Part IV
There is reverse Hindustani racism against Gujarati, once again rearing its ugly head on anonymous blogs.
Fiji Hindustani have contemptuously referred to Gujarati as “Bombaiya khitchdri”, a soft rice and dhal dish that is a favorite of the allegedly cowardly (“soft”) Gujaratis.
To grow up in Toorak, a Gujarati “Bombaiya Khitchdri” boy had to be prepared to fight back against bullying by Hindustani (and other) boys not just in the protection of one’s dignity, but the more valuable footballs, kites, tops, marbles, and pocket money which used to be easy targets for the bullies of the time.
That boy’s mother used to be quite fed up with her son frequently coming home with blood on his face.
Fiji’s Hindustani politicians have long played the “race card” against Gujarati, usually alleging that the Fijian political parties were being supported by prominent Gujarati business houses and who allegedly also made their fortunes by commercially exploiting the descendants of the girmitiya (the original indentured laborers) in the cane belt.
These allegations conveniently ignored that the majority of Gujarati immigrants, including the current business giants, originally came to Fiji as poor service people who were laborers in all but name: small traders, barbers, tailors, shoe makers, and laundry people (like my parent’s dhobi community).
The descendants of the original Gujarati (and certainly the children of the dhobi) have grown up with the same kinds of opportunities and tough times, as have the descendants of the girmitiya and they also diversified from their original “caste” work, as have the descendants of the girmitiya.
The Gujarati have done extremely well in Fiji as a group, not because of any affirmative action by the colonial government or banks, but due to their work ethic, commercial acumen, and frugality (which latter trait, so useful for capitalist accumulation is contemptuously labeled by the Hindustani as kanjoosai (being miserly with money or mamaagi).
Some of the Hindustani racism against Gujarati is no doubt a reverse reaction against the exclusivity of the Gujarati community, while some is probably driven by sheer envy of a successful minority group, who are successful everywhere in the world (like the Jews).
But urban Fiji stands out among the other Pacific Island countries because of the quality products, services, corporations and business complexes built by many Gujarati families- such as Punjas, Motibhais, Kasabias, the numerous Patels, Jacks, Tappoos, Damodars, Narseys (no relation of mine) and many others.
But the majority of Gujarati today are NOT businessmen.
Of course, a few Gujarati tycoons have exercised significant political influence (some very unethically indeed for their own business interests) on all Prime Ministers, whether Ratu Mara, Rabuka, Chaudhry, Qarase or Bainimarama.
But so also have the business tycoons of all other races- North Indians, South Indians, white, kailoma, Chinese or even a few indigenous Fijians, as indicated by these other prominent business names in Fiji: Hedstroms, Stinson, Cupit, Lee, Seeto, Maharaj, Prasad, Narayan, Reddy, Weleilakeba, to mention just a few.
The 1999 Elections
Between 1996 and 1999 when I was a National Federation Party (NFP) representative and Shadow Finance Minister in the Fiji Parliament, I used to co-operate with all parties, including the Fiji Labor Party and SVT.
So it was a total shock to me in the 1999 Elections, when a few FLP candidates (including some former USP colleagues and friends) merely to obtain Hindustani votes, falsely labeled me as a “Gujarati anti-worker economist in the pockets of Gujarati businessmen”.
Many Indo-Fijian voters believed these spurious allegations and not only lost me votes, but also many golfing friends throughout Fiji.
This labeling was grossly unfair.
I had been a founding member of the Fiji Labor Party in 1985.
I had consistently supported workers and farmers interests in my academic work over the decades, continuing through with my support of the late Father Kevin Barr’s efforts in the Wages Councils through my Just Wages study.
Ironically, many Gujarati employers even saw me as a “traitor” to the Gujarati community.
The irony is that in many of my articles I have criticised the lack of ethics and principles of Fiji’s prominent business houses, including the Gujarati, few of whom would consider me a “friend”.
