Page 19 - IB APR 2017

History
Ending the journey of Girmit

By Brij V Lal

THE last Indian immigrant ship, SS Sutlej,
carrying 875 indentured men, women
and children, entered Suva Harbour on
2 November, 1916. Last boat ... the SS Sutlej. Photo: File
No one knew it then that Sutlej would
be the last vessel ferrying human cargo sanguine note about the benefit of the those in Fiji.
to come to Fiji, the last of 87 which made system for the labourers themselves. The small book which resulted from
the journey to the remote British colony In 1914, another report came, this time the conversation between the two men,
in the Pacific. from the Government of India, led by brought home to the Indian public the real
Four years later, on 1 January 1920, in- James McNeill, ICS, and Lala Chimman and alleged abuses of the indenture sys-
denture system itself would be abolished. Lal, a wealthy landlord in Uttar Pradesh tem. Totaram became a featured speaker
This year, many former ‘King Sugar’ from where most the Fiji girmitiyas had at many political rallies of the Indian
colonies such as Guyana, Trinidad, Suri- come. This report, too, was sanguine in its National Congress.
name, Fiji and Mauritius, are commemo- prognosis, and Chimanlal was especially The story of Kunti, a girmitiya who
rating the end of indentured emigration. impressed by the progress the immigrants narrowly escaped sexual assault by a
A group in Fiji is organising an in- had made, but by then the battle was European overseer, published in mass
ternational conference, with attendant truly joined. circulating Indian newspapers, enraged
celebrations, to mark the occasion. Indian On the other side of the divide were Indian public opinion as never. It was a
indentured emigration was unique. No the critics of indenture who voiced moral powerful nail in the coffin of the indenture
other labour scheme of the 19th and outrage at the conditions in which the system.
20th centuries matched it in scale, scope girmitiyas lived and worked. The timing of the anti-indenture move-
and spread. Among them, in Fiji, were Christian ment was also important. It coincided
By the time the Sutlej made its journey, missionaries and social activists. Rev- with Mahatma Gandhi’s return to the
debate was raging about the future of gir- erend Piper, Hannah Dudley, Florence subcontinent after many long years in
mit, the Indian word for indenture derived Garnham and, the most important of them South Africa.
from the ‘Agreement’ under which the all, Revered JW Burton. His campaign of satyagraha brought
immigrants came to Fiji. He wrote about the cruelty of the system to the fore a moral dimension in Indian
Fiji played a prominent part in galva- in his 1910 book, Fiji of Today, which politics, questions of honour and shame.
nising public opinion against the inden- many considered to have made a crucial Whatever its economic benefits, the ar-
ture system. intervention in the anti-indenture debate. gument went, indenture was inherently
After the turn of the century, Fiji was Then there was CF Andrews, Gandhi’s evil and morally indefensible. The aboli-
among the colonies with the largest friend and confidant, who visited Fiji tion of indenture became a cause of the
number of indentured labourers still on twice, the first time with his friend WW Congress Party. Its continuation was a
the plantations, with the Colonial Sugar Pearson, and wrote of the moral and social blot on India’s izzat, honour, in the eyes
Refining Company as the monopoly em- chaos of life on the plantations. of the world.
ployer. The company did not enjoy a good To these girmitiya Totaram Sanadhya The Government of India was caught in
reputation among critics of the indenture added his own voice drawn from direct a quandary. On the one hand, it listened,
system. Its Australian origin did not help experience. Totaram had come to Fiji in as it had to, pleas from the colonies for the
its reputation. 1892, a Brahmin disguised as a Khastri- continuation of Indian emigration without
By the early years of the 20th century, ya, warrior caste, to improve his chances which, the colonies said, they would face
the treatment of indentured labourers of recruitment. He completed his girmit certain ruin. And on the other, it had to
began to attract public attention both in at Wainibokasi and after 21 years in Fiji, recognise the mounting pressure from
India itself and in the colonies. returned to India. the Indian public. And it was this that in
In 1909, the Sanderson Committee, There he related his experience to the the end swayed the Government of India.
appointed by the British parliament, Indian journalist Benarsidas Chaturvedi
produced an exhaustive report on the who had taken a keen interest in the n Continued overleaf
subject, but essentially concluded on a affairs of overseas Indians, especially
Mekere Morauta ... eyes on the top job
Islands Business, April 2017 19