My Twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands
 
By Totaram Sanadhya
 
Translated and edited by John Dunham Kelly and Uttra Kumari Singh
 
First published by the Fiji Museum in 1991
 
ISBN 982 208 003 4

Totaram Sanadhya

I was bom in 1876, in Hirangau (Firozabad), in the Sanadhya family.
In 1887 my father, Pandit Revati Ram Ji, died, and my mother, my brothers Ramlal and Durgaprasad and I were left unprotected.
Father left his wealth for us, about four thousand rupees worth of jewellery and so forth, but the whole of it was gone in just one year ! This was because the dealers gave us very little money for it when we put the jewellery in their shops and took out loans.
This way, four thousand rupees worth of jewellery was expended in just a short time.
I still remember those days of poverty, and when the memory comes into my mind, the sky of my heart is covered over by gathering clouds of sorrow.
My older brother Ramlal, afflicted by these sorrows, went to Calcutta and worked as an assistant at Reilly Brothers for 8 rupees a month, my brother paid his own expenses and also sent some money home.
I was studying in class three at a school in Flirangau with Pandit Kalyan Prasad.
My mother used to say to me: 'Son, the way things are, you should plan for your own subsistence now'.
I could not see my mother's suffering, so I left home in 1893, and went off on foot for work.
I had only 7 annas with me.
Facing many difficulties on the way, I reached Prayag in about 16 days.
From this place begins the story of my own insignificant life, a sorrowful story of Ram.
Having arrived in Prayag, I bathed in the bank of the Bhagirathi.
Afterwards I met an Ahir, the son of Daragani.
Hearing my whole story, this Ahir pitied me and brought me to his home.
I lived with this Ahir for about two months.
For the rest of my life I will never forget the merciful things this Ahir did for me.
When I spent many days living in Tirtharaj, and never found work, I used to think that I should go, that I should return to my home.
But 34 then the thought would come to my mind that I could not bear to go home then, and see all my mother's hardships.
It would not be good to be nothing but a burden on her, not giving any help at all.
Sometimes the love of my mother drew me towards home, and sometimes the knowledge of my mother's suffering compelled me to the thought that I should do any kind of work, and not go home.
I was thus fallen to indecision.
One day when I was in a market near Katwali, engaged in this worrying about finances, a man I didn't know came up to me and asked, 'Do you want employment V I said 'Yes'.
Then he said, 'Good, I can get you a very good job.
It's the sort of work which will make your heart joyful'.
To this I said, 'I will work but I won't be able to work for more than six months or a year'.
He said, 'Good ! You should come.
When you wish, then quit working.
Nothing will happen.
Come, you should visit Jagannath Ji'.
My mind was not mature.
On these words I came along ! Deceived in this way, high class Indians come and then bear hardships for their whole lives.
Oh my well-educated countrymen ! Have you ever thought about these brothers ? Have you ever heard about these sons of this green, bounteous motherland who have been sent to other countries by the cruelty of the people running the depots 1 Hearing the story of these people won't you feel the lice crawling on your ear ? This arkati1 fooled me and brought me to his house.
Once there I saw about 100 men sitting in one line and about 60 women in another.
Some people were cooking with damp wood and getting tired blowing and blowing on the stove-fire.
1.
Because these arkatis or recruiters are important (and infamous) characters in Indo-Fijian history, and are known by this name, we have chosen not to translate this word.
Similarly, 'girmit', the name given to the agreement to serve a term of indentured labour, will not be translated, not even back to 'agreement', the English word from which it derives.
The arkati sat me at one side.
Seeing these women, I thought these men are going off to do work, but where are these poor women going ? At that time, the arkati completely forbade making conversation with these women.
No one could go outside from there and no one from outside could come in.
The arkati said to me, 'You should cook some rice here, I'll give you some rice right away'.
I said, 'I don't know how to cook rice.
I'll eat with these Brahmans who are cooking'.
The arkati explained things to the people there: 'Look brothers, the place where you will work you will never have to suffer any sorrows.
There will never be any kind of problems there.
You will eat a lot of bananas and a stomachTull of sugar cane, and play flutes in relaxation'.
After three days the arkati began to prepare us all to be brought before the magistrate.
Altogether there were 165 men and women.
We all were closed into cars, and arrived at the court house in a halThour.
The arkati had said to us before, that when the magistrate asked us any question we should say 'yes'.
If we didn't do this then we would be charged and thrown into jail.
Everyone was brought one by one before the magistrate.
He asked each one, 'Tell me.
Have you agreed to go to Fiji V The magistrate did not tell each person where Fiji was, what work they would have to do there, or what punishment they would be given on not doing the work.
This magistrate registered 165 people in some twenty minutes.
From this the reader can estimate how the magistrate wanted to free himself from the work.
Why else would he do it so quickly ? Going from here we were all loaded onto rail cars.
We could not talk to people sitting in the cars or to people outside.
If someone wanted to talk to himself it was allowed.
Yes, I forgot to say that this was a special train and we went straight to Havra, stopping nowhere in between.
From Havra station we were all put in closed cars and taken to the 36 depot.
Here the immigration officer stood us all in a line and said, 'You are going to Fiji.
You will get 12 annas a day there, and you will have to do field work for five years.
If you return from there after five years then you will pay your fare yourself, and if you return after ten years then the government will give you your fare.
You will be able to get many rupees from there.
Not only 12 annas.
You will be able to earn much more above this.
You will live with great bliss there.
What is Fiji ? It is heaven !' He spoke a great deal of this kind of slippery talk.
We illiterate people were already somewhat misled, and this officer fooled us completely.
The immigration officer also asked us, 'Do any of you not have your money or valuables with you V the arkati standing behind this sahab gestured with his hand to us all, for us not to say anything, that he would give us our things right away.
But when the sahab left, this arkati also left.
Again who gives and who takes ? Very many people's things, clothes, money and so forth stayed with this arkati ! When the officer was explaining things to us, a doubt was born in my heart.
I thought, five years is a lot of time, not knowing what kind of hard work I would have to go to Fiji and do or if, unable to work, what kind of blow I would suffer.
Thinking this, I said, 'I don't want to go to Fiji.
I have never done field labour.
Look at my hands.
They can never do field work.
I won't go to Fiji'.
Hearing this the officer gave me over to two Bengali elders1, and said to them, 'Explain things to this one and fix it up'.
To them also I made the denial, and said, 'My brother is here in Calcutta in some building.
Let me meet with him.
Then we'll see what happens'.
1.
'Elder' or babu, is a title which can refer widely, to senior men of high rank, especially merchants.
It can be a caste title, or it can simply mean 'gentleman'.
37 But who listens ? The doorkeeper stayed with me all the time.
When I would not agree after their explanation, I was locked into a room.
For one day and one night I was in that room, hungry and thirsty.
Helpless in the end, I was forced to say that I agreed to go to Fiji There were none of my own people there who I could tell about this incident of suffering.
When I was brought from the cell I saw that Chamar, Koli, Brahman and so forth were all seated in one place and forced to have their meal together.
Just about everyone was forced to have their meal on re-used plates, and was forced to drink water.
When anyone said anything, then what but he was beaten specially.
Seeing this situation I said, 'I will not eat with these people even if 1 die of hunger'.
The officer said, 'Die.
No one fears that.
We'll throw you in the river'.
In the end I was ordered to eat with the cook.
The good clothes that we had were all taken on the pretext that they would be washed, and a sweeper (a low caste man) took us to the place on the river for bathing.
We were all given soap.
Many poor innocent people thought that, as we had come from far away, we were getting barfi [a sweet] for breakfast.
People thinking this was barfi ate it, and then began to go, 'Hare Ram ! Hare Ram ! Ptu, ptu, ptu'.
Look at the sort of simple, innocent people the arkati tricked and brought.
These poor people thought that soap was barfi ! Do our religious teachers, who make people supporters of dharma, and spend their time in the cities giving speeches on stages, do they ever pity also the ranks of our country people ? Does anyone ever understand their duty to come to the villages and give speeches on the subject of salvation ? New religious teachers are always arising in the city, but no benefits of this kind of teaching reach poor rural people, and from this they think that the soap is barfi.
The Medical Examination When two or three days remained before the boarding of the ship, we all had medical examinations.
A male doctor gave men's and women's examinations.
After that, we were given prisoners' shirts, caps, and pants to wear.
For water we were given a tin jar, for food a tin plate, and for keeping our things a small sack.
The Story of the Ship Then our names were called out and we were all brought abroad the ship.
At that time five hundred Indians left their motherland and went to Fiji in the manner of prisoners and servants.
Who knew that arriving there we would be forced to endure countless hardships ? Many people wept in love for their mother, father, brother, sister and so forth.
There was no one there who had heard the story of these sorrows.
People who live in piles of filth, and who understand 'Eat drink and be merry' as their object in life, what can they know about the affairs of these poor five hundred Indians ? People are able to give attention to their country, when they make 'The lives of good people are for the sake of others' their standard mantra1.
For each one among us a space of one and a half feet wide and six feet long was given.
How much space can be enough for one person, you can decide for yourself.
Some people complained that 'I cannot live in this much space', and the white doctor, shouting said, 'Son of a bitch, you have to stay here'.
When we sat we were given four biscuits and one-sixteenth of a pound of sugar.
White people call these biscuits 'dog biscuits' and feed them to dogs.
Oh dear god ! Are we Indians equal to dogs ? What should be asked about these biscuits ? They were so soft that they were broken by fists, and soaked in water, then eaten.
1.
A mantra, a Sanskrit verse, often from the Vedas, is both a slogan to live by, and a prayer offered daily.
See the first note in the Introduction for a discussion of the verse.
39 At about four o'clock the ship left.
Our final farewell for our motherland was then.
At six o'clock the sun set.
At eight o'clock that night we slept.
At dawn, the watchmen woke us up.
We saw nothing but our ship going onward, making waves in the ocean.
In the four directions there was nothing to be seen but blue sky.
At that time many emotions were born in our hearts.
In just the way a free bird is imprisoned in a cage, we were all locked in.
In the morning an officer of the ship assigned some people from among us to do the cooking, and some for the watch and some for 'topas'.
People were asked who will do the topas work.
Our simple brothers did not know what 'topas' meant.
Therefore many people had their names written on the list to do the topas.
When the ship's officer said to the topas people, 'you people do your work', they said, 'What should we do V Then they were ordered to clean up the latrines.
Many people refused ! But they were beaten up and by force caused to pick up the filth.
Throughout the ship words of refusal began to echo.
Will our educated population pay attention to the cry of these suffering brothers ? Our brothers would by force carry human filth on a ship and we would sit silently.
Isn't this a thing of shame for us ? We each got bottles of water to drink twice each day.
We didn't get more even if dying of thirst.
The same was true about eating.
Fish was cooked and rice was cooked.
Many people suffered from seasickness.
Some unfortunates vomited and vomited and then left this world forever.
Those people were thrown into the ocean ! In this way, our ship reached Fiji in three months and twelve days, stopping at Singapore, Borneo and so forth.
Flere will be written something about Fiji.
40 The Fiji Islands The Fiji Island group is located in the South Pacific Ocean.
To its west are the New Hebrides.
It is found to the south of the equator at 15 to 22 degrees of longitude and 175 to 177 degrees latitude.
Counting all among them there are 254 islands.
Among these people live on about eighty.
The landmass of the Fiji Islands is 7,435 square miles.
According to the 1911 census, the population of Fiji is 139,541.
Among these islands two are biggest, Vitilevu and Vanualevu.
Apart from these, Kadavu and Taveuni are the biggest islands.
Their land is very fertile, and the islands look very green, especially to the east.
There are many mountains here, whose peaks are thousands of feet high.
On the shores of the oceans there are many coconut trees.
Yams, sweet potato (kumala) and oranges are prevalent here.
Before, there were very few animals here.
But more recently many animals have arrived.
Quite a few cows, bulls, horses, goats, wild pigs and so forth are found.
Among birds, pigeons, parrots, ducks and so forth are generally found in the warm places.
In 1866 many Europeans from Australia and New Zealand began to come and live in Fiji.
In 1874, the population of the islands came into the hands of the British government, and Fiji came to be called a colony in the British Empire.
Fiji's capital is Suva, which is situated on the southern coast of Vitilevu.
In the pages ahead I will write extensively on the subject of Fiji.
41 Assignment to Different Estates One island in Fiji is named Nukulau.
Here also there is a depot.
We who are called 'coolies' disembarked here.
As soon as our ship arrived there, the police came and surrounded us, so that we couldn't run away from there.
We were treated worse than their servants there.
People say that slavery has been ended in all civilized countries.
When you listen this sounds good but in reality, it is certainly false.
Do you understand less of this coolie system than of slavery systems ? In the Empire of this justice^minded British government, the system continues.
This is such a sad thing ! Are there no unbiased Englishmen like Burke and Bradley living in England today ? After a short time a doctor came, and examined all of us.
Everyone's clothes were gathered together in a tank and boiled.
The Agent General had already given permission to the plantation men to take their coolies from Nukulau depot.
Before this the planters paid a fee to the Immigration Department of 210 rupees for each person.
Following the order of the Agent General, those people came to Nukulau depot.
There a small coolie agent divided us, to be sent to different estates.
Then the agent called us, and said to each of us, 'For five years from today you are a servant of this particular sahab'.
I said, 'I am not a servant! I am not sold ! My father and brothers have not received anything from anyone !' When I argued, two white soldiers pushed me and made me climb into the boat.
In this way people were assigned to the different estates.
42 Conditions on the Estates At the estate, we get small rooms to live in.
Each room is twelve feet long and eight feet wide.
If a man is together with his wife then they are given this room, and otherwise, three men or three women stay in one room.
For show, this law was made: 'Employers of Indian Labourers must provide at their own expense suitable dwellings for immigrants.
The style and dimension of these buildings are fixed by regulations'.
Readers, this twelve foot long, eight foot wide room is a proper living place for the staying, rising, sitting, sleeping, and cooking of three people.
God should not let anyone live in such a nice building ! Among the three men who get this room, perhaps some are Hindus and Muslims, or perhaps Chamar or Koli [very low caste] or whoever it could be.
If a Brahman falls to the company of a Chamar or Koli, etc.
, then what need you ask of their troubles ! And it is usually arranged this way, that Brahmans have to live with Chamars.
The Troubles of the First Six Months For the first six months, provisions are provided by the estate, and for this two shillings and four pence are cut from each week's pay.
Provisions are at the rate of ten chatank [one-sixteenth of a seer, i.
e.
roughly one eighth of a pound] sharps, two chatank cow peas, and one-half a chatank of ghee [clarified butter] per day, but provisions for the week are given all on one day.
For us, who take up large shovels and do hard labour for ten hours a day, how could two and three quarters pounds of sharps a day be enough ? We ate our provisions for the whole week in four to four and one-half days, and the remaining days became the monthly fasting day, or else sharps and dal were borrowed from Indians who had been there longer, and we filled our stomachs with that.
43 Outrages [atyachar] Against the Kabuli Pathans One time an arkati fooled sixty Kabuli Pathans1 and sent them to Fiji.
The depot people told these people that they as a group would get big jobs.
These people were very vigorous, and because they wanted to find work as a group they agreed to go to Fiji.
But when they arrived in Fiji they had to do the work of coolies.
They got the same amount of supplies as everyone else, or, two and three-quarters pounds of sharps and half a pound of dal for the week, given on one day.
These people ate one week's supplies in four and one-half days, and sat.
When they were called to do their work they said, 'Bring food, then we will do work'.
At this the police were notified.
Then what, but constables and inspectors came right away.
The whites of the estate told them, 'Look sahab, these sixty bad coolies are threatening to loot and kill us'.
Then the Kabulis said, 'We only want to eat.
We won't work without eating, and we did not say anything'.
The police went back, and the Kabulis did not go to work.
Then the white planters said for the Kabulis to go back to work.
The Kabulis again gave no answer.
The whites again called the police.
This time the police fired a gun at the empty-handed Kabulis and threatened them.
The Kabulis said, 'We are dying of hunger, and you are firing a gun at us'.
At this the police again went back.
Injured Kabulis were sent to the hospital.
Right after this, the Kabulis were told to go to the Nukulau depot, where good arrangements would be made for their eating and drinking, living and work.
They agreed to this, and everyone was brought to Nukulau depot.