It is also pertinent that the majority of Gujarati are not business people, and there are many Gujarati businesses who are honest and contribute their fair share of employment and taxes in Fiji, like most other businesses of other ethnicities.
It is a pity that Indo-Fijian social leaders have not ever publicly confronted these racist attitudes, either among the Hindustani or the Gujarati, and their ill effects fester on, rarely coming to the surface, as Kumar’s did, unfortunately directed at me.
Sadly, this Hindustani racism against Gujarati manifested itself also in academia, ironically celebrating the girmitiya experiences.
Girmitiya academics making Gujarati economists invisible
It amazes me that so many Fiji Hindustani academics, writers and historians have succeeded in making prominent Gujarati economists invisible in their writings on Fiji and Fiji’s Indo- Fijians.
The 2004 celebration of the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the first girmitiyas saw the creation of a special website focused on the
indenture/girmitiya experience, launched with the hope that it would be, according to the Chief Guest, a “useful source of information on the history of Indo-Fijians in Fiji”.
The website did have many useful more recent writings about the girmitiya experience and the sugar industry.
But it totally omitted any reference to one of the earliest articles commemorating the centenary of the arrival of indentured laborers in Fiji
and the exploitation of the girmitiya workers and small farmers (Wadan Narsey “Monopoly Capital, White Racism and Super profits in Fiji: a Case Study of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company”, Journal of Pacific Studies, Vol5, 1979. pp. 66 146).
This monograph was supposed to be launched at a conference to commemorate the 100 years from the arrival of the last indenture ship.
The conference (22 to 24 March 2017) was organized by Dr Ganesh Chand, Professor Biman Prasad and Dr Rajni Chand.
I initially thought that exclusion of references to my seminal article was due to my brief political role as an NFP parliamentarian, but the Fiji girmit website also excluded the writings of another prominent Gujarati economist Dr Padma Narsey Lal (my sister), who has been a prolific analyst of the sugar industry in recent years, with major publications.
She has also been a senior research colleague to many of Fiji’s Indo-Fijian economists, including Dr Mahendra Reddy and those who set up the girmitiya website.
She is a pioneering graduate of USP, and through marriage solidly integrated into her husband’s girmitiya family.
But evidently all these were not good enough to get her extensive works on the sugar industry mentioned.
Similar exclusions were obvious in a book launched for the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the girmitiya in Fiji: “Children of the Indus, 1879-2004: a history of Indians in Fiji portraying the struggles of an immigrant community for justice, equality and acceptance”.
This book, like the several others that have been published since, also make no references to the writings of the two well-known Gujarati economists.
Sadly however, the international websites on the indentured Indian diaspora have no reference to my 1979 study.
When I asked one passionate and well-known writer on the girmitiya sufferings under CSR why he had no reference to my 1979 work, he did not bother to reply.
I thank another website (and editor Ms Vanita Nair) on the girmitiya: http://girmitunited.org/index.html) which readily published my writings on the girmitiya and the sugar industry when they were made aware.
It is sad that the quite legitimate acknowledgement of the great girmitiya contribution to the development of Fiji is also used to deliberately exclude, for political or other reasons, the valuable contributions to Fiji by the Gujarati and their descendants, whether academics, professionals, businessmen or ordinary responsible citizens.
It will be interesting to see whether some former FLP stalwarts who are currently in the Bainimarama camp, will continue their anti-Gujarati
speeches in their campaigns, given not just Bainimarama’s friendship with prominent Gujarati business interests, but also the public statements by the MIDA Chairman against “hate speech” of any kind against any ethnic community.
The irony is that to this day, we continue our developmental work in Fiji, regardless of our differences.
The indigenous Fijian culture of forgiving seems to have also permeated me, although forgetting is difficult.
To be continued tomorrow.
• PROF WADAN NARSEY is one of the region’s senior economists and a regular commentator on political and economic issues in Fiji. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of The Fiji Times.
