more Fijian women collectively challenged their double colonization since the 1900s. Indentured women workers pioneered “embryonic agitations” (evidenced through strikes, physical confrontations, and written petitions) against exploitative colonial officials and Indian overseers. The 1920s saw a shift in the nature of women’s activism towards a discourse of economic empowerment, with the rise of indigenous organic organizations like Qele ni Ruve. This period was followed by the transcultural platform of the Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asian Women’s Association in the 1940s and the contemporary women’s movement of the 1960s led by the Fiji Young Women’s Christian Association. The latter was marked by convergences with and divergences from transnational discourses. The focus-feminisms of the 1980s brought human rights to the forefront of women’s activism. This phase has continued until the present day, although there is now an emphasis on peace and reconciliation in post-coup Fiji.