In North India, there was great popular resistance to emigration and it was difficult to obtain recruits, especially women. The emigration system was unsuited to Indian conditions, the regulation did not always work in the way intended, and abuses were widespread. Most of the emigrants were young and fit and were recruited as individuals in the towns.  They were a fair cross-section of village castes, had been driven by economic pressure or alienation from kin, and enlisted to secure high wages, with the intention of returning to India. The areas of recruitment were determined by economic, and, secondarily, by cultural factors. Most of the 60,965 emigrants came from the Gangetic plain, but 25% were recruited in Madras, where there was less resistance to emigration.

On the plantations, impersonality and drudgery were the rules.  Inspection safeguards were inadequate and immigrants found it difficult to secure redress in the courts.  Assaults and an excessive number of prosecutions were serious problems.  The food and medical attention were inadequate over most of the period.  Vice was rampant because of the disproportion of the sexes, unsatisfactory living conditions and the breakdown of social controls.  Because of the nature of Indian society, the breakdown was much greater than most migrations.

The contracts of the indentured labourers required them to work in Fiji for a certain period of time as specified in their agreements. After 5 years of Girmit, they were free to return to India at their own expense.

The colonial government was compelled to provide free passage back to India to every Girmitiya and their children, after 10 years of Girmit.

It is argued that they were prevented from returning to India by the colonial government of Fiji and the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) of Australia.

This was done to ensure a continued supply of Indian labour to Fiji’s sugar industry, on which Fiji’s economy depended at that time. Few of the immigrants kept up ties with India, but about 40% returned – many of them suffered great hardship.

Those who stayed did so because of new kinship ties or enhanced economic and social opportunity; the Government encouraged them to stay.  Most of them settled on the lands as farmers prospered and progressed. 

The majority of the Indo-Fijians are direct descendants of these exiled Girmitiyas of Fiji. This website is a homage to these Girmitiyas and their children.