They were given rice etc.
for cooking, and they began to prepare the food.
The white Immigration Department officer there hid five hundred Fijians in the jungle.
1.
This means Pathans from Kabul, now the capital of Afghanistan.
44 Just when the Kabulis wanted to take their first bite, a whistle was blown.
In a minute the five hundred Fijians broke on these weaponless Kabulis, caught them all and brought them onto dinghies, divided them and sent them to different plantations.
This was the justice and bravery of the Immigration Department.
Many newspapers spoke out against this, but who is paying attention ? 45 Hard Labour Everyone is made to get up at four o'clock, at early dawn, every day.
Everyone prepares their own roti, and has to arrive in the fields by five o'clock.
Women with children bring their children to the fields.
Almost every person is given a lane of cane 1,200 to 1,300 feet long and six feet wide to weed with a hoe.
This is called a 'full task'.
The doctor usually writes that a person should be given a full task.
These doctor sahabs, who get breathless and begin to wipe their faces with handkerchiefs from walking only thirty or forty chains, make the poor hungry people do hard labour.
But this much work cannot be done by one of these labourers.
Then what ? Immediately the next day he is summoned, and his case is submitted in the courthouse before the magistrate.
The magistrates asks, 'Why didn't you do the full task on so and so date V He replies, 'The work is so much that I cannot do it'.
Hearing this the magistrate says, 'My question is, 'on so and so date, did you do the full task or not V Whatever question I ask, you should answer 'yes' or 'no.
' Don't say anything more'.
The poor labourer, helpless, has to say, 'Yes sir1, I was not able to do the whole task'.
Then what 1 He is pleading guilty.
The magistrate fines him ten shillings to one pound.
In this way ten to twenty days of these poor people's wages are lost in fines.
They get monthly wages of one pound, two shillings after doing the full task.
But for each hundred, no more than five people can do the full task.
And even these people cannot do the full task continuously for five to six months.
In my twenty-one years of experience, I did not find anyone among 40,000 Indians who had completed his full task continuously for five years.
The average person is not able to earn more than seven and one-half rupees per month.
What else should be said about this ? Fiji is twice as fertile as India, but hundreds are dying of hunger ! So many people, even while doing such hard labour, have to live with a half-filled stomach.
1.
Sanadhya writes that the labourers say 'Han Sarkar' literally, 'yes o government.
' 46 The Outrages [Atyachar] of the Overseers Overseers commit outrages against us whenever they like.
Many of our brothers there make a noose and hang themselves, from fear of hard work, and from fears of jail, and the blows of overseers.
Not many days ago several Madrasis at a plantation in Navua hanged themselves for this reason.
The cause of their deaths can be known from the death records there.
Although a coolie inspector is appointed by the Immigration Department to investigate our living conditions in each district, these white inspectors never make clear our true situation.
These great men are drinking brandy at the homes of the planters all the time.
When can they try to stop the suffering of us poor Indians ? When the overseers are angry with any people, they punish them.
The ones being punished are made to do very hard work, separate from all the others.
Overseers go to where these people are alone, and beat them severely.
These poor people do not complain, because they are afraid, thinking, 'I will have to work for five years under the supremacy of this sahab'.
If anyone does complain, then because there is no witness the case is dismissed.
I have seen many incidents when a brother or other close relative is not able to give evidence, from fear of an overseer.
On the excuse of punishment, overseers commit outrages against many of our sisters.
For example, it would not be inappropriate to write here the story of the Chamar woman named Kunti.
The Outrages [atyachar] Against Kunti The arkatis fooled Kunti and her husband at Lakhuapur district, Gorakhpur, and sent them to Fiji.
These people had to suffer great difficulties there.
At that time Kunti was twenty years old.
With great difficulty Kunti was able to protect her virtue for four years.
Then a sardar and an overseer began a great effort to destroy her virtue.
On 10 April, 1912, at the banana plantation called Sabukere, the overseer 47 gave Kunti the task of cutting grass, at a place apart from all the other men and women, where no witnesses could be found and no one could hear her crying.
The sardar and the overseer went there to rape her.
On the threat of the overseer, the sardar tried to grab Kunti's arm.
Kunti freed her arm, ran and jumped into the nearby river.
By god's will, the dinghy of a boy named Jaidev, was nearby.
Kunti was saved from drowning.
Jaidev pulled her into his dinghy and took her across the river.
When Kunti told the white plantation owner about this incident, he replied, 'Go away.
I don't want to hear about field things'.
Afterwards, Kunti did not go to work through the 13 April.
On the 14 April she was given the task of weeding twenty chains of grass, and her husband was given a task one mile away.
Also, Kunti's husband was beaten so much that the poor man was half dead.
Kunti had someone write about the incident in a newspaper and it was published in Bharat Mitra.
The government of India noticed this account, and an investigation of this incident was made in Fiji.
An immigration officer arrived there and threatened Kunti.
But Kunti said that what she had published in Bharat Mitra was completely right.
No matter how much we here praise the courage and fortitude of Kunti, it is not enough.
She jumped into a river and protected her virtue1, and even when she was dependent on the immigration officer, she rebuked him.
Having listened to the story of Kunti, will not our brothers make an effort to stop this coolie'System ? 1.
This 'virtue' is her satitva, the total devotion of a wife to her husband, which was in ancient times the basis of the custom of sati.
Thus it is much more than a simple notion of propriety or chastity.
The power which the story of Kunti had for the girmitiyas suggests a great respect for this kind of virtue, despite what one reads concerning the breakdown of marriage morality among them.
See the appended essay on Fiji Indians and the Law, 1912.
Narayani A woman by this name worked in Nadi district at Navo Plantation.
A child was born to her who died.
Two or three days after she had given birth, an overseer said that she should go to work, even though, according to the government law, a woman is not able to go to work for three months after giving birth to a child.
But why should a white overseer attend to these rules ? Narayani said, 'My child is dead.
I will not go to work'.
At this the overseer beat her so much that she became unconscious and fell.
A white police sub-inspector came, investigated and had the woman brought to the hospital.
The overseer was arrested.
The case reached the Supreme Court in Suva City.
When this woman came off a steamer into Suva, there was not enough strength in her to take even one step by herself.
Therefore she was carried to the courthouse on a stretcher.
At the end of the case the white overseer was found not guilty and was freed.
This poor woman was beaten so much that her mind went bad, and until now she has stayed crazy.
What a striking example of justice is this ! The glory of purity is eternal ! Many outrages of this kind are happening there all the time.
The overseers know well how to beat the Indians with the kicks of their shoes, and know how to break teeth at their roots with a list.
They burn clothing, kick away food, and give us troubles at will.
These are all inner sufferings.
Going to court is useless without evidence.
One time in 1912, I was sitting in Nadi courthouse, and saw a case going on in a magistrates court there.
A Madrasi made a complaint against a white doctor, superintendent of the Navakai Company hospital.
His presentation was like this: 'I was sent to the hospital because I was disturbed by pain in my arm, and not able to work at the plantation.
Day and night I was disturbed by the pain in my arm.
The hospital sardar gave me two buckets and told me to fill the water tank with water from the well.
I answered 'I am helpless from pain in my arm.
I am not able to fill the water tank.
If I was capable of working I would be at the plantation.
Why come to the hospital?' Hearing this the sardar hit me without pity, I shouted, and then the doctor sahab came 49 in and asked what was going on.
The sardar said, 'This man is not listening to my orders.
He is not filling the water tank'.
I said to the doctor, 'My arm hurts.
You know this.
Because of the pain in my arm, I cannot lift even an empty bucket, so how will I pick up a bucket full of water?' This devilish doctor also kicked me and hit me with his fists.
My teeth were broken by the blows of their fists, and blood flowed from my nose onto my shirt.
I became unconscious and fell.
While I was unconscious I was lifted up, carried and locked in the toilet room.
This incident happened at four o'clock in the afternoon.
When I came awake, I found myself locked in the toilet.
I broke off a piece of wood from the place where the containers of filth are kept.
By this route I got out of the room.
Running, I came to the sardar.
The sardar sent me to the district doctor.
From fear of the doctor no one will give evidence.
The doctor has threatened the witnesses who have come here'.
The magistrate heard this presentation and called for witnesses.
But they turned out to be against the Madrasi.
The doctor's lawyer argued many points.
Because his case was not very strong, the Madrasi lost.
The doctor sahab won.
In the decision, the doctor was found not guilty.
The doctor applied to the magistrate for his expenses.
The merciful magistrate said, 'When this man came to me his face was swollen like a football from his injuries.
On top of this you want your expenses returned ! You won't get your expenses'.
Then the doctor went away.
The Madrasi was taken by his boss overseer, and brought back to work.
The name of this Madrasi was Ram Das.
50 Disgust for Black People Because of our black colour, we have to endure many hardships on steamers.
First of all, we are given very bad places to sit.
We are not allowed to go towards the rooms of the Europeans.
Even if we are prepared to pay the full fare, we still do not get a good place to sit.
One time I went from Suva to Lautoka on the steamer named the 'Adi Kepa' I was made to sit where pigs and other animals are kept.
For many reasons, a fever came over me.
Rain began to fall during the night, and I had only one blanket.
My clothes were all soaked, and I was shivering from cold.
I asked many times to be given a room.
I offered to give the whole fare for that, but no one listened.
I had to stay there, helplessly, and got soaked.
The treatment I received is not given only to uneducated or lesseducated Indians.
It is also given to important well-educated Indians.
In many ports, third class whites disembark casually, and the clothes of second-class Indians, their socks, pajamas and so forth, are all taken and disinfected.
In Fiji there is one big company called 'CSR' which is in the sugar business.
They buy all our sugar cane.
A man whose sugar cane goes to them is given a receipt.
Once a week, the cane growers are given money for these receipts.
When the company officer takes these receipts from our hands, he first takes the receipt with iron tongs from far away, and then puts it through the smoke of a burning sulfur fire.
When they are asked why they are doing this, they say, 'You are black people.
I'm afraid of getting sick from the receipts which you have touched with your hands.
Therefore we keep the germs on the receipts far away'.
One time I went with my friend to the office of an English lawyer.
An Indian was there writing something.
The barrister sahab told his wife, 'Cover your mouth and nose with a hanky.
Otherwise you will get sick from the air coming out of the mouth of this black man'.
Although 51 this man was standing very far from the memsahab, still the white barrister said this ! Readers ! This is a barrister who makes thousands of pounds every year from our brothers.
We are not allowed to come onto the veranda of the company offices.
If by mistake we go, we are shoved off.
We have to suffer many of the aforementioned sorts of sorrows every day because of our black colour.
We people, who consider ourselves subjects of the British Empire, are treated like this when we have left our homes in India.
Then we open our eyes.
52 Outrages [atyachar] of the Merchants The British merchants of Fiji never care about the welfare of the Indians.
First of all, many of our Indian brothers, just when they have done their five years of hard labour, go to heaven.
Then, European merchants put many obstacles in the way of those who by the mercy of god become free after five years of hard labour, and wish to work in the fields.
For sugar cane, the produce of white planters is bought at the rate of fourteen shillings a ton, but even if our produce is better than the produce of the whites, it is not bought for more than nine shillings a ton ! Many Indians in Fiji are banana planters.
A lot of bananas are sent to Australia from there [Fiji].
We are not able to go to Australia and do banana business.
European merchants buy boxes of bananas from us for two or three shillings a box, and then sell them in Australia for fourteen shillings a box.
Sacks of maize which they won't give more than ten shillings for, they sell themselves for eighteen shillings.
We have to give up and sell our produce to them.
If we don't sell, then what can we do ? 53 Two Hundred Indians Were Cheated ! Banner sahab is an old planter in Fiji [Biner ?].
He took eight hundred acres of land on lease.
The land was overgrown with jungle.
The sahab thought, 'If I have this jungle cleared at my own expense, the cost won't be less than one thousand pounds.
If the work can be done by somehow deceiving some simple Indians, that would be good'.
Thinking this way he called about two hundred Indians and said, 'I have eight hundred acres of land.
People can get from me however much land they need.
Clear this land and plant it'.
With this sort of slippery^slidey talk he distributed all the land among the Indians and wrote on each piece of paper: 'Use this land for five or ten years and pay at the rate of one pound per acre'.
These poor people with great effort and with their money paid the pounds, cut the jungle, cleared the brush, and planted the fields for one year.
At the beginning of the second year, Banner sahab threw them all out from there and stole the land.
The poor people argued a great deal, but it was all useless.
I could go on giving many example of this kind, but from lack of space they are not written.
Readers ! From the rule of rice in the kettle1 you can infer about this also.
1.
The rule of'rice in the kettle' is one of the principles for sound inference developed in the Nyaya system of logic.
The Nyaya, a school of philosophy seeking knowledge of the world by means of inference, (anumana) was one of the six great schools of classical Indian philosophy, along with Vaiseshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta.
Nyaya principles for inference are labelled and known by their paradigmatic illustrative examples.
The rule of'rice in the kettle' is the principle that one can know the nature of any homogenous whole by examining any one of its parts.
Thus, when cooking, one can know whether all of the rice is completely cooked by tasting only one or two grains.
Reference to this rule suggests that the writer, of at least the editor, of this book was a man of some classical Sanskritic education, and reference to it in this cryptic form suggests that the readers also were presumed to be so educated.
54 Marriage Laws in Fiji It is the responsibility of a man in Fiji to go to marriage court and have the name of his wife registered.
When a marriage has been made, the husband and wife both have to go before the magistrate.
The magistrate asks for their agreement, and then gives them a certificate, which is called a marriage certificate.
They have to pay a registry fee of five shillings.
A marriage which is performed according to religious rites is not considered good, according to Fiji government law, without being registered.
If any does not register their marriage, then his wife cannot receive his wealth after his death.
That wealth is sent to the Immigration Office.
The wealth of men who are without any heirs is also sent to the Immigration Department.
The Immigration Department sends this wealth to India.
But the arkatis who fooled and sent over these people often had their names, castes, and addresses written completely falsely.
The money is sent from the Immigration Department to these addresses.
When the address is not found, then the money is sent back to Fiji.
Because of this wickedness of the arkatis, the mother, father, brothers and other relatives of a dead man do not receive his wealth.
Can we hope that the government of India will stop this kind of injustice ? The Indians dwelling in Fiji are writing and investigating on the subject of Fiji's marriage and kinship laws, but up to now there has been no result.
White Barristers and Lawyers1 White lawyers and barristers take ten guineas for one guinea's work, whenever an Indian visits them.
Many barristers have practiced fraud against us up to the present.
They could take whatever they like as their earnings, and then not even go to court ! Some white lawyers first take a few pounds, then on the night before the presentation of the lawsuit, send word that, 'If you bring five more guineas, then we will fight your case, and otherwise not'.
The poor man cannot hire another barrister at night, and therefore being helpless, has to pay the five guineas.
If the lawyer is told, 'Return my money', then they say, 'We cannot return your money'.
Indian cases are dismissed when white barristers don't come at the right time.
If there is any conflict between an Indian and a white person there, then usually the white barrister will take money from the Indian to fight his case, and then in trial take the side of the white.
Then the whites win ! Our brothers, who worked at hard labour for ten hours a day and earned so little for it, are cheated by the fraudulence of white barristers.
The poor Indians cannot make a complaint for their rupees about this, because the white barristers will not accept a case against their own white brothers.
1.
See the appended essay on Fiji Indians and the Law, 1912.
White Barristers Digested 1,925 Pounds In Suva, Fiji's capital, there was a barrister named Berkeley.
One day fortyTve Punjabi Sikhs went to him and said, 'We would like to go to the Argentine Republic in South America.
We have heard that we will get many jobs there.
But no steamer goes to South America from Fiji.
What shall we do 1 Flow shall we go V The white barrister thought to himself, 'These people are trapped in my good claws'.
Then he said to the Sikhs, 'If each one among you would give me four pounds bail money, live pounds for my earnings, and sixteen pounds for the fare, then I can get a steamer ready and send you straight to Argentina'.
The Sikhs fell for this, and gave twentyTve pounds each according to the barrister's instructions.
He gave them each a receipt for only sixteen pounds.
In this way the barrister took 1,925 pounds from them, and then put all of his wealth into the name of his son.
The Punjabis complained to the Supreme Court.
They spent scores of pounds and then received a decree.
But now what did the barrister have 1 Not a penny was gained back.
