PART 4
During the days of colonial rule, there was something called the ‘Fiji Blue Book’.
It was a directory of sorts, containing a list of all government appointments.
This week’s Discovering Fiji story is centred on a name entered in the Fiji Blue Book belonging to a female called Parbotti.Her real name was Padam Kaur.
According to Google searches, she was the Female Warder at Suva Gaol from January 1, 1898 to 1901.
PARBOTTI ‘moved around Suva’ lobbying for support in her husband, Chander’s case.
“She was resourceful, showed courage and determination in spite of the many disappointments and dashed hopes,” notes the book Fiji: A love story.
“Over the next two and a half years, Parbotti persisted in pleading her husband’s case to a host of people, officers of the Colonial administration, lawyers and well-meaning individuals, who could help in her quest to get her husband released.”
An English officer that offered her assistance and even found her a job was H.J.Milne, the Superintendent of the Depot for Immigrants.
In a note to the Governor, Milne wrote:
“…I have seen this woman who is staying by my order, temporarily at the depot. She appears to be a superior sort of woman, apparently very respectable. I am sorry for her present helpless condition. She has a young child and…”
Parbotti also paid a solicitor called C.H.Irvine to help her write a letter of petition to the Governor.
The letter reached the Governor who ordered an inquiry, however, the Magistrate who oversaw the case utilised the services of Dost Mohammed as an interpreter. In the end the petition was rejected.
Several documents written by colonial officers at the time spoke of Kaur’s ‘persistence, courage and faith’.
Finally, Parbotti went back to her first solicitor, J.H.Garrick, who had previously drafted petitions for her.
In those days, Garrick was a prominent solicitor and Notary Public licensed to practice in the Supreme Court of Fiji, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand.
In a document written on October 7, 1890, Garrick wrote to Governor John Bates Thurston and highlighted six points for his consideration. This time the petition drew attention to Dost Mohammed’s role as the interpreter in the earlier Milne inquiry.
There were also some new evidence received. Manohar, a free Indian living in Suva volunteered to give evidence that would later implicate Dost Mohammed.
“During my twenty years of experience of the Bar, I have not known a conviction obtained that I believe so strongly condemned an innocent man,” Garrick wrote in his petition to Thurston.
The Governor received the petition and wrote a note to the Colonial Secretary saying “…my mind is seriously disturbed with the propriety of the verdict and the sentence on the petitioner’s husband which consequently followed…
Let the Superintendent of Police make the most careful enquiries and give a report with as little delay as can be.”
Chander’s case file was passed to the Ba Stipendiary Magistrate at the time, A.D.Joske.
He visited Penang Estate and carried out interviews and in his report he said Chander’s charge was ‘trumped-up’ and recommended ‘leniency’.
Joske pointed out that if the prisoners were guilty then they had suffered enough, but if they were innocent then ‘the prospects before them were truly appalling’.
On May 3, 1893, Governor Thurston, in a letter to the Colonial Secretary, wrote:
“I have decided to exercise the prerogative of pardon in this case and to remit the remainder of the sentence imposed upon the convicts. Please direct the Superintendent of Police to convey the pardon of her Majesty to the prisoners and discharge them forthwith.”
On May 18, 1894, Chander stepped out of Suva prison after spending two years and ten months waiting for the ‘wheels of justice to turn the complete circle’.
“Fiji was fortunate in having a number of just and fair men at the helm of its colonial administration. men like A.R.Coates, the Inspector of the Indian Immigration, Frederick Sabben, the Superintendent of the Suva Gaol, H.J.Milne the Superintendent of the Immigration Depot and the Governor himself,” Fiji: a love story says.
“They had all gone out of their way to ensure justice was done.”
Hence, Chander was employed at the depot and paid a salary of ’24 pounds a year, with rations and quarters’.
Later he was promoted and made warder at the Prison Hospital in addition to his job at the depot.
Parbotti’s forbearance was also paid when she got a job with Government.
The Fiji Blue Book, which lists all government appointments lists Partbotti as ‘Female Warder’ at the Suva prison from January 1, 1898 to 1908 at an annual salary of 12 pounds.
Despite the couple’s achievements, the pain they went through could not be displaced.
Chander and Parbotti could have settled in Fiji and live a good life but after serving government for a few years, Parbotti as Suva Gaol Female Warder, they returned to India.
On July 8, 1901, after being in Fiji for 16 years, the couple and their 13-year-old son, Bere Singh eparted Fiji aboard the ship, Fazilka-`II.
Little did Chander and Parbotti realise that their teenage son Bere, who was born in Fiji almost three years after they arrived as indentured labourers, would return to Fiji within a decade to work for the Fiji Government.
Bere returned to India in 1916. His son, Bhagwan Singh would later serve as India’s first High Commissioner to Fiji after independence and his grandson Ajay Singh would be do the same feat between 2005 and 20007.
He worked previosuly as sub-editor of The Fiji Times when his dad (Bhagwan Singh) worked in Fiji after 1970 as a High Commissioner to Fiji.
This article was written based on the autobiography, Fiji: A Love Story (Memoirs of an Unconventional Diplomat) by Ajay Singh who was India’s High Commissioner to Fiji between 2005 and 2007 and a former sub-editor of The Fiji Times.
He was also an Indian politician and minister. Ram Chander and Padam Kaur (later Parbotti) were Ajay Singh’s great-grandparents.
The book was completed posthumously by his close friend Professor Mahavir Singh.
A copy was sent To The Sunday Times and the story was first published on July 10, 2022.
