Roots and Routes: Tracing the Trends of Indo-Fijian Fiction (original) (raw)

THE SHIFTING TRENDS IN THE NARRATIVE PREOCCUPATIONS OF THE INDO-FIJIAN WRITERS IN FIJI

Langlit (An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal, 2021

Indo-Fijian literature is categorized under Postcolonial Literature, which documents the life and struggles of the Indians in Fiji after the indenture system. From the first imprint in 1914 by Totaram Sanadhya, it has become possible to trace substantial shifts in the trends of genre, written by Indo-Fijian writers. This paper explores some of the ways the narrative structures and preoccupations of contemporary Indo-Fijian authors have shifted, particularly in regard to the portrayal of the Indo-Fijian society in Postcolonial Fiji. Subramani and Brij Lal's writings are saturated with the traumas of indenture, while Kavita Nandan shifted her narratives to identity issues concerning race, gender and cultural identities, among others. The changing narrative structures and preoccupations of historical events from early post indenture days till present is explored through the examination of selected writings by Indo-Fijian authors. The gradual, steady, shift in the narrative structures of the genre away from trauma and sufferings of indenture to assurances and optimism in a multicultural society gives evidence of shifting trends in creating fresh pathways within contemporary Indo-Fijian society. Keywords:Indenture system, Indo-Fijian, Diaspora, Postcolonial, Identity

Struggle for Independence and Its Influence on Indo-Fijian Literature: A Postcolonial Indo-Fijian Perspective

LITERATURE AND THEORY-FROM CLASSICAL TO CONTEMPORARY:DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES FROM INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, 2022

The indenture system was instituted after the abolition of slavery, in response to the labour demands of the British Empire during the colonial reign. In an effort to recruit labourers, the penurious peasants were enticed and promised of better lives and good money. Despite the inhumane exploitation of the labourers, many girmityas chose to stay in Fiji after the system ended in the year 1920, with the hope of a better life. The traumas of indenture and struggle for identity after the end of the system became the subject for many Indo-Fijian writers, who became the voice of the diasporic community in Fiji. The collective memories of the indentured labourers, who were displaced from their homeland and relocated to their new homeland in Fiji are evidently penned by authors like Subramani, Brij Lal, Vijay Mishra and Kavita Nandan. The rootlessness of the Fiji-Indian diaspora and their quest for an identity in the 'new' home continues to dominate most Postcolonial Indo-Fijian writers till today. The narratives and content of the Indo-Fijian literature represent the insecurities and alienation that continue to haunt the descendants as well as question their identity and future in the land they now call home.

The Place of Literary Writings in Fiji’s Education System An Overview of Hindi Writings in Fiji

International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature

The teaching of vernacular languages or mother tongues in the Pacific island countries is one of the most neglected and vulnerable areas in education. This is borne out by the results of various studies that have been conducted over the past decades on literacy writings in vernacular. To an utter dismay, day by day and year by year, the numbers of Hindi vernacular students have been considerably declining, which is having a direct repercussion on scant publication of local literally writings in Hindi language. This original article will shed some light upon the vernacular teaching and learning of Hindi language, which has a long history in Fiji’s education system. What used to be one’s identity is now treated as a vehicular language, only to be used for conversational purposes. The novelty of the article will also oversee the extent of Hindi language teachings, since its early inception, and the repertoire of means that were adopted to retain her true essence in safe guarding her fo...

Indo-Fijians: Our Long Journey Home

A Social History of South Asians in British Columbia, 2022

The Indo-Fijian community has a complex history and heritage. Coming to the Fiji Islands as indentured labourers from India between 1879 and 1920, these Girmitiyas were forced to reevaluate their place in the world while simultaneously rebuilding their culture and maintaining their traditional and religious practices in a harsh colonial environment. Finding no place in India, Girmitiyas created a unique Indo-Fijian culture in the tropical South Pacific through their shared struggle for respect and acceptance. This chapter introduces the history of indentured labour in Fiji and its effect on Girmitiyas, explaining the obstacles faced during and after indenture. It explains how the Indo-Fijians shaped the economy of Fiji but despite this, were never accepted as equal citizens. Due to their enduring struggle for respect and equality, the Indo-Fijian people of today, much like their Girmitiya ancestors, left Fiji in search of a homeland where they would be accepted in society. Coming to Canada, the Indo-Fijian people have finally found a land where they are equal citizens with the opportunity to flourish as a culture. It is my hope this chapter will help Indo-Fijians better identify with our shared history and heritage and help readers understand and appreciate our unique Canadian Indo-Fijian culture.