The poor men wept.
Many became penniless, and one Sikh died from his suffering ! 57 The Calling of a Barrister from India When we had been forced to suffer so many hardships, we thought that things would be better if an Indian barrister would come to Fiji.
White lawyers were writing one thing and telling us something else.
They had little sympathy for us, and they looked on us with disgust.
Therefore we had to make an effort to get an Indian barrister to come and live here.
We had been reading in the newspapers for years about the honourable Mr.
Gandhi, and knew something about his benevolent deeds.
Therefore we called a meeting.
The chairman of this meeting was Shriyut Rupram Ji.
It was decided unanimously that we should send a letter to Mr.
Gandhi, a brief account of our troubles, in which we should beseech Gandhi Ji to make an arrangement to send a barrister to Fiji.
The task of writing the letter was entrusted to me, and according to my own insignificant intellect I wrote the letter.
The gist of the letter was this: We in Fiji are having many problems with white barristers.
These white men are committing many types of outrages against us, and are eating hundreds of our pounds (£).
There is a very big need for an Indian barrister here.
You sir are a renowned patriot.
Therefore we hope that having pity on us you will make arrangements to send an Indian barrister here.
In this foreign country, there is no support for us except for you'.
Mr.
Gandhi, sympathizing with us, published in a newspaper a translation quoting part of my letter, and sent a letter to me.
fdere is the text of the letter: Shravan Vadi 8 1967 [1907 ?] 1 received your letter.
Hearing the sad story of Hindustani brothers there I am sorrowful.
There is no chance ofsending a barrister from here.
No one suitable to send is available.
You should send to me whatever news you wish.
I will send word of it into other countries.
I think always about the difficulties of the steamer.
For all those things there [i.
e.
in Fiji] there should be a nationally minded man, well-read in English.
If one comes to my mind I will send him.
I will wait for your next letter.
Yours Sincerely Mohandas Karamchandra Gandhi The Gandhi Ji who devoted his entire life for his brothers, who, having left the income of 4,000 pounds yearly, worked even as a coolie for the purpose of ending the sorrows of the Indians, and also went to jail many times for his countrymen, this very Mr.
Gandhi wrote the letter above.
In this letter also, a glimpse is seen of the great soul of Gandhi Ji and his whole devotion to his country.
That a great man like Gandhi Ji wrote this letter in Hindi is a thing greatly honoring Hindi.
From this letter Hindi nationalism is very clear.
Shri Manilal Ji, M.
A.
, L-L.
B.
, barrister-atdaw, read the article published in Indian Opinion by Gandhi Ji.
In those days he was working in Mauritius.
Mr.
Manilal was a renowned patriot of India, and he took part in [Indian National] Congress for many years.
It is useless to introduce Manilal Ji before the educated brothers of my country in this insignificant book.
He has done much in Mauritius.
He stopped the coolies from going there, and he gave much help to the Indians who had gone there.
Making changes in the law, he saved Hindus and Muslims from troublesome French laws.
Before in Mauritius, the hair and beards of our brothers in prison were cut off, and there was also much disorder about eating and drinking.
Mr.
Manilal completely stopped all of these things; this was his work.
Mr.
Manilal read the aforementioned article by Gandhi and exchanged letters with us.
In Fiji we collected 172 pounds for Manilal.
From this 45 pounds was sent for his steamer fare, and from the rest, law books were bought, and arrangements were made for a house and so forth for his living.
But after some days a letter in Hindi came from Manilal Ji, in which he wrote that 'My people are not giving me their permission to come to Fiji.
I am going to Natal.
I will get Gandhi Ji's opinion there, and then write to you.
If I am not able to come then I will return your money'.
When we received Manilal's letter, our hopes began to fade away.
Again a meeting was held.
By the order of everyone, I sent another letter to Gandhi Ji.
In the meantime Manilal Ji reached Natal.
Gandhi Ji said this to Manilal Ji: whatever you have promised, it is proper for you to do.
Manilal Ji agreed to come to Fiji.
The great Gandhi Ji with kindness sent us a letter.
This letter was written as follows: I have received your letter.
I had sent a telegram to Mr.
Manilal Doctor1.
You did not send his reply.
From all of this I understood that you people had not agreed to release him.
For the sake of everyone else Manilal decided to go to Fiji.
He has already left Cape [Camp ?] Bhai, Natal, last Friday, and I sent you a wire.
He will arrive there by way of Australia2.
1.
'Doctor' may have been Manilal's family name.
In a Fiji Times interview shortly after his arrival in Fiji, Manilal is quoted as saying that his father was a doctor, and that it was customary for sons to inherit their father's titles.
Manilal signed letters to Indian newspapers as 'Manilal Doctor' and was often mistakenly referred to as 'Dr.
Manilal'.
This matter is discussed in K.
L.
Gillion's Fiji's Indian Migrants.
2.
The text of this letter is confusing.
Gandhi's admonition to 'you people' seems to address the people of Mauritius who were resisting Manilal's departure for Fiji.
Perhaps this entire first paragraph is copied by Gandhi from a letter he sent to the people of Mauritius.
However, the rest of the letter is clearly addressing the Indians of Fiji.
60 It is my hope that all of you will now be agreed and will conduct yourselves towards Mr.
Manilal in a good manner.
People there should make arrangements for his living and eating immediately.
All the brothers will be excited that Mr.
Manilal Ji will surely be there permanently.
When more should be written then please write.
Sincerely, Mohandas Gandhi.
On the 27 of August, 1912, Manilal arrived in Suva, the capital of Fiji.
We made preparations for welcoming him to the best of our abilities.
On the day he was welcomed, there was so much happiness for the Fij indwelling Indians that it cannot be told.
Hundreds of Indians were gathered there.
That day hundreds of my brothers came fronaother”!aces by steamer.
Fiji's original inhabitants were happy that day.
On the face of many Indians drops of sweat glistened, from hard work and running around.
Oh ! That sight was so beautiful ! There wasn't even space on the street for a sesame seed, men pressed together filling it.
A couple of FijbBritish newspaper reporters were wandering from one place to another, excited.
They had no idea what was happening.
Manilal Ji disembarked and waited in a bungalow.
Later, in the evening, he was given a welcoming letter from the FijLdwelling Indians.
In this letter he was beseeched to improve the fallen condition of our brothers, and help us with kindness.
Manilal Ji gave a small speech and in it he said, 'To the best of my ability, I will surely try to help you'.
It was an exceedingly joyous thing that Manilal Ji was intent on following his promise completely.
Three days after this, the Fijian people also welcomed Manilal with great ceremony.
They invited Manilal Ji, and some six or seven hundred Fijians gathered.
Fijian men and women danced and sang to welcome him.
Fijians have a custom of honouring a person for whom there is 61 very much respect, by having the daughter of the highest chief of the locality place a garland, by hand, around his neck.
Manilal was made to wear a great abundance of these garlands.
We were amazed to see the zeal of the Fijians.
Many Fijians in their own language were saying: It is a very joyful thing for us today that we had an opportunity through our friend Pandit Totaram to welcome such a well-educated Indian.
Until today no Indian so well-educated had come here among those dwelling in Fiji.
Here there is a great need for educated people like you, and may God make you and your brothers live long.
You should think of us as your brothers.
Mr.
Sam Mustapha translated the Fijian into English and explained it to Mr.
Manilal.
Right after this Mr.
Manilal also made a beautiful speech.
Then after leaving there in the evening we had dinner at my home.
In the morning they went to meet Mahajan Algu near Durululu [Naduruloulou] station.
On their arrival, with great happiness he put up a fire [fireworks ?] with powdenballs.
Flearing the noise, the magistrate gave an order to stop, or else face a summons.
At 3 o'clock in the afternoon Manilal left for Suva, riding in Babu Ram Singh's launch.
62 The Fiji Islands History of Fiji I know very little about the ancient history of Fiji.
Even after doing some research on this subject nothing certain is known.
The reason for this is that before the coming of the missionaries, the Fijians did not know how to read and write.
It is the belief of historical researchers that these people came from New Guinea and dwelled here, but this belief is groundless.
On this subject, no trustworthy proof can be found up to now.
Yes, between Polynesian language and Fiji language there is found a small similarity, but up to now there is no proof concerning when and how Polynesian people came to Fiji.
In 1643, a Dutchman named Tasman discovered Fiji.
Just as I have already written, in 1876 this island came into the hands of the British government.
The island of Rotuma was included in 1879.
Population From the census of the second of April, 1911, it is known that the population of Fiji is 139,541.
Race Men Women Total Europeans and other whites 2403 1304 3707 HalTcaste and half white 1217 1841 2401 Indians 26073 14213 40286 Polynesians 2429 329 2758 Fiji's original inhabitants 46110 40986 89096 Chinese 276 29 305 Rotuman 1043 1133 2176 Mixed 457 355 812 Total 80008 59533 139,541 63 Climate Fiji's weather is very good.
In countries near the equator climate this good is not found anywhere else.
In Fiji malaria is absent ! Apart from this, there is no sign of many other types of fever and disease.
The wind which blows from the southeast cools down Fiji.
Cholera and plague never spread in Fiji.
There are many mosquitoes, but in Fiji malaria is not spread by them.
Lions, tigers, snakes, scorpions and so forth are not found in Fiji at all.
But there are many flies in Fiji, so many that because of them it is hard to breathe.
In Suva, capital of Fiji, about 107 inches of rain fall each year.
In Fiji there is no fear of drought because some rain falls every month.
But storms are large and forceful here, causing great destruction in the fields.
For banana plantations these storms are particularly destructive.
64 Fiji's Original Inhabitants Before, the people dwelling in Fiji had their own customs.
But since Fiji came under British authority, there has been much change.
Offspring were prevalent among these people before, but now they are destroyed by degrees.
Some 250 years ago the custom among these people was that when a Fijian had become very old, then Fijian youths would get together, go to him and say, 'Ko iko sega ni via biu na vurawura' or, 'Don't you want to leave this world V When he gave no reply, then they roasted him and ate him.
The wedding customs which were prevalent before among these people were also unique.
A Fijian of one village went, caused a girl of another village to run away with him, and came back to his home.
Then the people of the girl's village would assault that man.
On the boy's side also there were many men ready to fight.
Between the two sides there was a big fight.
If the man's side wins, then the wedding of the girl to the man is made, and if the girl's side wins then the girl returns to her own village and she is married to someone else.
Before, the Fijian women were buried alive together with their husband's corpse.
When someone's friend died then he would cut off the little finger of his own left hand and bury it with him.
But now these bad customs have become very rare, because the majority of Fijians have become Christians.
Their marriage custom also does not exist now.
Girls choose their own husbands.
Their mother and father do not interfere in this business of theirs.
Among Fijians there are no marriages with the girls under 16 and the man under 25 years old.
Even the custom of burying the finger is now stopped, but then secretly some men cut off and bury their finger ! I see so many men this way whose fingers have been cut off.
From the cutting off of their finger and burying it with their dead friend or brother, these people mate vata or, meet death together with them, compelled by love for the friend.
How well these Fijians show their love on the death of a friend ! Fijian people, whether or not they transact their everyday affairs in foreign clothes, always make use of handmade things when there is any festival at their own place.
We people, who on the occasion of a marriage spend so much on buying hundreds of rupees of foreign clothes, ought to accept this lesson from the Fijians.
When a child is born among Fijians, then Fijian women stay awake for three nights and at night specially light the house in the manner of Dipawali.
When Fiji was first discovered, these people were so ignorant that they were giving away 50 acres of land for one packet of matches.
But now they are very intelligent.
The majority have become Christians.
In each village there is a Christian school for them, where Fijian language is taught.
All are meaneaters.
Bow and arrow and spear, these are their weapons.
They are expert in fistTghting.
They even kill pigs with their hands.
The Girmit of Fijians The outrages done to our brothers and sisters have already been described.
But these outrages do not fall on Fijians.
First of all, Fijians do not work under binding contracts.
Then if they are doing work on girmit then they have servants write in many conditions for their benefit.
When any Fijian works on girmit then he would first have it written that he is to be given three meals a day, clothing after six months, and soap, cigarettes, kerosene, blankets, and so forth.
Until this thing is written and registered no Fijian will ever agree to work.
In Colony of Fiji a European wrote an essay with the following purport: 'Fiji's true inhabitants cannot do the work of a labourer well.
Their own nature is wholly unsuited to this activity.
In the cane fields, one 66 has to do the very same work every day.
(They get fed up from doing this.
) But the Indian coolies are utterly welhsuited for this very activity, and planters generally give the work to them'.
Very well ! Who will keep as servants Fiji's true residents ? First of all, to them as servants the expenses are very high, and then, the whites cannot commit outrages against them.
This is the coolie from India - you punch him with a fist, hit him, kick him, you don't give him wages, send him to prison, and no one hears about it at all ! An unprejudiced writer has to be like this: The Fijians are not suited to this activity.
Why ? Because their own nature is unsuitable for this activity ! Now you should compare a Fijian and an Indian labourer.
We people get five shillings and sixpence there, if we complete the work.
There were never more than five men per hundred who could complete the work.
But now we have to see how much an uncommonly hard-working Indian coolie, bearing all kinds of outrages, can earn.
At the rate of five shillings six pence every week, there is one pound two shillings a month, and thirteen pounds four shillings a year.
From this nine pounds is expended on dry food.
At the rate of one seer of sharps and a quarter seer of dal, this comes to 9 man [one man = 40 seers] sharps and 2'"' man dal.
In Fiji, sharps is 4 annas a seer, dal 6 annas a seer.
Spices, turmeric, chillies and so forth are 12 annas a pound [roughly half a seer].
In this way, as little as 9 pounds are expended in eating.
And it isn't a big thing to be fined one or two pounds in a year, or else to be in jail for ten to twenty days, a completely ordinary thing.
From this you take away one more pound.
Counting it all in this way it comes to eleven and a half pounds, and as little as one and a half pounds would be left for other expenses.
Still on this, clothing etc.
, oil, wood, festivals and so forth are all left.
More than one pound can never be saved.
But Fijians save all nine pounds because their food, drink, clothing, oil, and soap are all the planter's responsibility, and for the whole year nine pounds are left.
67 Fijians investigate, have contract conditions written for all types of comforts, and then register.
In our place, arkatis having misled them take them to the magistrate.
The magistrate asks, 'Are you agreed to go to Fiji V As soon as the word 'yes' leaves the lips, the registry is done.
What would be the registry ? From saying only 'yes', there was five years of black water1.
Fijian Language Before, there was no written language here.
But since the Christians have arrived, people there read and write their words in Roman letters.
Fijian people's names are also very strange, such as Maciu, Uyobi, Lepani, Savenaca, Ratu Eroni, Jo and so forth.
Listen to some words in the Fijian Language2.
Tenana - mother Tamana - father Tokana - old brother Tacina - younger brother Watina - wife Kalou - god [Correct Fijian noun forms: tina, tama, tuaka, taci, wati, kalou.
] 1.
Kala pant or black water can refer to a prison term on the Andaman Islands (in the Indian Ocean), from India, or to exile more generally.
According to some shastras, crossing black water is inherently polluting and causes loss of caste status.
2.
All the kin terms cited here are in the third person, i.
e.
'his/her mother', 'his/her father' etc.
When Fiji Indians speak Fijian they often use the third person forms for all purposes.
Whenever the form Sanadhya writes in Devanagari is accurate, it has been transliterated into standard Fijian orthography.
We have also tried to transliterate his mistakes.
6# An Account of the Life of the Indians Dwelling in Fiji There are more than forty thousand Indians in Fiji.
Among these are thirty-five percent women and fifty-five percent men.
When travelling around I asked Indian women about coming to Fiji.
Some women said, The arkati fooled my poor husband, and I had to come along with my husband'.
Many women said, 'My father-in-law, mother-in-law, husband and so forth died, and the close kin did not help at all.
For this reason I went on a pilgrimage tour, and from that the arkati fooled me and brought me'.
Some women also said, 'When I became a widow on the death of my husband, the people of the house began to argue and light with me, and to give me troubles.
Because of these troubles 1 left home.
On my way, unluckily I was caught up in the trap of the arkatis.
In the end I was forced to come here to bear unending troubles'.
From these words above, it is clear that from arguments and fights with close relatives, and from improper treatment together with widowhood, many women were forced to go to the islands and suffer many difficulties.
