DURING the 37-year indenture period, more than 60,000 people were brought in to provide manual labour on farms in the country.
In 1916 the final vessel, SS Sutlej, brought in the last of the labourers.
Most of the original girmityas have passed on, but they have left behind a legacy, the hundreds of families who now call Fiji home.
Last week The Fiji Times spoke to a man whose parents arrived in Fiji on the final boat in 1916.
A girmitya child
At 95, Dhani Ram has lived a long and fulfilling life and now chooses to spend his time in the idyllic countryside of Drasa, Lautoka.
While old age has affected his ability to remember details about the earliest years of his life, it has not deterred his children from providing him full support.
The father of seven was one of three sisters and four brothers who were born to girmitya parents.
Mr Ram said his parents, along with a brother and two sisters, arrived in Fiji in 1916, on board the SS Sutlej, which ferried the final lot of indentured labourers from India.
He was born in 1923, after the indentured system was abolished, but says his parents and older siblings kept him in the loop about the struggles they faced when the system was still valid.
“My parents settled at Korovuto, Ba, and they moved around to other places like Vunisamaloa,” he says.
“They used to tell me that there were no schools at the time. People from the place my family lived used to have night schools for their children.”
He says his parents shared how a man, B.K Singh, used to take Hindi classes for the children in a makeshift bure.
“They said he was an old man with a big beard and he was very good in teaching Hindi.”
His father, Kallu Dhani Ram, acquired 30 acres of farmland at Korovuto so the family could start their own sugarcane farming.
Desire for education
Mr Ram, who only received education until Class Three, says he was eager to learn English even though he was helping his father out in the sugarcane farm at an early age.
However, a lack of access to school facilities meant his education had to be put on the backburner.
Mr Ram says he did not let this deter him.
He regularly read books by famed Indian poet and writer Harivansh Rai Bachchan — the father of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan — and Subhas Chand.
He got his wish to study when an English missionary, Pastor A.W Checksfield, visited Korovuto.
He says he learnt, what he terms, “broken English” from the pastor.
Throughout the years, he vigorously sought to improve his English writing and speaking skills by perusing a number of materials, such as books and newspapers.
With education being very close to his heart, Mr Ram assisted Vaqia Indian School in Ba during its early years.
The school, at which Mr Ram served as secretary, was later known as Shastri Memorial School — named after the late Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Move to Drasa
After getting married in 1931, Mr Ram continued working on his family’s sugarcane farm when his father made the decision to split their 30-acre farm among his four sons.
One of Mr Ram’s brothers, Kallu Balram, left farming to establish his own business.
In 1957, Mr Ram acquired a 50-acre crown land at Drasa, Lautoka, and left with his wife and children, leaving his remaining brothers to take ownership of their father’s farm.
In the first year (1957), the family harvested 24 tonnes of sugar cane, followed by 36 and 124 tonnes in the coming years.
These first harvests marked the beginning of what was to become a successful family farm.
In his new community, Mr Ram helped in the upgrade of roads and electrification of homes after he was appointed an advisory councillor in his later years.
Mr Ram was also the secretary for the Fiji Kisan Sangh for nearly 30 years.
Life now
Since his wife passed away in 1996, Mr Ram has been with his sons at Drasa.
His 65-year-old son, Mahendra Prasad, says his father inspired him greatly.
“I am also a farmer like him and I am very proud of his achievements,” he said
He said there were times when his father struggled to remember all the details about his early life, but there were also times, he would recall in great detail, events in his childhood.
During these moments he would talk about the things his parents used to share with him as well.
“One day, I remember, we were sitting together and all of a sudden, he started recalling memories from his childhood, so I just got a book and pen and started writing down whatever he was telling me because I didn’t know if he would remember it again.
“It was a great way to document and keep his story alive. And these are stories I would be sharing with my children and grandchildren.”