Tracing the Relational Ethic in the Postcolonial Life Writing of the Indo-Fijian Diaspora

Life Writing, 2018

Despite the celebratory stance adopted by proponents of globalisation towards migration and transnationalism, many diasporic subjects experience geographical and cultural displacement as dispossession and loss. It is most evident in the life writing of post-indenture descendants of the nineteenthcentury Indian diaspora in Fiji who are, de facto, living in a state of perpetual exile. In this article, I examine the life-writing texts of two Indo-Fijian writers, Satendra Nandan and Brij Lal, for the centrality they accord to the relational ethic through which they foreground the experiences of their community. While Nandan deploys a melodramatic aesthetic in his life writing to elicit sympathy for his post-indenture community's predicament, Lal interweaves disciplinary history with creative autobiography to make an interventionist gesture through which he recuperates an agential role for his Indo-Fijian community. I argue for broadening the archive of postcolonial diasporic literature by including such texts that resist the triumphalist rhetoric of de-territorialisation and transnationalism.

'My Twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands'−A Review Essay

Indenture Review: Studies on Girmit, 2021

Totaram Sanadhya's Fiji Dwip Mein Mere Ikkis Varsh (1914), later translated as My Twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands (1991), is the first book written by an indentured labourer or 'girmitiya' in Fiji. The book encompasses the author's first-hand experiences and anecdotes from the point of view of an Indian. As a result, Sanadhya's book counters many western biases generally highlighted in history texts about the Indenture System. For the scholars of diaspora studies, this book provides insights into why many Indians chose to indenture themselves and eventually became part of 'old' diaspora. This paper seeks to review and highlight the major threads of My Twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands. The main threads are treachery used in recruiting labourers, unjust/unfair treatment, social and moral degeneration, and racism suffered by the girmitiyas in Fiji.

Digital Thesis- Means of Connecting the Contemporary Indo-Fijian Women to the Imaginary Homeland.pdf