These women are completely simple and generally uneducated; for this reason they are swiftly caught in the arkati's traps.
From investigation it is known that among the five hundred women in Rewa and Navua, only three or four could read and write.
Even though men are also forced to suffer many difficulties in Fiji, women are forced to bear more sorrows than the men.
First of all they have to get up at half past three in the morning and cook some roti.
After that for ten hours they have to do hard labour in the fields, and then having gone back to the house, make more roti.
When women return from work, there is corpse-like shading to their faces.
One is so sad to see the dirtiness of their faces at that time, that it is indescribable.
These women who had never been out of their village in India, who didn't 69 know that there was a country outside of their district, who are soft and tender by nature, who never did hard work at home, these women today, having gone thousands of miles away, in Fiji, Jamaica, Cuba, Honduras, Guyana and so forth have to do hard labour for ten hours a day.
Many child widows were misled and sent to Fiji.
Listening to their sorrowful stories, the hardest heart could melt.
When they tell the story of their own sorrow, head down, tears flowing, it is impossible for the listener to stop the tears from his own eyes.
The suffering our sisters are forced to bear there because of the white overseers is indescribable.
Seeing the troubles of the Indian women, Fij ians would say in their own language, 'Sa ca vakalevu na vada (vanua ?) idia, sa qai lako mai na yalewa vulagi mai Viti sa tiko ca i ke sa butuka veisiga veisiga na ovasia sa ca na kai idia na marama sa lako mai Viti vulagi kevaka dua tamata sa na kitaka vata na yalewa keitou vaka matea sara ko koya'.
This means, 'India is a bad country, whose women come to a foreign country, Fiji, to do the work of labourers.
Coming here, they suffer many outrages.
If the outrages which are done to your women were done to our women, then we would destroy to the roots the ones responsible'.
Aren't the words of the Fijians literally true ? Isn't this a thing of shame for us that our sisters, mothers and daughters across seven seas should suffer these outrages ? Isn't there even a particle of selhpride and selT protection in us ? When we used to praise our country before Fijians, they used to say this right away.
'Your country is not worth anything.
Watch out.
Don't ever praise your worthless labourer's country before us again.
' When Fijians said this, we had to be silent, without an answer.
70 Fears About Caste in Returning to India1 Many men and women, after completing their girmit, and living in Fiji for five more years, want to return to their motherland.
But they don't return, because of this thought: 'When we arrive no one will have us join into their caste.
We will be forced to suffer many caste-insults there.
Therefore until death we are forced to bear these troubles'.
My countrymen drop from the caste their brothers who have made ocean journeys and then returned from the islands.
They give them so many troubles that with sadness they return to the islands.
Some of their wealth, which they earned penny by penny with great difficulty, going to the foreign country and suffering assaults, disgraces, and hunger, is taken by close relatives.
Then, selfish family priests (purohit) casually cause some of the wealth to be expended in ceremonies of atonement.
I give this example for my countrymen.
Near my house in the Fiji Islands lived a Kanyakubja Brahman by the name of Guljari.
From great efforts in eight years he collected about 300 rupees.
Knowing him as a Brahman, at every month's full moon they gave him sidha2.
In India he had lived in Kannauj.
From his home there his brother sent a letter, in which he wrote, 'You must come back.
If you don't come back this year, it will be as if you killed one hundred and one cows'.
When Guljari Lai saw his brother's letter, thinking of his duty (dharma) as a Brahman, he went to the homeland [i.
e.
India].
At the time he left, people gave him more donations (dakshiNa).
1.
The fate of caste in the indenture system is discussed further in the Introduction.
2.
Sidha is an offering of uncooked food, grains, sharps, potato, rice, sugar, and so forth, given only to Brahmans.
Thus, these offerings are proof that the Fiji Indians regarded him as such.
Sidha is still given to Brahmans in Fiji today.
71 When he came to his home, he was put to stay in someone else's house.
He entrusted his brother with all his money.
Some days later the family pandit (purohit) was called.
This respected man came bringing with him a book of law.
All of the older people of the village sat together.
An opinion was formed about the sea journey.
Guljari described his eating and drinking on the ship from his leaving home to his arrival in Fiji.
In judgement the whole journey was called a pilgrimage.
He was told to listen to the Bhagavad Gita1.
People of five or six villages were told about the feast.
The cost was decided at some seven or eight hundred rupees.
To pay for this, Guljari asked his brother for the money he had given him.
His brother gave a blunt answer: the people of the caste outcasted him.
The village people began to hate him.
His brother became his biting enemy.
He said, 'You have hidden some rupees from us.
Spend those.
We will not give you these rupees'.
Helpless Guljari sent a letter with his story of troubles to his friends in Fiji, and wrote, 'Save me as you save a cow from a butcher's hands, and be a sharer in virtue'.
They collected and sent from there seven hundred rupees.
Then Guljari reached Fiji in April 1914- This is how many people returned to Fiji, and in going, became Christians and Muslims.
Convicted of the crime of the ocean journey, many of our brothers said a last farewell for our mother country, and went away.
1.
This recital takes several days.
By declaring the journey a pilgrimage, the transgressions of eating and drinking rules and the impact of crossing black water are lessened, as great latitude in such things is allowed when one travels for religious purpose, and visits holy sites, an essentially purifying activity.
72 Having gone there [to Fiji] saying 'Jay' to Sanatan Dharm, they follow the rules of the Messiah1.
Readers ! Just think: Do you read the Ramayan ? Do you grasp the teachings of the love of India ? Do you know to love your brother ? I ask this modest question on the directors of the great Indian religious organizations: Have you thought of a plan for these foreign-dwelling brothers ? What instruction do you give them ? Should these people take part in cow sacrifices or in Christianity ? Or will you encourage them, and embrace them ? May I ask the speeclvgiving religious people of our country, what is the harm in mixing these people into the castes again ? Oppressed by outrages of the home, fooled by the wicked arkatis, sent to a foreign country, what are the defects in this of these helpless people 1 State of Education In Fiji there are missionary schools, but to send children to study in this kind of school is to make them Christian.
Therefore it is necessary for some man, who is literate in Hindi and also knows English, to go from India and open a school to make our brothers educated.
Some of our brothers there are able to read the newspaper.
This is a good thing.
Very many newspapers and newsletters are sent there from India, such as: Sarasvati, Cittramayjagat, Maryada, Bhaskar, Bharat Mitra, Abhyuday, Arya Mitra, Bharat'Sudashapravartak, Vibharat, Venkateshwar, and so forth.
The men who can read, read aloud these newspapers from motherland India for their uneducated brothers.
The Indians there read Bharat Mitra with great eagerness and in reality, Bharat Mitra has done a lot for the Fiji dwellers.
It is hoped that our other newspapers will follow Bharat Mitra, and do some writing for the aid of our foreign-dwelling brothers.
1.
'Saying 'Jay' to Sanatan Dharm' means saying the prayers, which can end with a communal shout ofJay or victory, of orthodox Hinduism.
The Messiah is Jesus Christ, the rules of the Messiah, Christianity.
73 State of Religion First of all, the pandits and moulvis who went to Fiji are not themselves at all educated.
Secondly, their aim is to swindle money from their innocent brothers, and then return to their home ! These sort of selfish people cannot help our brothers dwelling in Fiji at all.
One day we sent a letter of request to the governor of Fiji with this purport: It would be of great benefit if they could send a good religious instructor from India to Fiji.
The Immigration Department would pay his travel expenses, and we would arrange for food and so forth.
This proposal was accepted by the Governor and it came to India.
But the unfortunate thing is that no one agreed to go from here.
It is the duty of the great organizations for Indian religion to send a good religious instructor to Fiji, for the liberation from sorrow of the Fijindwelling Indians.
But how can those who understand seaqourney as a great sin go there for this purpose ? An Arya Samaji gentleman by the name of Ram Manoharanand Sarasvati went and he preached there, therefore these words of thanks.
There is a very great need for this sort of religious instructor there, who knows Vedic principles and knows English as well.
To teach about religion is a very difficult thing.
For this one has to suffer hundreds of difficulties, and in this activity, there is need for great courage, spiritual power, physical capability, patience and endurance.
We know that quite a burden is put on the Arya Samaj, and that the Arya Samaj is doing a lot of work, but aren't these givers of aid to the world, the Arya Samaj, able to send one more religious instructor to Fiji, for the benefit of our foreigmdwelling brothers 1 It is our complete hope that the Hindus of Fiji will help the teachers sent from here to the best of their ability.
We have also make arrangements to perform the drama of Ram Lila in a few places there every year.
Right now Ram Lila is celebrated every year in several places including Labasa, Navua, Lautoka and so forth.
From this the benefit is that in the hearts of our brothers, love is made for their own religious festivals.
74 The Christians have been doing their work in Fiji continuously for many years.
But even from this large effort, they have made very few Hindu Christians.
The reason for this is that we have continuously tried to keep our brothers from becoming Christian.
And if they become Christian, then we convert them [shuddh karna, literally, purify them].
In Fiji there are many Kabir Panthi, Ramanandi, Satnami, Gusain, and so forth, many types of sadhus.
They all go around making their disciples.
Very many sadhus have been fooled and sent to Fiji.
Having worked their five year girmit these people became free, and then began to ask for alms.
Their whole work is to travel around one or two times a year to their disciples.
For this reason we are saying that the arrival of a good religious instructor to Fiji would be a great benefit.
For several years the women have begun to remarry in Fiji.
It is true that first of all, the number of men in Fiji was double the number of women, and secondly, there are many young widows, who were fooled and sent to Fiji.
In such a situation, unchastity was natural.
In Fiji there are many crimes committed of the sort in which a man killed his wife because of misconduct and then hanged himself.
In this there is no blame for anyone.
The real blame is for the indenture system, the coolie system.
The Fiji Indian community, living in such an evil and corrupted condition, was not greatly spoiled.
This thing is truly amazing.
When the Fiji-dwellers saw that secretly there was a lot of adultery going on, they considered it best that the custom of remarriage should start.
Remarriage is or is not approved in shastra [traditional law]; I have no authority to speak on this subject.
But I surely cannot go on without saying this much, that remarriage has helped a great deal in stopping crime in Fiji.
State of Material Life The material state of the Indians dwelling in Fiji is bad.
Becoming free after five years, quite a few men do their own planting, but except for rice planting, there is no possibility for profit.
Because of the high cost of food, some people are dying of starvation.
If rice was not planted many more people would begin to starve.
Out of a hundred one or two men have their own business.
We have said before that for doing the whole task the labourer gets one shilling.
But the work completers are five out of a hundred, because there isn't any fixed limit for work, such that the work of a field twenty chains long and six feet wide is called a whole task.
If any person does this hard work in one day, then the next day's full task becomes twentyTve chains long and six feet wide.
The average person is not able to earn more than twelve shillings or nine rupees in a month.
In Fiji we buy at these rates: for one shilling, six pounds of wheat flour, four pounds of rice, or four pounds of cow peas.
The gist is that in comparison to India, the expenses there [in Fiji] are double.
Some people's idea is that going to these islands one could earn a lot of money, but this notion is erroneous.
I think that among those hundreds of men who returned to India from these islands, there are a couple who surely earn and bring money.
But now we have to say, Look ! Certain people went there as a coolie and brought from there so much wealth.
I don't think five men out of a hundred gained wealth there.
So what is the big deal ? The ninety-five return poor and starving.
And if the men who gained wealth there are asked, they generally say that if they had stayed in India and worked that hard, then they could have earned neither more nor less than in Fiji.
All right, the significance is that the mistaken conception, that by going to these islands men become immensely rich, should be taken from the hearts of people and especially the hearts of village people.
76 State of Health The state of health of ninety percent of those working under girmit is miserable.
If a girmit labourer gets sick, then he is sent to the planter's hospital.
But those who have released themselves from girmit work, and become free, have to suffer many troubles in this respect.
If a free person wants to go to the government hospital there, then he has to go to the Immigration Office.
Only when the office workers there have first taken a deposit of ten rupees do they write a letter for going to the hospital.
If there are no rupees, they will take jewels.
Those who do not have anything with them beforehand are not sent to the hospital, or else, if with mercy they are sent, then afterwards they have to pay it all.
The fee is eight annas a day.
It would be good if some doctors and physicians1 from India would go and open their own dispensary there ! The state of health of the free people is ordinary.
Organization Strength It is my pleasure to write here that among our Indian brothers dwelling in Fiji, for three or four years a germ of organizatiomstrength has been produced.
If one wanted to collect a donation then with hard word it could be done.
In Suva alone we collected and sent eighteen pounds for our brothers dwelling in South Africa.
From all of Fiji, forty pounds or 600 rupees were collected and sent.
We also formed an organization called the British Indian Organization, which is continuing to do its work to the present.
Its president is Mr.
Manilal, barrister.
Its secretary is Babu Ram Singh.
Mr.
Ram Manoharanand Sarasvati with great labour collected one hundred and forty pounds and erected the Sarasvati School in Taibau village.
Mr.
Ram Manoharanand Sarasvati went to 1.
Physicians or vaidya are practitioners of the Indian Ayurvedic medical science.
77 Fiji at his own expense.
When this great man was in Brahmadesh, someone from Fiji sent him a letter.
In this way for a year there was an exchange of correspondence.
After that, one month after arriving in Fiji on 6 January 1913, he began his roaming.
It is a delightful thing that Swami Ji has resolved to make educated the descendents of the uneducated Fiji-dwelling Indians.
Making a speech at Samakala Sthan, Swami said that The rest of my life is for the deliverance of the descendents of the Fijindwelling Indian brothers'.
May God fulfil his promise.
It is a pleasure that the Muslims of Fiji are mixed with the Hindus.
They never sacrifice cows on Bakra 'Hid.
In the work of collecting donations and so forth they come forward and take part.
This much mixing among uneducated people like us is no ordinary thing.
7$ The Opinion of Some Unbiased People on the Subject of the Fiji-Dwelling Indians In Suva, capital of Fiji, there is a missionary named Miss H.
Dudley.
She is an Australian Methodist, and she has a great deal of sympathy for the Indians of Fiji.
She sent a letter to the newspaper India showing the grief of the condition of the Indians.
That letter was quoted in Modern Review.
For the readers, I am taking the letter from Modern Review and writing it here.
The Writer is Miss Dudley, Suva, Fiji.
Sir, Living in a country where the system called, 'indentured labour is in vogue, one is continually oppressed in spirit by the fraud, injustice, and inhumanity of which fellow creatures are the victims.
Fifteen years ago I came to Fiji to do mission work among the Indian people here.
I had previously lived in India for five years.
Knowing the natural timidity of Indian village people and knowing also that they had no knowledge of any country beyond their own immediate district, it was a matter of great wonder to me as to how these people could have been induced to come thousands of miles from their own country to Fiji.
The women were pleased to see me as I had lived in India and could talk with them of their own country.
They would tell me of their troubles and how they had been entrapped by the recruiter or his agents.
I will cite a few cases.
One woman told me she had quarreled with her husband and in anger ran away from her motherdmlaw's house to go to her mother's.
A man on the road questioned her, and said he would show her the way.
He took her to a depot for indentured labour.
Another women said her husband went to work at another place.
He sent word to his wife to follow him.
79 On her way a mart said he knew her husband and that he would take her to him.
This woman was taken to a depot.
She said that one-day she saw her husband passing and cried out to him but was silenced.
An Indian girl was asked by a neighbour to go and see the Muharram festival.
Whilst there she was prevailed upon to go to a depot.
Another woman told me that she was going to a bathing ghat and was misled by a woman to a depot.
When in the depot these women were told that they couldn't go till they pay for food they have had and for other expenses, they were unable to do so.
They arrive in this country timid, fearful women not knowing where they are to be sent.
They are allotted to plantations like so many dumb animals.
If they do not perform satisfactorily the work given to them, they are punished by being struck or fined, or they are even sent to gaol.
The life on the plantations alters their demeanour and even their very faces.
Some look crushed and broken¬ hearted, others sullen, others hard and evil.
I shall never forget the first time I saw 'indentured' women.
They were returning from their day's work.
The look on those women's faces haunts me.
It is probably known to you that only about 33 women are brought out to Fiji to every one hundred men.
I cannot go into details concerning this system of legalized prostitution.
To give you some idea of the result, it will be sufficient to say that every few months some Indian man murders for unfaithfulness of the woman whom he regards as his wife.
