Race, ethnic conflicts and tension between the Indians and indigenous communities in the indentured diaspora were some of the challenges faced from colonial to post-colonial eras.

This was highlighted by Professor Brij Maharaj during the International Conference on Celebrating Girmitiya’s Lives at the University of the South Pacific.

Professor Maharaj who is from South Africa says in the three colonies where they were taken as indentured labourers, the Indians played the role of middle-man minorities and were the ones affected in times of economic and political crisis.

Professor Brij Maharaj.

In spite of the distance and disconnection from India, he says the indentured labourers maintained their cultural identity.

“In the colonial and post-colonial eras, the indentured diaspora has raised questions of belonging: “Were they partial citizens, or pariah citizens. Permanent minorities, or resident aliens? Or where they simply excluded by race/culture from the possibilities of citizenship altogether? What political Rights did their economic contribution confer? “

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Professor Maharaj says racism was an issue, as the Indo-Fijians were marginalized, and as a consequence, they were disadvantaged in most areas of public life, including the allocation of civil service positions and scholarships for tertiary studies.

“And then you had the coups, etc, Racism has been institutionalized under the banner of affirmative action for Indigenous Fijians, and a lot of people, as we know, have migrated around, especially to New Zealand and Australia.”

Over 1.4m Indians moved to the British, French, and Dutch colonies; of this, 56,000 moved to Fiji to work under the indentured labour system from 1814 to 1924.

Some decided to migrate, while others stayed and made sacrifices to make Fiji a better place.