Abstract The ‘Old Indo-Fijian Diaspora,’ of the indentured labourers who came to Fiji between 1879 and 1920 has been an important area of scholarship and research. According to Dr. Brij Lal, some 60,965 indentured labourers came to Fiji during the indenture period; of these,45,439 where from northern India, embarking at Calcutta and the rest came from Southern India after 1903 when recruitment had begun there (Lal, 1983:2). After serving their indenture term, many indentured labourers (such as those interviewed in Ahmed Ali’s book; Girmit: Indian indenture experience in Fiji) revealed that they were trapped away in a far-away land and many had no choice but to make Fiji their home (Ali, 2004). Brij Lal strengthens this point by stating that Indians did not leave their homeland with the view of completely severing their links with it but many of them hoped to go back after acquiring wealth in the colonies (lal, 1983:4). The indentured labourers comprised of Indians of different classes, geographical locations, castes, languages, occupations and an unequal gender balance. The pain and remorse felt by these labourers were worth recording, studying, researching and internalising as today this has provided many intellectuals, academics and researching souls with information to broaden the studies in this area and provide exposure on the Old Indo-Fijian Diaspora. This paper therefore looks in to the movement of Indians from India to Fiji during the indenture period and particularly allegorises the role played by the female girmitiyas during the time of indenture where Gyarti Spivak’s notion of the “triad-use, exchange and surplus” would be employed to explore and discuss the traditional role of the woman girmitiyas (Spivak, 1996). Indo-Fijian women today are thousands of miles away from India yet they are still influenced by the homeland and various connections are evident almost a 130 years since the beginning of the indenture system. These connections to the homeland do not imply that Indo-Fijian women are connected to the whole of India but refers to them identifying themselves with specific aspects. These ‘specific’ aspects in this paper are limited to what these women perceive through the various media available in Fiji and for the purpose of this research, namely: the Bollywood cinema, Independent cinema, Daily-life drama series via Hindi satellite television and the Diaspora poetics (literary works of Indo-Fijian writers on the indenture experiences). In this light the role of the Bollywood cinema and the Daily-life drama series of the Hindi satellite television (which are adopted from epics/religious texts) are of great interest due to copious stereotypical characters of the binary of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and thematic representations of ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’ (dharmik/ adharmik) values depicted through these media. A closer look will also be taken at the female portrayals in the above mentioned media and will be weighed against feminist claims of portrayals of ‘round’ female characters on screen in contrast to the Independent cinema which moves away from the fictive and indulges in those subjects of culture and human nature which are not easily accepted by the subjects in concern. Moreover, this paper looks at (through a primary research) how closely the contemporary Indo-Fijian women are connected to the cultural, social and religious aspects of India via the various media mentioned. Additionally, Vijay Mishra’s notion of the emergence of a ‘diasporic imaginary’ growing out of a sense of being marginalised or by being rejected outright by nation states would be looked at in terms of the views and experiences of the Indo-Fijian women from the primary research, illustrating that this diasporic imaginary is also created and promoted mostly through the ‘romanticised images’ of the Bollywood cinema and the Hindi satellite television. The diaspora poetics is also seen as a means of connecting the contemporary Indo-Fijian women (elite group) to the homeland, opposing Vijay Mishra’s claim that the literary works on Indo-Fijians reissue versions of ‘the conscious falsification of reality’ of the Girmit ideology. Instead a positive direction will be ventured towards with Salman Rushdie’s idea of creating fictions of the imaginary homeland (Indias of the mind) and using one’s own memory to create memory of the homeland (an imaginative truth). This paper discusses the role of the above mentioned media in creating ‘Indias of the mind’ amongst the contemporary urban dwelling Indo-Fijian women. Additionally, in order to get first hand information, a survey was carried out and questionnaires were distributed randomly to 100 Indo-Fijian women around the Samabula area, a suburb of Suva, the capital of Fiji. The women used for the primary research varied in age, ranging from 16 to over 60 years with different educational, geographical (that is, where in Fiji they are originally from) caste and sub-racial backgrounds.

The Journey of Indian Diaspora as Indian Indentured Labourers in Fiji

International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT), 2023

Indian diaspora is the largest diaspora in the world. As we know, the basic reasons for diaspora are unemployment, natural disaster, forced migration, etc. In this paper,I would like to depict Indian diaspora in Fiji as an indentured labourers. Indian labourers brought to Fiji as indenturedlabourers to work on a sugarcane plantation. They signed a contract from labourers which was called 'girmit' and who came under this contract called 'girmitiya'. It was a five-year contract that contained rules and regulations for workers. They had to face many obstacles during their journey from India to Fiji and also,they had to suffer hardship on Fiji island as indentured labourers. With the passage of time, Indian indentured labourers and their new generation have got the identity as Fiji-Indians.There are many notable Indo-Fijians like James Madhwan who was one of the longest-serving parliamentarians in Fiji, Mahendra Chaudhary was the fourth Prime Minister of Fiji, Sidiq Koya was politician, opposition leader and statesman and so on. Indians brought as indentured labourers to Fiji island but with their hard work and intelligence they have got their rights and made a distinct place in Fiji.

Transnationalism and the Indo-Fijian Diaspora: The Relationship of Indo-Fijians to India and its People

Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2008

This article investigates the relationships of Indo-Fijians to their ancestral homeland, both in Fiji and following their secondary migration to Australia. Most Indo-Fijians are descendants of indentured labourers to Fiji. The majority have long ago lost all personal contacts with India. During their stay in Fiji, their social, cultural and religious practices have undergone many changes. Their experiences with subcontinental Indians are limited and their views of India and of subcontinental Indians largely based on ignorance, indifference and stereotypes. Recent efforts of the Indian Government at fostering relations with its 20 million strong diaspora are primarily aimed at wealthy Indian migrants in the West and descendants of indentured Indians have attracted comparatively little interest in India. Many Indo-Fijians have left Fiji and resettled in the developed Pacific Rim countries, especially Australia. In the wake of this secondary migration, Indo-Fijians have realised that their social and cultural distance from subcontinental Indians is too great to be narrowed by a shared ethnicity. In the process, they have developed a Pacific identity and have constructed a transnational space around Fiji as the new centre largely excluding the cultural hearth India.