It makes one burn with indignation to think of the helpless little children born under the revolting condition of the 'indentured labour' system.
I adopted two little girls - daughters of two unfortunate women who had been murdered.
One was a sweet, graceful child so good and true.
It is always a marvel to me how such a fair jewel could have come out ofsuch loathsome environments.
I took her with me to India some years ago, and there she died of tuberculosis.
Her fair form was laid to rest on a hillside facing snow-capped Kinchin-chinga.
The other child is still with me - now grown up to be a loyal, true and pure girl.
But what of the children - what of the girls - who are left to be brought up in such pollution ? After five years of slavery, after five years of legalized immorality - the people are 'free'.
And what kind of a community emerges after five years of such a life ? Could it be a moral and self-respecting one ? Yet some argue in favour of this worse than barbarous system, that the free Indians are better offfinancially than they would be in their own country ! I would ask you at what cost to the Indian people ? What have their women forfeited .
? What is the heritage of their children 1 And for what is all this suffering and wrong against humanity ? To gain profits - pounds, shillings and pence for sugar companies and planters and others interested.
I beseech of you not to be satisfied with any reforms to the system of indentured labour.
I beg of you not to cease to use your influence against this iniquitous system till it be utterly abolished.
H.
Dudley, Suva, Fiji, November 4.
[In English in original text].
Commenting on this, the editor of India wrote this on the subject of Miss Dudley: Miss Dudley, the writer of this pathetic letter, is the pioneer Indian missionary in Fiji.
She is an Australian Methodist and has done admirable and devoted service in undertaking the care of Indian orphan-girls whose mothers have been murdered and their father hanged as the result of sexual jealousy produced by the scarcity of women, which is one of the many blots upon the system of indentured labour.
There is no need to make comments on this letter from Miss Dudley.
I don't understand why our government does not stop the going of these labourers to Fiji.
In Fiji J.
W.
Burton is a famous Christian.
He is a great unbiased writer.
He came sometimes to my house in Fiji.
I don't know how the faith was born in him that I was going to become a Christian ! One time he even told me to become a Christian, I remember this well.
I answered, 'Padre sahab, on what fallacy are you trapped ? I'm not one to become a Christian.
With your argument you should make a Christian of this boy who works in my house'.
The Padre began to discuss this with the boy.
The boy asked such skillful things that the Padre was astonished.
The Padre has written a book mentioning this boy, saying that there is so much intelligent reasoning among even the young Indian children, that it is very difficult to preach the Christian religion among them.
Let it be so.
This Burton sahab wrote a book called The Fiji ofToday.
In this book he examined the real conditions in Fiji.
Even if we don't agree with all of Burton's opinions, we cannot go on without praising his spiritual strength.
To write the truth and also for this the unpleasant truth, great spiritual strength is necessary, and reading The Fiji of Today we can know that Burton is very courageous.
Against those planters, from fear of whom our government shrinks from ending the indenture system, Burton has written the true story.
For example, I will quote a few things from the aforementioned book.
Burton writes about the inhuman outrages of the white man: The young and brutal overseers on sugar estates (of Australian and New Zealand origin) take all sorts of liberties with good looking Indian women and torture them and their husbands in cases ofrefusal.
Sometimes compounders of medicine will call an Indian woman into a closed room pretending to examine her, though she may protest there is nothing the matter with her and then torture her most indecently for the gratification of their lust and even for getting her to swear a charge against some Indian who may have incurred their displeasure.
Women are known to have been fastened in a row to trees and then flogged in the presence of their little children.
These outrages are done to helpless women, and the wealthy and educated men of our country are still found saying this: 'Oh ! The Indian population has grown a lot.
Therefore it is necessary that many men and women go to different countries and islands and reside there, where there is need for labour and where they can live happily'.
Our humble request to these educated people (if we can call them educated) is, just open your eyes and think about the aforementioned outrages.
Like Miss Dudley, Burton sahab also wrote about the shortage of women.
Burton sahab's story is that the shortage of women here is the biggest evil of all in the condition of the Indians.
The cause of all this is the coolie system.
For every hundred men thirty^three women are brought here.
The result of this is that crimes of violence, abduction, adultery and so forth are commonly seen in the courts.
In every sitting of the court, two or three criminals would be brought who had killed their wives because they had accompanied other men.
If opinion is made based on the laws of the community, the root of the evil is the indenture system.
About a dozen Indians are hung in this way every year.
On the subject of magistrates Burton sahab has written very well.
Here I am giving a short summary of his detailed account.
There are very few magistrates in Fiji who have studied law.
They are white and they know how to read and write a little.
That is enough to be a magistrate, and commonly in many places the magistrates do the doctor's work too.
In a place called Tavinni [Taveuni ?], a single man is magistrate, District Medical Officer, local doctor, police inspector, jail superintendent, wharf master, road supervisor, and captain of his own small ship.
Do you see, readers, how alhpowerful the government of Fiji has made its officers ? To keep hoping that such alhpowerful people will keep to their duty is useless.
According to Burton sahab, the arrangements for police in Fiji are not good, and more policemen are needed.
First, Fiji has a very small population, and next, the police station and the courthouse are stationed about twenty miles apart.
The Inspector of Indian coolies only pays two visits a year to their miserable barracks where men and women are penned together like cattle and even these inspectors are for the most part not very keen about the grievances of Indians, as some of them are ex-employees of the CSR Co.
(Colonial Sugar Refining Company) which is the real king of the colony.
What kind of life do the Indians lead on the estates ? Burton sahab writes about this: The difference is small between the state he now finds himself in, and absolute slavery .
.
.
The coolies themselves for the most part frankly call it 'Narak' (hell)! Not only are the wages low, the tasks hard, and the food scant, but it is an entirely different life from that to which they have been accustomed, and they chafe, especially at first, to the bondage .
.
.
No effort is made either by the Government or by the Employers to provide the coolie with any elevating influences .
.
.
A company of course has no soul.
So long as its labour is maintained in sufficient health to do its tasks, no more is required.
The same may be said of its mules and bullocks.
The children are allowed to run wild.
No educational privileges are given.
As soon as they reach the age of twelve they too must go to the fields.
[Fiji of Today, pp.
271 A].
This account of Burton sahab is true word for word.
The Fiji government does nothing for our progress.
Why should we complain to the Fiji government ? Our government lets us be snared in the traps of arkatis, and for the happiness of just a few planters, pays no attention to the sentiments and opinions of we 300 million Indians ! Burton sahab at one place writes about field labour: The system of 'tasks' prevails on the estates.
So many chains of sugar-cane weeding or planting counted, for example, a 'task'.
For the satisfactory performance of this amount of work the coolie receives one shilling.
Fie is expected to accomplish it in one day, and the basis is that of an average man's ability.
The women are placed on the same footing; but their tasks are lighter and the payment proportionately less.
If a man fails to perform the task set him within one day, he is liable to be summoned to the court and may be fined or imprisoned for his slothfulness .
.
.
When the coolie judges that the task is too hard he has the right of appeal to the coolie inspector (a Government official); but as that gentleman is not seen oftener than once or twice a year, it is a somewhat limited privilege.
Of course there is the magistrate to whom complaint can be made; but the court-house may be twenty or thirty miles away, and that is practically an impossible distance.
It is not surprising, therefore, that under such conditions it frequently happens that the coolie takes the law into his own hands, and tries the edge of his cane-knife upon the skull of the English overseer.
[Fiji of Today, pp.
269-70].
Burton sahab writes very accurately, because wben you surround an animal, and there is no way of escape for him, then be will think 'hit, kill', and after all a man is a man.
The coolie inspector comes a few times a year, but even then he does not hear our complaints.
How can one go to the magistrate's court ? The company does not give leaves, and remember that to run away and complain without taking a leave is to send yourself to jail.
Again, how can we make a complaint ? What kind of complaint can be made about those at whose place one certainly has to work for live years ? Today we complain, tomorrow they will kick us with shoes, and give us more difficult work, write a shilling in the register and give us six pence.
This is the consequence of our complaints.
According to Burton sahab, in 1907 out of 11,689 coolies, there were charges against 1,461 that they did their work lazily.
They were lined or sent to jail.
Burton sahab comes forward and writes: Probably an even greater proportion of dissatisfaction did not make its appearance before the bench.
[Fiji of Today, pp.
270].
The meaning here is that they were beaten up and forced to do work.
Burton sahab writes: One of the saddest and most depressing sights a man can behold, if he have any soul at all, is a 'coolie line' in Fiji.
[Fiji of Today, pp.
274].
Burton sahab calls the Indian coolies 'Human agricultural instruments', and this is also right.
The planters think this about the coolies and do business.
Burton has written that among those working in the fields are many who have some education, who are of high caste and who are decent.
They were fooled by the arkatis from India, who said that 'In a few days after arriving in Fiji you will become rich'.
From these slick words they came to believe, and then when they arrived in Fiji they had to do the hardest manual labour, had to eat the kicks of the overseers, and so forth.
Yes, sometimes the wicked arkati tricked educated people even.
In Ara district, an arkati fooled a boy who had studied up to entrance exam.
When he arrived in Fiji, he too was told to work in the fields.
Somehow, he worked in the field for some days.
After a while he sent a letter to me.
In it was written, 'I will hang myself and kill myself, or else you must make a plan to save me.
I cannot do this hard work'.
According to my insignificant intellect, I sent a letter saying, 'Send a letter to your father, and have him make a case before the Immigration Office.
If your father will give your fare to the Immigration Office then perhaps by the grace of God you will be released'.
He did this.
After a great effort he was released from servitude.
When he arrived in India I took him with me.
Burton sahab has written much more about the troubles of the Indians.
Sometime later I will describe it all, because my intention is to translate and publish The Fiji of Today.
But it will be good to give here a few among these things.
1.
In Fiji, all the animals are numbered by hot iron for recognition.
It is necessary to say that this outrage is committed on cows also.
Indeed this thing saddens us Flindus.
2.
In Navua, some free Indians were selling by the storehouse on the riverbank, carting their goods on large boats.
They had been doing business this way for fifteen or twenty years.
Then in 1913 a white man opened a store in Navua.
But his goods sold less well than those of the boat people.
He talked to the manager and caused all the boats to be moved.
These poor people helplessly moved the boats and lost their business ! 3.
In Mauritius, to where the going of coolies has been stopped, there is a right to vote to elect the members of the Legislative Council for Indians, but in Fiji this right does not exist.
There are elections in Fiji in which the Indians have the right to vote to choose members of Municipal Council.
But now the white people in Fiji are thinking of snatching away even this insignificant right.
They want to submit a bill for an English test as a qualification for voting.
If the government of Fiji accepts this, it would be in fact a very great injustice.
There isn't even a single school in which this test of learning in English could be given.
Will the Indians come out from the womb reading English ? 4.
The Indians who grow sugar cane have to sell it at the value which the company sets, because there are no other buyers.
If Indians want $7 to send bananas to Australia or New Zealand then a white broker has to do it for them.
This broker keeps the majority of the profit for himself.
5.
There is no Indian in Fiji so rich that he could import things directly from Calcutta and Bombay in his own name.
Therefore European companies import the things.
These companies take whatever profit they wish from the small Indian drapers and store owners.
On these subjects it is not necessary to make commentaries.
Going ahead, Burton sahab writes about the coolie system: The system is a barbarous one, and the best supervision cannot eliminate cruelty and injustice.
Such a method of engaging labour may be necessary in order to carry out the enterprises of capital, but there is something dehumanising and degrading about the whole system; it is bad for the coolie; it is not good for the Englishman.
The free Indians, who are suffering the above-mentioned troubles, are contributing so much to Fiji, it is unnecessary to discuss it.
The Indians hoe and plant twenty thousand acres of land: 5,580 acres of sugar cane, 2,000 acres of banana, 1,158 acres of maize, 9,347 acres of rice, etc.
Government Organization Fiji is a colony of the British government.
The Governor is appointed by the British government, and then goes there.
To help the Governor there are Legislative and Executive Councils.
The Governor is chairman of these Councils.
On the Legislative Council are ten government officers chosen by the Governor.
Two members are sent from the organization of the government of the Fijians [i.
e.
the Great Council of Chiefs], and six members are selected from among the general population.
With the help of the ChiefJustice, the Attorney General, the Native Commissioner, and the Agent General and the Receiver General of the Immigration Department, the Governor does the work of the Executive Council.
The tax assessed on things coming in from the outside is a principal source of income there.
In 1911 the entire income was 240,304 pounds 14 shillings.
Out of this 146,628 pounds, 6 shillings, 3 pence was the income from the tax levied on imports.
Men who do business have to get licenses.
Taxes are assessed also on all sorts of occupations.
In 1911, the Building Tax Ordinance was passed and a tax began to be assessed on all houses.
Each adult Fijian must pay a tax from 10 shillings to one pound a year.
Authority over land in Fiji belongs to the Fijian people of that place.
This land is given on lease.
The government collects the rent money and distributes it to the Fijian landowners.
Agriculture and Trade In Fiji there are three main crops - sugar cane, banana and coconut.
The land of Fiji is especially welbsuited for sugar cane.
On land on the riverbanks and ocean shore, with great efforts sugar cane grows.
Six districts are best known for sugar cane plantations: Rewa 10,000 acres sugar cane grows.
Ba 14,000 Lautoka 15,000 Navua 6,000 Rakiraki 1,200 Labasa 10,500 The CSR Company, only, prepares sixty thousand tons of sugar each year.
In Fiji bananas also are abundant.
One sort of banana has been in Fiji for hundreds of years, and in 1848, another type of banana plant was brought from China.
The Chinese plant is very short in height, and hurricanes and storms cannot do any damage to it.
From 1909 to 1911, 41,172 boxes of bananas were sent to Australia and 117,479 boxes to New Zealand.
In addition to these, cotton, coffee, maize, tobacco, castor oil seed, rice and so forth grow in Fiji.
To make rope, pandanus also is grown in Fiji.
90 The Immigration Department Generally, three kinds of people do work under contract in Fiji: (1) Indians, (2) Indigenous Fijians, and (3) Polynesians.
To keep Fijians in this costs more, and they do not do manual labour.
Polynesians, fed up from outrages, have now stopped doing work under contract.
Therefore the poor Indians, suffering hundreds of difficulties and eating blows, have to do the work of coolies.
There are government immigration agents in Calcutta and Madras.
They keep arkatis as their servants.
These arkatis trick our decent brothers.
Some wander in Mathura, with animal faces, some are acting as priests in Haridwar [a pilgrimage place], some are saying in Riyasat that 'We cause coolies to get employment at twenty^ two rupees a month.
This work is not for our own sake, it is government work'.
Some, becoming bankers in Kanpur, keeping watches in their pocket, taking canes in their hands, are saying, We will give you a job.
In Calcutta a pilgrim's house (dharmshala) named Jamaica is being built.
We will give nine annas daily'.
Some became doctors, and some wander in the disguise of a soldier to fool villagers.
The significance is that these cunning arkatis, like the demon-cannibals (rakshasas) of ancient days, assuming all sorts of disguises, fool our brothers.
The editor of a newspaper wrote in his editorial column that: In no country in the world would this state ofmatters be tolerated for a moment and we think the position serious.
Going farther, the editor writes: There is now a number of recruiting agents who have done all that man can do to treat the labourers as a preserve for them to plunder.
Contractors are everywhere plundering and seizing the labourer and selling him for something like Rs.
210 or more per head, of which the poor labourer receives not even a pinch of salt.
Thus the very essence of scoundrelism, an 91 absolute trafficking in human flesh, of which the responsible Government takes no notice, is tolerated everywhere, while schemes permitting of the labourer, proceeding to the labour districts in a state, where all the comfort which he desires, are sternly suppressed.
The above account is absolutely the truth, but who listens ? The labourers should not be sent to Riyasat.
Why ? Because by doing this it is possible that the Indians will make a profit ! Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba, Natal, Honduras, and Fiji, which are the pilgrim houses of our arkati bankers (because the arkatis have made these islands their pilgrim houses), need to have labourers sent to them ! I leave this subject now, and in the next concluding paragraph heading I will write about this in extensive form.
92 The Appointment of a Commission In 1913 a commission was appointed by India.
The government appointed two men to this commission.
One was Mr.
McNeill Sahib and the other was from Khurja, Seth Natthimal's nephew, Mr.
