The contracts of the indentured labourers, which they called girmit (agreements), required them to work in Fiji for a period of five years. Living conditions on the sugar cane plantations, on which most of the girmityas (indentured labourers) worked, were often squalid. Hovels known as “coolie lines” dotted the landscape.
History
Girmit Event - A Brief History
Colonial British Indian Indentured Labour Transportation By Country
60,965
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
FIJI
3,200
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
GRENADA
238,909
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
GUIANA
36,412
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
JAMAICA
400,000
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
MALAYA
453,063
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
MAURITIUS
4,350
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
ST LUCIA
3,000
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
BRITISH
SINGAPORE
143,939
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
TRINADAD &
TOBAGO
34,304
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
DUTCH
SURINAM
32,000
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
EAST
AFRICA
152,184
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
NATAL
26,507
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
Réunion
337
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
ST KITTS
2,472
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
ST VINCENT
6,315
INDIANS WERE TRANSPORTED TO
Seychelles
Life During The Indenture Period
End of Indenture
Public outrage in the United Kingdom at such abuses was a factor in the decision to halt the scheme in 1916.
Arrival Under the Indenture System
The colonial authorities promoted the sugar cane industry, recognizing the need to establish a stable economic base for the colony, but were unwilling to exploit indigenous labour and threaten the Fijian way of life.
The use of imported labour from the Solomon Islands and what is now Vanuatu generated protests in the United Kingdom. Governor Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon decided to implement the indentured labour scheme, which had existed in the British Empire since 1837. A recruiting office was set up in Calcutta, followed by another in Madras in 1902.
These officers were used to recruit labourers under the impression that Fiji was just over the horizon when, in fact, it was 1000 kilometres away. A lot of people were kidnapped and brought over with false documents, while some came under their own will.
More than 70% were from eastern United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) districts and Bihar, such as Basti, Gonda, and Faizabad. Another quarter came from the emigration-prone districts of Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu and part of Andhra Pradesh) in South India, such as North Arcot, Chingleput, and Madras (now Chennai). There were smaller numbers from Punjab, Kashmir, Haryana, and other parts of India.
The Leonidas, a labour transport vessel, disembarked at Levuka from Calcutta on 14 May 1879. The 463 indentured servants who disembarked were the first of over 61,000 to arrive from South Asia over the following 37 years.
Emergence Of The Fiji Indian Identity
After a further five years of work as an indentured labourer or as a khula (free labourer), they were given the choice of returning to India at the expense of the British government or remaining in Fiji. The great majority opted to stay. After the expiry of their girmits, many leased small plots of land from Fijians and developed their own sugarcane fields or cattle farmlets. Others went into business in the towns that were beginning to spring up. The indenture system had two positive effects on subsequent generations. Firstly, the need for people of different casts to live, work, and eat together led to an end of the caste system. Furthermore, the shortage of females resulted in many marrying outside their caste. Another positive was the development of a new koiné language, Fiji Hindi formed from the Hindi dialects of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (mainly Awadhi and Bhojpuri). The language was further enriched by including many Fijian and English words. The language is now the mother tongue of almost all Fiji Indians. It is the lingua franca of not only all the Fiji Indians but also of all communities where ethnic Indians are in the majority.