THE Indian immigrant ships made 87 voyages to Fiji in the years 1879 to 1916, carrying 60,965 indentured Indians to Fiji. Sutlej V (also written as Satluj) was the last ship that arrived in Fiji on November 11, 1916. The interesting feature of this voyage was that some of the ships were given names of famous rivers of India such as Ganges, Jumna, Indus, Chenab and Sutlej etc. Sutlej and Chenab are very “well respected” names in Punjab because the world-famous Bhakra Dam was built across the Sutlej and love stories of Heer Ranjha and Soheni Mahiwaal had developed and flourished around Chenab.
The town and city councils of our country, with the help and encouragement of the Ministry of Local Government have decided to celebrate this historical event of our history; arrival of the last ship, Sutlej. I understand from reliable sources that organising committees in every town and city will plan and put together some cultural activities including documentary films, photographic exhibitions, interfaith thanksgiving services, song and dance items and traditional iTaukei meke on November 11 or earlier in some places. They have named it “Centennial Celebration of the last indentured Ship Sutlej V”.
According to a report, titled Girmit Celebrations, written by Felix Chaudhary and published in The Fiji Times of October 29, the Fiji Girmit Council will also organise some activities to commemorate this occasion. They will include a carnival, trade show, book fair and many other items. The general secretary of the council, Jagannath Sami, told Chaudhary that “sports events including soccer, rugby, netball, volley ball, hockey, cricket and golf were also part of the program”.
Mr Sami further added: “celebrations would also include a film festival, local drama and plays and musical performances at the Girmit Centre in Lautoka. An academic conference featuring local and international scholars on indenture and colonialism were also planned as well as debates and oratory contests.”
It is interesting to note that two important organisations of our country will pay tribute to our forefathers and will make our younger generations aware of part of our history.
Indenture system is a big and wide subject. Thousands of research papers and hundreds of books have been written on it by writers of different countries in many languages. Some of them have been from Mauritius, British Guiana,Surinam, Trinidad and Fiji etc.
The list of our local literature includes: My Twenty -One Years in the Fiji Islands by Totaram Sanadhya, Girmitiyas by Brij Lal, The Violence of Indenture in Fiji by Vijay Naidu, Gulaami-Slavery in Fiji by Dr Kamlesh Sharma, Songs of the Jahajin by Mohit Prasad and the Morning, a novel by Jogindar Singh Kanwal.
The following books also contain one or two chapters on the subject of girmit. Rama’s Banishment by Vijay Mishra, Plantation to Politics by (late) Dr Ahmed Ali, Tears in Paradise by Rajendra Prasad, Fiji by Shubha Singh, Tandava, poems, by Sudesh Mishra. Dr Satendra Nandan has written many articles and poems on this subject which are spread out in many of his books.
The most authentic work, according to my studies, is the book titled Fiji’s Indian Migrants by Professor KL Gillion. Another book by an overseas writer is Turn North-East at the Tombstone by Walter Gill. Indians in Fiji by AC Mayer contains only one chapter, titled The Indenture System.
The word girmit is confusing for our younger generations. When we tell them that our girmitiya forefathers did not know English and could not pronounce the word “agreement”, so they began to call it girmit, they are surprised at our reply.
For the girmitiya, the white overseer, who used to mark their attendance every morning by calling them by numbers, became kolumber. For the benefit our younger generations, particularly of our students, I record below the exact copy of terms and conditions of the agreement which every indentured Indian was supposed to sign or put thumb impression on it. For them this agreement was the girmit.
Conditions of service and terms of agreement which every indentured labourer was supposed to sign.
1) Period of service: five years from the date of arrival in the colony.
2) Nature of labour: Work in connection with the cultivation of the soil or the manufacture of the produce on any plantation.
3) Number of days on which the emigrant is required to labour in each week — every day, excepting Sundays and authorised holiday.
4)Number of hours in every day during which he is required to labour without extra remunerations — none hours, excepting on each of the five consecutive days in every week commencing with the Monday of each week, and five hours on the Saturday of each week.
5) Monthly or daily wages and task-work rates — when employed at time-work, every adult male emigrant above the age of 15 years will be paid not less than one shilling, which is at present equivalent to 12 annas and every adult female emigrant above that age, not less than nine pence, which is at present equivalent to nine annas, for every working day of nine hours. Children below that age will receive wages proportionate to the amount of work done.
6) When employed at task or ticca-work, every adult male emigrant above the age of 15 years will be paid not less than one shilling, and every adult female emigrant above that age not less than nine pence for every task which will be performed.
7) The law is that a man’s task shall be as much as an ordinary able-bodied adult male emigrant can do in six hours’ steady work, and that a woman’s task shall be three-fourths of a man’s task. An employer is not bound to allot, nor is an emigrant bound to perform more than one task in each day, but by mutual agreement, such extra work may be allotted, performed and paid for.
8) Wages are paid weekly on the Saturday of each week.
9) Conditions as to return passage-Emigrants may return to India at their own expense after completing five years’ industrial residence in the colony.
10) After 10 years continuous residence, every emigrant shall be entitled to a free return passage to India. (This lengthy clause is summarised)
11) Other conditions: Emigrants will receive rations from their employers during the first six months after their arrival on the plantations according to the scale prescribed by the Government of Fiji at a daily cost of four pence, which is at present equivalent to four annas, for each person of 12 years of age and upwards.
12) Every child between five and twelve years of age will receive approximately half rations free of cost, and every child, five years of age and under, nine chattacks of milk daily free of cost, during the first year after their arrival.
13) Suitable dwelling will be assigned to emigrants under indenture free of rent and will be kept in good repair by the employers.
14) An emigrant who has a wife still living is not allowed to marry another wife in the colony unless his marriage with his first wife shall have been legally dissolved, but if he is married to more than one wife in his country, he can take them all with him to the colony and they will then be legally registered and acknowledged as his wife.
Some historians are of the view that the overseers and sardar employed by the planters and the CSR Company did not follow these terms and conditions strictly and interpreted them in their own ways and abused them shamelessly.
Although Sutlej V was the last ship that brought girmitiya to Fiji, those who had signed the indenture contracts in 1915 and 1916 continued working according to the terms and conditions they had signed, and ultimately the system was abolished by law on January 1, 1920.
* Jogindar Singh Kanwal lives in Varadoli, Ba and is the author of many Hindi and English books and writes frequently for The Fiji Times. One of his novels, The Morning, based on the indentured system in Fiji, is used as textbook in our secondary schools. His email address is kanwal @connect.com.fj. The views expressed are his and not of this newspaper.