Chimmam Lai.
When we heard that a commission was coming we were very pleased.
They arrived in Fiji in September.
Although we don't know enough to review the work of this commission right now, on this subject we should make a petition.
When the white people at the plantations learned that a commission was coming, for many days before they began to threaten out brothers.
They said to Indians, 'Look a commission is coming for you.
If you say one single word against me, then understand that you will be in trouble.
The commission will be leaving from here in a few days, and you will have to work here for five years.
Watch out ! If you send a single word from your mouth, then we'll break your mouth with our fists'.
What people who were frightened in this way said before the commission, you can imagine.
When the commission members arrived in Lautoka, Mr.
McNeill was touring, but Mr.
Chimman Lai stayed in Lautoka Hotel because of bad health.
What happened once, but that a white overseer gave so many blows to a poor Indian man that he became half-dead.
Blood began to flow from his mouth because of the blows and two of his teeth were broken.
While in that condition, bringing the two teeth in his hand he went to Mr.
Chimman Lai and told the whole story.
Mr.
Chimman Lai gave him a letter and told him to go to the dispensary.
He was going to the dispensary when, on the way, the overseer met him and threatened him severely, saying, 'Wait ! After four days Chimman Lai will go.
Is Chimman Lai your father ? I am your father for four years.
When the commission goes we will take out all your heat'.
On this threat he came back and remained quiet.
93 On whatever plantation the commission went to, our brothers were questioned in front of the planters.
When face to face with the oppressor it is a difficult thing to give evidence against him.
The thing is made even harder when one has to do five years more work under this oppressor.
The members of the commission went to Nokomodo, which is one mile from Wainiwakasi plantation.
On that plantation is the Chamar woman named Kunti.
It is disappointing that the commission members did not take the trouble to interview Kunti.
We petitioned by letter for the help of Chimman Lai Ji.
In this letter we wrote about our troubled condition, and beseeched for reforms.
This was the gist of the letter: Whoever is to he made an overseer should be married.
It is important that these people be somewhat familiar with Indian people's customs and the Hindi language, so that they might be able to understand our sufferings etc.
Generally the coolie inspector goes to the house of the overseer or a big sahib and drinks brandy.
It is his duty to go into the fields and investigate our hardships, and try to get them prohibited.
Men who have already worked as overseers should not be appointed as coolie inspectors, because there is no pity or even a bit of propriety in the hearts of the men who have worked as overseers.
The coolie inspector should also be married.
It should be exceedingly important for these men that they are able to speak the Hindi language and to understand it.
Every month they should go to each plantation and write a report and bring it.
The wealth of those who came from India and died here is deposited in the government bank.
We ask, in what work has the government spent it ? Isn't it the duty of government to make one or two schools out of this wealth, so that is would be convenient to educate our children ! Burton Sahib has written on page 243 of his book The Fiji of Today: 'The Company does not want Indians to be educated'.
Does the company want us 94 to remain uneducated and servants of the planters always ? When our Indian brothers who work for the Company in their youth become old, there is no one taking care of them.
These poor people die of hunger in Fiji.
It is the duty of coolie agents to send these crippled helpless people to India.
The expense of this should be given to the government from among the rupees deposited in the government's account of deceased Indian's wealth.
The wages received by Indians here are very low.
Then out ofthis the government applies a big tax on food items.
For example, on dal the fee is three pounds per ton duty.
Therefore, from such small wages, nothing can be done.
Listen to the prices ofsome items over here.
Sharps, 6 pounds for one shilling.
Four pounds of rice for one shilling, and four pounds of dal for one shilling.
The white men who commit rapes on the oppressed women of our country should receive very strong punishment.
The sardar should be someone who the coolie agents wants and himself sends to the plantation.
The sardar should work directly under the coolie agent, not under the overseer.
The overseer offering bribes wants beautiful women from the girmitiya sardar, and when he doesn't bring them, the sardar is fired.
Sardars should have all their duties explained to them.
Coolie agents should keep a close watch on the sardars.
Burton Sahib has written on p.
210 of The Fiji of Today that an overseer told a sardar to go and bring a beautiful woman.
This sardar was intelligent and wed-educated, and he refused to do this.
Because of this the overseer beat the sardar severely, and even brought charges against him.
The helpless sardar was sent to jail for six months.
The padres sent a petition about this to the judge.
Then the sardar was released from prison.
The wicked overseer was sent out of the plantation.
On plantations where there are more than fifteen small children, a nurse is kept, to look after the children when the women have gone to work.
For the work of nurse, trust-worthy women should be found, with Indian opinion consulted.
Many deceitful nurses work as procurers.
There are many problems for us with respect to land also.
We have to give money to the Fijians.
After great difficulties they make agreements.
When the government wills it, we get land, and otherwise, all effort and wealth is useless.
Day after day harsh laws are made for us.
White people can get as much land as they want.
They can buy it for as little as two or three shillings an acre.
The lawmakers are white men who own thousands of acres of land and who don't like to give land to us Indians.
When our brothers cut away the bush and make the land ready, then the land is snatched away.
Those who have the government land for four to five years get a notice from the government, saying that whenever the government requires the land, the government will give six months notice and then remove them.
To our misfortune, Mr.
Chimman Lai fell ill, and the commission was not able to go to the estates which were located in the bush, and where the white people gave our brothers many more hardships.
Mr.
Chimman Lai went together with the Governor to see a festival at a Fijian school in the Davuilevu district of Rewa.
There, while shaking hands, a Fijian landlord said to Chimman Lai, in his own language, 'Don't you know that women of your country come to this country to work in girmit, and that upon them all sorts of outrages are committed ? Don't tears of blood come from your eyes when you see these women V It is said that Mr.
Chimman Lai did not know the Fijian language.
I was standing behind him, and wished that some translator could have explained these words to Mr.
Chimman Lai, to see what answer he would give to this ! Unfortunately, this didn't happen.
If it was to happen, then for a sympathizing Indian, there was only one answer to that.
This was to bow one's head and cry in shame.
96 My Own Ram-Story1 I have already written about the events of my arrival in Fiji.
I was sent to the plantation called Nausori.
There the overseer gave me a room eight feet long and eight feet wide, in which myself, a Muslim and a Chamar were told to live ! I said to the overseer that I thought that it wasn't proper for me to stay with them.
The overseer shouted insultingly, 'Go, I don't know.
You have to stay there'.
Afterwards I said to my companions, 'Do me a favour and please go to some other room'.
Somehow, they agreed to go to another room that night.
In the morning, we got an iron pot for three people; they call these 'iron-cast'.
To praise this pot is beyond my abilities.
Think about it.
That black pot showed the blackness of the coolie system.
In about two hours I cleaned it and then cooked rice in it.
As soon as I put the rice on the lire, the Muslim and the Chamar came bringing the overseer.
They complained that the pot had not been given to them.
The overseer ordered me to give the pot to those people first, and then to cook my own food.
I had to give them the pot.
Then I went to the home of a free Indian, borrowed a pot from him and made use of it.
In the first six months, I was eating in four days the goods which I got for the week.
For the rest of the days I made use of things borrowed from the free Indians, and greeted my own hunger goddess and prayed to keep patient.
But seeing the Company's rice and dal my hunger goddess would make my mouth water.
1.
Here, as at the beginning of the book, Sanadhya is comparing his own story with that of Ram, the central figure of the epic Ramayan.
The main point of comparison is exile, and the comparison evokes the image of perseverance through hardship.
See also Rama's Banishment, edited by Vijay Mishra, a collection of essays about Indians in Fiji published a century after girmit in Fiji began.
97 I used to wash with vigor the pot of the color of the god Bhairo1, which shows the blackness of the coolie system.
Its blackness would never go away.
In the meantime, my merciful hunger goddess, shouting at me every moment, gave me less suffering than the overseer did, and finishing off in four days the whole provision, would on the fifth day bless the Colonial Sugar Refining Co.
and the people who passed the Provisions Act.
Sometimes the hunger goddess would lose the battle with me, those weeks dragging along I would use those supplies in five days.
One day I said to the manager that I should be given more supplies.
The manager asked 'Well, are you a man or a horse V I answered 'I used to be a man but this hoe has made me into a horse.
This hoe has awakened my hunger goddess'.
The manager laughed and said 'Okay, take this letter.
I took the letter to the store of the sahab who gave out food supplies.
I got two pounds, or one seer, of raw rice.
I came back to the manager.
He said, 'Cook it in front of me'.
I prepared the rice.
In front of him, I ate three shares.
The manager was surprised.
From the next week on, I began to get one more seer than granted by the provisions law.
Four weeks later another man said to the manager that 'I also should get more provisions, I also am not getting enough to eat.
Totaram has begun to get more'.
The manager said, 'Supplies will be given according to the rules'.
From that day I stopped receiving extra supplies.
From then on the hunger goddess began to make me suffer.
At first I was given a full task, but it was so much that I could never do it.
The overseer used to harass me a lot.
Whenever he came to see my work, a couple of blows were deposited on my face ! One time I planned that even if I had to go to prison, I would not leave without beating this overseer.
1.
Bhairo is the god whose black flag joins as a tenth with the nine flags of the nine forms of the goddess.
His name comes from bhai or brother, and as the brother of the goddess Durga he is often worshipped as part of prayers to her.
One day this overseer, wearing coat, trousers and hat, came strolling, and just when he arrived, landed a fist on my head.
In applying blows the whites are very skillful.
My head was sore from that blow.
I was being silent, and the overseer, why should he stop, hit me again, a double blow.
This time I became angry.
I put aside my hoe, and on my own I put my head between the overseers thighs, and threw him back so that he fell right down with a thump on his back.
As soon as he fell I landed both my feet on his chest, and began to hit him again.
I gave so many blows that two of the overseer sahab's teeth split, blood began to flow from his mouth, and his skin was torn.
Reader ! It should not be thought that I did this thing with bravery.
I had a fear that if he got up then I would be killed, and the killing for him would be no big thing, because afterwards he would be judged not guilty and released.
Thus, because of this fear a fourfold zeal came to me.
The sahab received so many blows that he became punchdrunk and from underneath said (in English) 'That will do', meaning 'Enough, brother'.
In those days I knew no English.
I did not understand that he still had some strength left ! So again I began to hit him with my right hand.
Then the overseer waved his hand and said 'Boy no'.
I knew the meaning of 'no' and I released him.
Afterwards I said 'Understand that if you charge me, I will kill you'.
The overseer spoke broken Hindi and could understand a little also.
He said to me, 'Don't tell anyone about this thing'.
I understood his intention.
The thing was that if news spread to the people of the plantation that a white man was beaten by a coolie, then the white man would be sent away, and it would be said that if a man who is assigned to supervise one hundred coolie's work is beaten by one, then he is not suited to the work ! I shook my head that I would not talk about it.
Then the overseer sahab said 'From today you and I have become friends'.
Although I did not understand his language, I understood his intent from his gestures and the way he spoke.
And I understood very well those few corrupted Hindi words 99 that he spoke.
Then, giving me a few of his own pennies, he asked me to get coconuts, and he gave me a coconut to break open and drink, and kept one for himself.
While drinking the overseer said 'Good luck'.
I didn't understand, but seeing his face I laughed, and I said that today, the sahab must have known what 'good luck' is.
100 The Medical Examination on the Plantation One time a doctor came to give examinations.
I thought that if he wrote 'full task' for me, then I would die of work.
Some hundred labourers stood surrounding the doctor.
The doctor began to examine them with a stethoscope.
When I saw that it was a while before my name would be called, I moved a step outwards, and then ran from there.
The doctor didn't see me running off, because there was a large crowd.
When my name was called off, I was present.
Because of my running, my heart was beating fast.
When the stethoscope was put against me the doctor said, 'Do you have any illnesses V I said, 'I have asthma'.
The doctor said, 'The Calcutta doctor didn't write that you have asthma'.
I said, 'In those days my sickness was controlled and 1 was fairly healthy.
Now the asthma has come up again'.
The doctor fell for what I said, and wrote 'half task'.
I had to lie this way.
If I had not been clever then 'full task' would have been written by my name, and I would have died working, I would have been lying in prison dying of hunger, or I would have been eating the blows of the overseers, lords of the world of death.
Now, although the lord of hell (Yama) will punish me for telling this lie, I will bear it happily ! I did the half tasks and earned six pence a day.
Only I know the hardships which I had to suffer for live years.
When I became free after live years I had fifteen shillings of debt.
Listen, readers ! Having been hungry, and having worked hard for five years, what did I earn ? Not only myself, my hundreds of brothers who are freed from girmit don't have money at all.
Yes, there are a couple of free men who may have saved five or ten rupees a year while working in girmit.
On becoming free, I borrowed a few pounds, got a small piece of land on lease, and planted sugar cane.
When there was some profit from my field, I thought I should write a letter home.
I did not think about this and send a letter in the meantime, because my family would be upset if they read a description of my troubles.
When eight 101 years had passed since my arrival in Fiji, I wrote a letter to my brother in Calcutta working as an assistant.
In this letter, I very briefly described all the difficulties which I had to suffer in Fiji during my girmit.
I thought in my heart that my brother would be very pleased to get my news.
After one and a half months from the sending of the letter, I began to expect an answer.
In the end a letter came from Calcutta.
When I received the letter, I felt a great uneasiness at opening it.
I opened the letter and read: 'When your brother read the account of your troubles there was a great shock to his heart and he quickly had a very high fever.
For two days the fever continued, and he died suddenly on the third day'.
I was saddened to hear this heart-rending news, and one by one all the incidents of my childhood began to come back to me.
All the times I used to eat with my brother.
When I remember the troubles which I had to suffer because of the wicked arkatis then the wound in my heart becomes fresh again, and from my mouth these words suddenly come: 'Oh God ! When will the coolie system be ended, and when will my brothers escape from these crafty arkatis V When my mother got no news about me, she became very worried.
The people of my village say that one time a sadhu boy1 came to my village of Hirangau.
It is said that this boy's features were similar to mine.
When my mother heard that a certain sadhu who looked like me had come, she went to the sadhu, and running, embraced him.
She said 'Son, why have you become a sadhu ? Pity your suffering mother now, cut your top knot and come live at your house'.
The sadhu said 'Mother ! I am not your son.
I am not a Brahman, I am Kshartrya'.
But my mother's mind, thinking about me over and over, had become so unsteady that she would not believe what the sadhu said.
In the end the sadhu was so bothered that he left the village ! 1.
A sadhu is a world-renouncing mendicant, who wanders from place to place in India conferring blessings and collecting alms, or else seeks a secluded place to better continue his spiritual practice.
102 After about two years of working, I studied the Fijian language and began to speak and understand it well.
For one year I learned to be a carpenter, and afterwards I spent many days learning metalwork also.
I learned to take photos so that I could take pictures of Indians in the fields.
I secretly took many pictures in which white men were beating Indian men and women.
My thought was to have these photos published in the monthly newspaper Sarasvati.
But one day when I was gone to Suva, some unknown person came bringing a false letter from me, asked for the pictures, and took them all ! I came and read this letter.
His writing was somewhat similar to mine.
This was how he pulled it off.
I wished very much to take this matter further, but that person disappeared and I had to come to my own country [India].
Therefore I was quiet.
Two days after the loss of the pictures, a government officer came and gave me an order that from that day, I should not take any photos of company or other plantation workers in the fields.
If I disobeyed this order I would be charged and punished.
I have already written that I began to work in the fields.
One time in 1910, when my sugar cane plantation was ready, a very strong hurricane came and my entire crop was destroyed.
Afterwards I again borrowed money and began to work.
From the grace of god I began again to make some profit.
I generally did things this way: I left my work to my workers, went to the plantations, saw the conditions of my Indian brothers, and gave them advice about their own welfare.
I went myself and saw Fiji's scores of plantations, and reported to the British Indian Association.
The aforementioned organization tried to the best of its ability to end the suffering of our Indian brothers.
I was doing all of the Hindi language correspondence of the association.
Many of the white planters got so displeased with me that they closed many of the plantations to my visiting.
On these plantations where I went to meet my Indian brothers, they made their best effort to force 103 me out.
One time I was travelling around and I arrived at a plantation.
I was not granted permission to enter the plantation, so I sat on the side of the road and loudly began to sing bhajans [religious songs].
My reason for singing the bhajans was that anyone who heard the singing would certainly come to me and listen.
Many men came to me in the street outside the plantation.
I stopped singing and began to speak with them.
While speaking my gaze fell upon a young Muslim woman.
From her appearance I knew that she was about to cry ! The woman's little girl was standing close to her.
I asked this women, 'Do you have some special problem V On hearing this she began to cry, and crying, and she began to tell her story.
She said 'My name is Laliya, and my husband's name is Ismail.
Several years ago, I lived with my husband in Kanpur.
My husband carried the luggage of travellers at the station and in this way, from the eight to ten paisas he earned, we three lived - my husband, myself and the little girl.
One day my husband was gone to work, and I was at home.
A man came to my house and said to me 'You are sitting here at home and your husband has been greatly injured ! He taking many boxes, a box fell on his foot, and in several places he was injured.
If you want to see him come with me'.
I was upset and agreed to go with him.
He took me and we arrived at the entrance of a big building.
He said to me, 'Look, your husband is in here, this is a doctor's building.
Without a doctor's permission it is not proper to enter.
Wait a little while.
A doctor sahab will be coming soon'.
After a short wait, a man wearing coat, trousers and eyeglasses came.
The man who had brought me from my house said to this doctor sahab, 'Look doctor sahab, this is the wife of the man who you are treating.
She wants to see her husband'.
The doctor sahab said, 'I won't let her see him right now.
You fool, don't you understand ? Right now there is a great injury to his heart.
His life is in danger.
If he saw his wife, then there is no doubt that he would die, and there would be great shock for this woman also.
I will be treating him for four or five 104 days now, then you will see him.
He's not going anywhere'.
The first man said 'Sir, she has nothing to eat.
Where should she go V The doctor sahab said 'All right.
Prepare food here for this woman and her child'.
In this way I began to live there with my small daughter.
The man fooled me for ten days, saying 'Your husband is recovering now.
Not today, see him tomorrow'.
After ten days the doctor sahab came.
I asked him to let me see my husband.
The doctor said 'You are still here ! He left the hospital four or five days ago.
I stressed to him that he should stay, that he hadn't rested, but he said, 'my children must be dying of hunger, I will not stay'.
Therefore being distrustful I left.
In the road, three men standing far from each other met me.
The first man said, 'Where are you going ? Who are you looking for V I told him the whole story.
That man said 'Your husband's name is Ismail'.
I said 'Yes'.
Then he said with great surprise, 'Oh ! He was sent to Calcutta, he was fooled by the arkati'.
I was very shocked.
A little farther, the second man also said these things.
Moving ahead, the third man said, 'Afterwards your husband came to your house.
The arkatis have fooled him, saying 'Your wife was sent to Calcutta'.
Therefore he went to Calcutta.
To meet him, you should quickly go to Calcutta too'.
I agreed to go to Calcutta.
That man sent me to Calcutta with other men who were going to Calcutta.
When I arrived in the Calcutta depot I learned that my husband had been sent to Fiji three days before.
After this, I was sent here with my daughter.
It has been three years now, and I'm dying of working at this plantation.
I don't know where my husband is.
I would be very grateful if you could bring me together with my husband'.
After saying all this, the woman began to cry loudly.
And her child also cried, saying 'Father, Father'.
I said to her, 'Child ! Have written for me your husband's name, your indaws' names and so forth, and your whole story.
I will look for your husband'.
I wrote her whole story in my diary, and having calmed her down I travelled by steamer, and a few hours later arrived in Suva.
On arriving in Suva I went to the Agent General, and asked him to talk to his office clerk and have a list made of the addresses of the plantations of all the Ismails who had come in the last three years.
The Agent General said to me, 'I'm not your servant, to cause things to be done for you'.
I heard from someone that there was a man named Ismail on a particular plantation.
I decided to go to this plantation first.
When I travelled by steamer and arrived at this plantation, I asked for Ismail, and then asked about his wife.
Sweat broke out on Ismail's face, and shocked, he said, 'My wife was Laliya'.
I told him, 'Your wife is working at a plantation which is five hundred miles away.
On your behalf I am sending a petition to the Agent General for fifteen days of vacation.
You sign here'.
I wrote the petition, and took it with me.
Then travelling by boat I reached the plantation where Laliya was working.
When I told her the story she became very happy, and tears came because of her happiness.
On her behalf I wrote a petition to the Agent General.
Taking both petitions, I went to the Agent General.
The Agent General got very angry and said to me, 'Go ! I don't know ! The planter knows'.
I was very disappointed, thinking 'What shall I do V In the end, I thought, 'Let's go, I should go to the planter, and ask him for the leave'.
After that I took Laliya and went to the planter.
The planter yelled at the two of us, 'Aren't you listening ? Why are you bothering me ? The work will suffer .
.
.
The cane is ready to be cut.
Go.
I won't give you leave !' Returning home, I decided that I would get them the leave, soon, by some other means.
What happened on this side was that Ismail, while working got sick from worrying about his wife and daughter.
He made a request and was sent to the hospital.
The hospital doctor sent him back to work and wrote 'He is not sick.
He is making excuses'.
The poor man went back to work.
This time his condition became even worse.
He was again sent to the hospital, and the head doctor saw him 106 and wrote, 'He has leprosy.
He is very weak, and therefore cannot work.
If you want to give him wages for sitting around, then go ahead and give them.
The alternative would be to send him back to India.
There is a ship going in fourteen or fifteen days'.
The owner of the plantation decided that he should be sent to India right away.
When this news reached me, I went to the hospital.
1 asked Ismail and he said, 'According to what the doctor has said, I am being sent to India right away, by force.
How can I meet my wife now V I thought that it had become a calamity.
I went to a barrister immediately, and gave him two guineas out of my own pocket, for him to try anything to stop Ismail from being sent to India.
The barrister sahab made an effort and investigated, and then said that his going was settled.
What could I do then ? The ship was about to leave.
I walked from there and came to the ship.
I saw that Ismail was already brought on board the ship.
Ismail's heartfelt wish was to meet with his wife.
At the time the ship left for India Ismail's eyes were full of tears.
Although he was not able to say anything to me because of his unbearable sorrow, the sorrow dripped from his visage.
I also was deeply sympathizing at the time.
I thought in my heart that my effort was all useless, and that I could not fulfill the promises I had made to Laliya.
I told a sailor on the ship to take care of Ismail.
'He is sick.
Help him the best you can.
' The ship left.
I went back home, saying 'It's God's will'.
When the ship returned from India to Fiji, the sailor told me that as soon as Ismail put his feet on the land of India, in Calcutta, Ismail died.
I was very grieved to hear this.
I began to think, how am I going to tell this news to Laliya ? She must be looking forward to seeing Ismail.
With strong heart, I travelled to Laliya's plantation.
Reaching there I first told her that 'Your husband has been sent to India'.
She began to cry loudly.
Calming her down, I said, 'Your girmit has very few days left now.
We will have you sent to India also, in four months'.
The next day on Sunday, I told her about his death.
On hearing this, Laliya fainted and fell sick.
With great difficulty, after fifteen days of 107 great suffering she became a little better.
Only she herself knew her suffering.
The planter gave her work continuously, even in this poor condition ! These thousands of pounds, shillings and pence, for which the planters are committing atrocities on human being, are contemptible.
These money^grabbing wealtfnhungry planters say, Material resources of the colonies cannot be developed without these labourers.
In my understanding, it is a million times better that the colony be ruined and penniless, than that human beings be bound in chains of servitude.
Touring Australia There are many among us who don't know whether or not one or two hundred Indians live in Australia.
What can the cause of this be, except lack of enthusiasm 1 There is no wish born in our hearts to try to know something about our Indian brothers living in other countries.
To change this state of affairs, five or ten among us should go to travel among these islands where Indians have settled.
When the kings, and rich, educated people of our land want to travel now, they go straight to England or France.
One time I wanted to go to Australia for travel.
I had to get permission from the Australia government.
I arrived in Sydney.
I went to a hotel, gave seven shillings and stayed there.
I was given a room separate from the white people.
I went to my room and laid down.
On my arrival the news passed around that a black man had come.
Then what happened.
Many men and women came to my room to see me ! I got very tired of this crowd.
Quite a lot was said about me.
A woman said to me, 'All black, have you got no soap V I thought that it wouldn't be right to reply to her.
I was afraid that if these people knew that I can speak and understand a little English then they would be asking questions and wouldn't leave me.
I asked once, loudly, in the Fijian language, 'Lako sa leu na oso oso' meaning, 'Go away the room is full'.
Hearing this many people went away, but many women just stood there.
I became thirsty and took my loTa from the bag.
On seeing the loTa they began to shout, 'Come, come, look at this water pot'.
Hearing this there was again a large crowd.
From among the crowd one woman said 'This is clean', and another woman said it had never been cleaned, and in the meantime a third woman took it away and began to clean it with bathing soap.
How can a loTa be cleaned with bathing soap ? Then another woman said 'Use the sand soap on it'.
When this was done the loTa was clean.
After this I wanted to go to the toilet, and began to walk with the loTa.
Again they were all surprised.
109 When I returned from the toilet, the hotel manager's wife said, 'You have spoiled our latrine'.
I replied angrily, 'Then give me back my seven shillings, I will not stay here'.
I thought, 'Living here will be very uncomfortable.
Go to the house of some Indian brother and stay there'.
It will not be improper to say a few things about AustraliaMwelling Indians here.
In Australia, there are some 6,644 Indians.
No more Indians are allowed to settle in Australia now.
The 'Education Test' which Natal started is current in Australia as well.
An Australian officer gives a test to the newly arrived Indian, concerning whether he can read and write in English.
They force them to fail the test, and then don't let them enter into Australia.
Whatever the intention is in the tester's heart while giving the free test, they only can know well, who ever gives this kind of test.
You should give attention to the situation of these helpless people, who have come spending many rupees and enduring many troubles, across the seven seas, and then having failed the test, are sent back.
Would it be good if the Australians coming into India were from wicked moral behaviour given a test in Hindi ? However, it is a good thing that the Australians are not extremely cruel the way the South Africans are.
The Australian government does not commit outrage against the 6,644 Indians who have settled at this time in Australia.
Although the new Indians are not allowed to settle in Australia, permission can be obtained from the Department of External Affairs in Melbourne for travelling or for a change of scene.
But there is a big obstruction for this also, that one has to pay a security of one hundred pounds.
The Indians who have settled in Australia are mainly Punjabis, Sikhs and Pathans.
The Sikhs are mainly wheat farmers, and the Pathans keep cattle.
These people cannot read or write at all.
But it is a thing of pleasure that these people can buy land and houses like Europeans do.
They have political rights, and are able to vote for members of Councils.
They can go to all the public institutions and can stay in hotels.
Even the police do not commit any 110 particular outrages against them.
Before, the whites of some particular plantations had provoked the Sikhs and Pathans, but when the Indian gave them three or four blows with a stick in answer, then they did not have the courage to provoke them again.
Australians are generally of the view that Indians get angry very quickly, take canes and get ready to fight, and that therefore, provoking them is not a good idea.
Why ever it should be, we will certainly say that Australians are many times better in their treatment of us than the South Africans are.
Yes, and one thing is surprising.
This is that Australians do not make it a disaster when an Indian man marries an Australian woman.
Their policy is that when Indians earn their money in Australia, then they should spend it there.
Australian women are very wasteful with their money, and half of the income of whoever marries them is spent by the memsahab.
The Pathans have mostly married Australian women, and there are quite a few Sikhs, also, who have married these women.
These men are not able to take these women and their descendents from Australia to some other place.
This is not lawful according to the Australian government.
It is true that people of our country have married poor Australian women, and from this it is certainly clear that the Australians are not prejudiced against blacks.
I came out of the hotel and began to search for an Indian home.
Accidentally I ran into an English man whom I knew, who had worked in Fiji.
He took me fifteen miles away from Sydney and showed me the house of a Punjabi Jat named Meveram.
I went to Mevaram Ji's door.
I told him my whole story.
He gave me a big welcome.
Mevaram was married to an Australian woman and was being called by the name 'Mr.
Mev\ He brought two or three shillings worth of apples and grapes for me.
I was very hungry indeed, so I ate and had a good sleep.
I stayed at the home of Mevaram Ji for many days.
Then I toured around Sydney and so forth, then went back to Fiji by steamer.
Ill How Can it be Necessary for Indians to Come to Fiji Now ? No more Indians should ever go there as a coolie under contract, but if they want to go paying their own way then they can go.
Those men who know the work of blacksmithing, and know how to attach a horseshoe, could spend their lives there very well.
That sort of man can earn three rupees a day.
In Fiji surveyors are greatly needed.
No doubt surveyors make a big profit there.
Lawyers and barristers who are selfish, and whose aim in life is to make money, should not go to Fiji, because in Fiji lawyers and barristers like Manilal are needed.
What is needed above all in Fiji is Indian doctors.
If a doctor went there from India then he would be able to help his brothers very much.
Barristers who want to go to Fiji should take their degree certificates with them.
The men of high status who yawn at the thought of behaving with heartfelt love for their brothers, and of planning for their release from inner suffering - for them to go is not proper.
Those in whose hearts dwell the qualities of peace, mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, service for country, and deliverance for the poor ' from them can be the deliverance of our foreigmdwelling brothers.
Those who have no interests except a propensity to always earn money should have mercy and not go to Fiji.
Blessed are those who abandon their selLinterest and take part in the suffering of our overseas brothers.
They turn away from their own families and come to the islands, giving peace to their brothers.
If such people went to Fiji, then many troubles of the Indians suffering there would be gone.
The present Governor of Fiji, Sir Bickam SweenEscott, is very generous and justice4oving.
I can say without doubt that such a good Governor has never before come to Fiji.
The Governor has said 'It is my heartfelt wish that the Indians of Fiji should become educated and should begin to participate in the workings of government'.
The progress of Fiji is mainly dependent on the progress of the Indians there, because the people who are natives there are slowly decreasing in population - there are 40,000 Indians there, twelve times the number 112 of Europeans.
They are able to come to Fiji from ports in India by way of New Zealand and Australia.
One has to have permission beforehand to disembark in Australia while there, but there is no problem in going off while in New Zealand.
The cheapest route is to come by British India Steam Navigation Company ships which are called the 'coolie ships'.
We coolies are fooled and sent by these same ships.
The ones travelling around on these ships know that on these ships there are many troubles for our brothers.
The coming and going of these ships is not well scheduled.
Travel to My Own Country | arsnr wiv ^ ^ mfP* STO <*R fifTO This passage above is true word for word: Perhaps there are some men in the world who are so base and mean that they would not be pleased at the time of coming home from a foreign country.
Living in Fiji for twenty' one years, my intense wish was born in my heart to see my mother and my homeland.
I told my thought to Doctor Manilal, and he said, 'If you go there and do some work, it will be good for you to go'.
I said, 'There is not enough intelligence in me, and also I am not well enough educated.
What kind of help would I give my brothers there V Mr.
Manilal said, 'I will give you a job - to go to the villages and speak publicly against the coolie system, and to describe the troubles of our rural brothers here'.
I said that I would try to the best of my ability to follow his instruction.
Afterwards I notified the Immigration Department that I wanted to go to India.
113 From there the reply came that on the 27 March 1914 a steamer would leave for Calcutta from Suva.
I should be in Suva by then.
After this, from every district in Fiji representatives came and gathered in Suva, and in Suva they gave me a congratulatory letter.
Although I was not at all worthy of this respect, it is our religious duty to respect the instructions of our gurus, and thinking this I obeyed their instructions.
These people also instructed me to tell the people of the villages about our sufferings, and to agitate against the arkatis to the best of my ability.
At the time I parted with these people, feelings of sorrow and happiness both were born in my heart.
I was sad because I was parting from my brothers, and happy because I was coming to my mother country.
The Immigration Department had advertised beforehand that whoever is about to leave for India should come to their office in Suva.
Hearing this some 1,300 Indians gathered at the Immigration Office.
Many among them had already sold their house, farm, all their belongings, and prepared to go to their homeland.
With this hope they gave away their things for half or one-third price.
But among them only 833 were taken, and the rest, undergoing a calamity, were sent away.
The father of one Indian who was staying in Fiji had died in India.
His mother's letter came to him in Fiji, saying that she was dying of hunger, and that she had no money, that he should come right away no matter what.
This poor man came running to the office.
When he came from the crowd and was about to come inside, a white guard caught him, and locked him in a room.
The next day he was accused of blocking the way to the Immigration Office.
He was fined ten shillings and not given permission to go to India.
In his heart there was an intense desire to meet his widowed mother, but he was stopped from coming to India because of the wickedness of this guard.
Readers ! Can you imagine the sufferings of this man ? Then we had to go to the Suva depot.
Our attendance was called every day.
We were treated like cattle there.
A crime was committed 114 by one unfortunate Indian; he picked an orange from an orange tree.
And for what ? Because his small child had been crying for a long time for an orange.
Then what happened ? The white sahab grabbed his hand, pulled him along, and took the orange and threw it away.
The ticket he had gotten to go to India was taken away from him and he was thrown out of the depot.
He would have to stay in Fiji.
When a train leaves just as we reach the station, and we don't get on, then we all feel very sorry even though we expect in this case that in four or five hours another train will come.
How terrible this man must have felt, then, who for the crime of picking an orange had to stay back for a whole year and suffer more hardships.
A day before the ship sailed a clerk of the Immigration Office asked us, 'How many rupees are you taking home ?' because this thing is written here.
Many of my foolish brothers have it written that they are taking 2,000 or 4,000 rupees.
Afterwards, reaching Calcutta, I came to know that they had no money, that they didn't even have the fare from Calcutta to their homes ! These people did not understand that from having false information written, there is great harm.
Whenever someone describes the suffering of the Fij indwelling Indians, the Immigration Office people present testimony that 'Look, coolies earn so many hundreds of thousands of rupees every year, and take them back to India'.
In addition to all this, the Immigration Office clerks do not understand anything about zeros.
Some coolie says, 'I am taking fifteen rupees home', but the clerk adds one zero and writes, '150 rupees'.
And apart from this, if anyone is wearing rings and so forth, then he writes that value of it, increased ten or twentyTold.
For example, if someone is wearing a silver ring the clerk would ask, What is the price of this ring 1 The person says 'Sir, this was bought for eight annas'.
The clerk says, 'This ring for eight annas ? Not less than eight rupees ! I am writing 'eight rupees' in my price register'.
Saying this he writes '8 rupees' as the price of the ring.
It would not be surprising if hundreds of thousands of rupees were added on by this kind of writing.
m With respect to boarding in the boat, the head clerk of the Immigration Department gave us trouble.
Ifsomeone had too much luggage with him then he had to bear great difficulties.
The clerk allows a man to bring as much luggage as he can carry at one time.
They don't allow him to go a second time, even if his luggage is sitting in the depot.
We were put on to the ship like goats and sheep.
There is no need to describe the troubles on the way.
One time they distributed food to my brothers on the ship and the white doctor taking a stick in his hand was beating up one or two Indians.
I took his photograph.
The white doctor knew about this.
He came to me and asked, 'Please just give me the photo.
Let me see how you take pictures'.
Fooled, I gave him the camera together with the plate.
He quickly threw my camera, plate and so forth into the ocean.
I just kept on watching ! In the ship we 833 Indians came back from Fiji.
Among us about 500 people did not have the fare money to get to their homes from Calcutta.
People who say that Indians going to the islands collect wealth should open their eyes and give attention to this fact.
At the time of my going from Fiji, I came to know confidentially that I would be searched.
Therefore I erased my name from my box with coal-tar, and wrote the name of a friend.
In this box were many papers and letters, accounts of the troubles and suffering of the Fiji-dwelling Indians, and also copies of judgements of magistrates.
There were copies of the correspondence with Gandhi Ji and Manilal Ji and so forth.
Although there wasn't a single harmful item among these things, I thought that the Fiji white men would not leave me alone, would follow me on the ship.
At the end the search came.
The true box, with my papers in it, was with one of my friends, and a different trunk was searched.
On the ship we had collected donations, and paid the fares for eighteen men to go to their homes.
I thought that we would go into Calcutta, meet with a barrister, have an account of our sufferings written, and send a petition for help to the government.
For this I had prepared 116 sixty people and to take care of their needs I had gathered more donations.
In April 1914 we arrived in Calcutta.
Seeing our homeland, we were delighted at heart.
The sad thing is that the people I had prepared to go to the barrister went in all directions on disembarking from the ship, and I stood there alone ! The happiness that I felt myself, from touching my mother's feet when I arrived home in Hirangau was indescribable ! 117 Conclusion In this final chapter I should say something about the Coolie system.
Anyone who will go to the colonies and see with their own eyes the Indians who are working under girmit, will surely come to know that the explanations for the public servants and the written report of the commission do not reveal the real conditions of the foreigmdwelling Indians.
Those who can see with subtle vision are able to know immediately that the coolie system is only a new form of slavery.
Sir Charles Bruce has written in a book titled The Broad Stone of Empire that 'When white people are not able to do the manual labour in tropical countries, then the black labourers were needed.
Before the end of the slavery systems, African people did the work of labourers, but when the slavery system ended, those freed Africans began to understand that this work was extremely inferior and menial ! In some colonies, the native people were so primitive that they were unable to do field labour by prescribed rules.
These things caused the use of the coolie system, and with this system coolies began to be sent to Mauritius, Natal, Trinidad, Jamaica, British Guyana and so forth'.
In 1857 Lord Salisbury wrote about this system that the British government had greatly reduced warfare in India.
For this reason the population had increased.
From this people could not subsist easily.
Therefore it was good for Indians to go to other countries where they could get more work than in their own country.
Lord Salisbury wrote: Above all things we must confidently expect, as an indispensable condition of the proposed arrangements, that the colonial laws and their administration will be such that Indian settlers, who have completed the terms of service to which they agreed, as the return for the expense of bringing them to the colonies, will be free men in all respects, with privileges no whit inferior to those of any other class of Her Majesty's subjects resident in the colonies.
(Saptahik Bharat Mitra, 1 June 1914).
11# It is not necessary to say that what Lord sahab hoped for was completely groundless.
The suffering our brothers are given in the colonies has no end.
From this the government also suffers, because, when outrages are committed against Indians there, there is agitation here.
In the royal colonies, the white planters treat us as if we were donkeys and dogs.
If this treatment was given to people of other nations, this coolie system would have been ended long ago.
Some Japanese were brought to the Fiji Islands under contract.
But even though the whites gave more comforts to the Japanese than for us Indian coolies, about one third of the Japanese died of the hard work.
Then the Japanese government took all the Japanese back from there.
Solomon Islanders also were brought this way to the Fiji Islands to work in girmit, but they also were unable to bear the suffering, and were also brought back.
It is only the Indians who can work twelve hours without good food.
I can speak from twenty-one years of experience, that it takes three English, Japanese or Chinese labourers, to do in a day, with great effort, the amount of work one Indian labourer can do in a day, if the inconveniences they face are the same, and the food they eat is the same.
When the Fiji people asked the Chinese government for labourers, then the Chinese government completely refused.
Did our government make a firm decision that the coolie system should not be stopped ? Is it not the duty of the government to protect its subjects ? The Japanese, Solomons and Polynesians have stopped the sending of coolies to Fiji.
So why does our government give permission for as many coolies as are wanted to be collected and taken from this country ? The country whose freedom-loving people have tried with heart, mind, and wealth to end the slavery system, yes ! The people, of that very country are made helpers of the coolie system, which is like the slavery system.
Flow sad is this ! When Mr.
Douglas Flail asked about this in the House of Commons, then Mr.
Montague, the undersecretary, said: I may add that the recent Inter-Departmental Committee under Lord Sanderson has recommended that the system he allowed to continue subject 119 to certain recommendations in regard to particular colonies and they are under discussion.
We will know, when the English people are sent for a shilling a day in the coolie system, when they are given four and one half seers of sharps and a quarter seer of raw dal for seven days food, a tin basin for storing food and a tin cup for drinking water, when for three men one room in the coolie line is given for sleeping, when they have to sleep on the soil the rats have dug up, without sheets, mattress or pillow, when they have to get up at three o'clock in the night to get ready for work, when they get kicked once or twice a day by the overseer.
Then would Lord Sanderson and Mr.
Montague still say that this coolie system should be continued ? When Rajrishi Gokhale presented in Council a motion to stop the coolie system, then Council member Clark sahab accepted that the coolie is not told the true terms of the contract.
On page 316 of the government gazette of 1912, Clark sahab writes that: It is perfectly true that the terms of the contract do not explain to the coolies the fact that if he does not carry out his contract or for other offences (like refusing to go to the hospital when ill, breach of discipline etc.
) he is to incur imprisonment or fine.
The sad part of this for us is that knowing all of these things Clark sahab supported the coolie system ! Possibly Clark sahab wanted to destroy the rights, freedom, even the lives of the Indians for the sake of the planters of the colony ! As far as I know, now Surinam is the only foreign colony of the sort where coolies are sent like in the British colonies.
In other words, there is very bad treatment given to us in all of the colonies, but the amazing and sad thing for us is that we are treated worse in the British Colonies than in foreign colonies.
W.
W.
Pearson, who went to South 120 Africa, has written about Portugese East Africa in the July edition of Modern Review.
The gist of Pearson sahabs story is that the people who are proud to be born in the British Empire and who believe that people are treated fairly and equally under the British flag, will be very ashamed to see that the treatment given to Indians in the Portugese colony is better than that given to them in British colonies.
121 The Opinion of Dinbandhu Andrews about the Coolie System In the January 1914 Modern Review Dinbandhu C.
F.
Andrews1 has written many meaningful things about the coolie system.
To give here a translation of what he has said would not be irrelevant.
Mr.
Andrews sahab writes: But now I see that the question of the indenture system is a question of saying goodbye, and there will be great advantage to free Indians from the settling of this question.
My beliefis that our very first duty in India now is that we should all get together and agitate for the making of a law that no other Indian will ever for any reason be made a coolie under contract and be sent away.
I call this law the 'Abolition of the Indenture System'.
We should give as the first reason for the closing of this system of contracts that it is improper for a civilized country to have its citizens sell themselves into a kind of true slavery.
Because India is now gaining a place among the progressive nations of the world, Indians are therefore taking a strong vow that 'We will destroy this coolie system from its roots, because this system is ruining our reputation'.
Ifsomeone submits on the side of the coolie system the argument that the financial condition of the Indian coolie working under contract is better than his financial condition when he was free, then the answer to that is that this argument was made on behalf of the slavery system.
It took fifty years to end the slavery system ! It is not necessary to refute this argument in detail because history refutes it.
If someone makes the argument that there are many laws made to protect the coolies in the coolie system, and that there are not outrages in the coolie system of the sort there were in the old slavery system, then I will not contradict it.
I will only show that last year, while there were 37 suicides per million people in India, there were 662 suicides per million among the coolies working under contract in Natal.
1.
Andrews, called Dinbandhu or friend of the poor, was an associate of Gandhi.
He later came to Fiji and wrote very influential reports on the evils of indenture in Fiji.
122 Here it is appropriate to note that this year there was no special reason for suicide, and should you take another year, the proportion will always be about the same.
The system from whose type this result comes is itself extremely culpable, whether it has many laws of protection or whether such are never made.
If in different conditions, the fruits of suffering born from this system were not apparent, even then, this system is very dreadful.
In it there are so many opportunities for injustices and outrages that the most intelligent thing is to completely end the system.
Iffor the argument we also consider that planters will be merciful, and that laws will be brought in use to protect the coolies from all angles, then we should say that for a progressive nation this system is completely inappropriate and unworthy.
No one can imagine this system continued in England or America in the way in which it currently is in India.
We ourselves have come to know the inhumanity of the system in India and we recognize in our hearts the disgrace which is ours from this system.
If the only fruit of the efforts of Mr.
Gandhi, the greatest hero and most excellent man of the present time, would be that the aforementioned motive was produced in our hearts and we engaged in work against the coolie system, then Gandhi's efforts could not be said to be fruitless or useless.
I believe that we should also make gone our other sins.
We should put an end to our inhuman treatment of the lower castes.
We should also remember this.
But the question of the coolie system is an important question right now.
If we face this question and deal with it fairly and with justice, then we will be respected in the eyes of the whole civilized world.
Can we get together and prove that the coolie system should be ended ? If we are ready for this then we should get together and work.
Whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian, all should say with one voice that the coolie system should end.
Then no one can stop our clear and just request.
For this we should bury our self-interest and show the world that we are not only talking, that we are working with determination.
In this we should deal with other self-interested people in a just and reasonable manner.
There will be opposition and retaliation against us.
The destiny ofIndians has become uncertain with this unbearable injustice.
We don't know what to do ! From all directions people are saying, What should we do ? What should we do V Come, let us get together and end the 123 coolie system.
If we do this, then this work of ours will help the agitations of our free brothers in the colonies a great deal.
We can praise Dinbandhu Andrews from one hundred voices, and every Indian will be grateful to him for his kindness.
The only difference between the slavery system and the coolie system is that the former was for life and the latter for a fixed term only.
What is our Duty ? The duty of every Indian is to assist in agitation against this system.
This is not a seditious practice.
Arkatis violate government law and lure people.
We agitate against the arkatis.
Therefore in our understanding this activity is completely loyal.
In some places speeches against the coolie system were arranged, but because they were tricked by the arkatis, people thinking this activity was disloyal did not give a place for the speech ! How sad it is that we are willing to give our places for dancing and singing, but when asked for a place for a lecture against the coolie system, the place is not given ! It is the first duty of newspapers to always publish things against the coolie system.
Except for the Hindi newspaper Bharat Mitra and the English newspaper Modern Review, I have seen very few newspapers who have given particular attention to this, We should praise the speaking out of the editors of the aforementioned newspapers.
The other newspapers should follow their praiseworthy work.
It is the duty of landowners to teach the people of their villages not to get snared in the traps of the arkatis.
It is proper for the people whom the Lord has made wealthy to give financial aid for this effort.
They should form committees to prohibit the coolie system at each place.
People who have good speaking ability should be asked at times to say a few words against this coolie system.
It is the duty of those who are 124 council members to present resolutions to the Legislative Council against his system.
If this work cannot be done by these people, then considering this as representation of the public is a big misconception.
For us it is proper to become volunteers, and to save travellers on pilgrimage from deceitful people.
12? What is the Duty of the Government ? It is proper for the government to end the system without delay.
The atonement for the sin of creating this system is to end the system immediately and to make schemes and start activity that increases the demand for labour in India, our own country.
In Madhya Pradesh there is a lot of vacant land, and what shortage of land is there in Riyasat ? In other regions there are many districts in which many places are vacant.
For example, Basti district in Uttar Pradesh and Ganjan district in Madras, etc.
It is the government's duty to try to settle people in these places.
It is the duty of Congress to make a special conference in which we would all be informed about the things to be known concerning foreign^ dwelling Indians.
There should be great agitation in the newspapers about each one of the outrages and injustices committed against our brothers in other countries.
The Commerce and Industry Department, which the government has opened, in which millions ofrupees are spent, has a duty first of all to cause the kind of business to be opened in which Indian labourers could find jobs in their own country.
It is my belief that wherever a depot is opened, there I should go personally, and according to my insignificant intelligence, tell about the suffering in the islands.
But in this country I need the help of the public.
Reader, please write to me.
In which cities are depots open ? I will surely write the names of those places into my touring programme.
I will make an effort to go there, according to my schedule.
I cannot say anything more on this subject because of lack of space.
We should believe that the coolie system will end.
It will surely end.
When the leader of our country Rajrishi Gokhale is agitating against it, then we should never be disappointed.
Rajrishi Gokhale, making a motion against this system in Council said that: 126 This motion, the council may rest assured, will be brought forward again and again, till we carry it to a successful issue.
It affects our national self-respect and therefore the sooner the Government recognizes the necessity of accepting it, the better it will be for all parties.
It is necessary to make special requests of the government about this.
Until the government will understand its own interests as the interest of its subjects, the dissatisfaction of the subject cannot be destroyed.
To give satisfaction to the subjects is the first of all the duties of the government.
Readers ! I have requested your help, according to my insignificant intellect.
Possibly after reading this some people will say, 'Let it go.
Why are you listening about coolies ? If some educated man speaks then we listen and believe'.
I apologize with humility to such goodhearted peoples, and in conclusion say this: Dear Countrymen ! We should all get together and agitate against the coolie system.
If we made an effort with mind, heart and strength then God will surely help us.