Indo-Fijians
Indo-Fijians are Fijians of South Asian descent whose ancestors were indentured labourers. Indo-Fijians trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent.
Although Indo-Fijians constituted a majority of Fiji's population from 1956 through to the late 1980s, discrimination triggered immigration, resulted in them numbering 313,798 out of a total of 827,900 people living in Fiji. Although they hailed from various regions in the subcontinent, just about half of Indo-Fijians trace their origins to the Awadh and Bhojpur regions of the Hindi Belt in northern India. Indo-Fijians speak Fiji Hindi in Fiji also known as 'Fiji Baat' which is based on the Awadhi dialect with influence from Bhojpuri. It is a koiné language with its own grammatical features, distinct to the Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu spoken in South Asia. The major home districts of Fiji's North Indian labourers were Basti, Gonda, Lucknow, Kanpur, Faizabad, Ballia, Ghazipur, Gorakhpur, Sultanpur, Siwan, Shahabad, Saran, and Azamgarh, in the present-day Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh and the present-day Bhojpur region of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. Others originated in West Bengal, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the Telugu regions. A small contingent of indentured labourers came from Afghanistan and Nepal. Many of the Muslim Indo-Fijians also came from Sindh, West Punjab and various other parts of South Asia. Fiji's British colonial rulers brought South Asian people to the Colony of Fiji as indentured labourers between 1879 and 1916 to work on Fiji's sugar-cane plantations, with a small minority were also used in Rice farming.
Mahendra Chaudhry became Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister on 19 May 1999.
Early ancestors of Indo-Fijians
First Indians in Fiji
Indians had been employed for a long time on the European ships trading in Colonial India and the East Indies. Many of the early voyages to the Pacific either started or terminated in India and many of these ships were wrecked in the uncharted waters of the South Pacific. The first recorded presence of an Indian in Fiji was by Peter Dillon, a sandalwood trader in Fiji, of a lascar who survived a shipwreck, lived and settled there amongst the natives of Fiji in 1813.First attempt to procure Indian labourers
Before Fiji was colonized by Great Britain, some planters had tried to obtain Indian labour and had approached the British Consul in Levuka, Fiji but were met with a negative response. In 1870, a direct request by a planter to the Colonial Government of India was also turned down and in 1872, an official request by the Cakobau Government was informed that British rule in Fiji was a pre-condition for Indian emigration to Fiji. The early ancestors of Indo-Fijians came from different regions of South Asia, most coming from rural villages in Northern and Southern British Raj.In January 1879, thirty-one South Asians, who had originally been indentured labourers in Réunion, were brought from New Caledonia to Fiji under contract to work on a plantation in Taveuni. These labourers demonstrated knowledge of the terms of the indenture agreement and were aware of their rights and refused to do the heavy work assigned to them, their contract was terminated by mutual agreement between the labourers and their employers. In 1881, thirty-eight more Indians arrived from New Caledonia and again most of them left but some stayed taking Indian wives or island women.
Arrival under the indentured system
The colonial authorities promoted the sugar cane industry, recognising the need to establish a stable economic base for the colony, but were unwilling to exploit indigenous labour and threaten the Fijian way of life. The use of imported labour from the Solomon Islands and what is now Vanuatu generated protests in the United Kingdom, and the Governor Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon decided to implement the indentured labour scheme, which had existed in the British Empire since 1837. A recruiting office was set up especially around Calcutta and the South, West and North later, especially a lot in rural village areas in different farming regions, land and areas.The Leonidas, a labour transport vessel, disembarked at Levuka from Calcutta on 14 May 1879. The 498 indentured workers who disembarked were the first of over 61,000 to arrive from South and East Asia in the following 37 years. The majority were from the districts of eastern and southern provinces, followed by labourers from northern and western regions, then later south eastern countries, they originated from different regions, villages, backgrounds and castes that later mingled or intermarried hence the "Fijian Indian" identity was created. The indentured workers originated mostly from rural village backgrounds.
Life during the indenture period
The contracts of the indentured labourers, which they called girmit, required them to work in Fiji for a period of five years. Living conditions on the sugar cane plantations, on which most of the girmityas worked, had poor standards which resembled that of slavery. Hovels known as "coolie lines" dotted the landscape.End of indenture
Public outrage in the United Kingdom and British India over human rights abuses of indentured labourers, such as the story of Kunti and Naraini played a factor in abolishing the scheme in 1916. However, Indenture continued unlawfully until the intervention of Banarsidas Chaturvedi and Reverend C.F. Andrews, which resulted in all existing indentured labourers being freed from contracts on 1 January 1920.Caste
During the period of Indian indentured migration to Fiji, labourers were recruited from a wide range of social, regional, and caste backgrounds in British India. These included upper, middle, and lower castes, as well as Dalit communities such as Chamars, along with Muslims and Christians. While caste identities were carried into Fiji as part of migrants’ social backgrounds, the indenture system did not formally recognise or enforce caste distinctions. On plantations, labourers of different castes lived and worked together under uniform conditions, which led to the weakening of traditional caste practices such as occupational segregation, restrictions on commensality, and ritual purity. Although aspects of caste identity persisted after indenture, particularly in marriage preferences and religious life, the rigid hierarchical structure associated with caste in India became significantly diluted in the Fijian context.Caste Demographics
Impact of Girmit System on Caste Dynamics
Although the Girmit system subjected all labourers, regardless of caste, to harsh and exploitative conditions, migration nonetheless offered many Chamars and other oppressed groups an opportunity to escape rigid caste hierarchies. Over time, they established new communities across the globe, reshaping social identities and forging resilience in diaspora.Dalit Sikh / Ravidassia
There were followers of Guru Ravidas, a 15th–16th-century bhakti saint, and these followers belonged to the Chamar/Ad-Dharmi/Ravidassia community. This group maintained distinct devotional practices centred on the teachings of Ravidas. In 1939, members of the Ravidassia community in Fiji established the Shri Guru Ravidass Gurudwara in Nasinu, which is recognised as the first Ravidassia-associated gurdwara outside India and serves as a focal point for worship and community activities. Over the decades, the Ravidassia community in Fiji has continued to be part of the broader Indo-Fijian religious landscape, contributing to Fiji’s Sikh and related devotional institutions while preserving elements of their devotional identity.Free immigrants/Fiji-Indians
From the early 1900s, Indians started arriving in Fiji as free agents. Many of these paid their own way and had previously served in Fiji or other British colonies or had been born in Fiji. A small amount of free immigrants also came from Gujarat and East Punjab. Amongst the early free migrants, there were religious teachers, missionaries and at least one lawyer. The government and other employers brought clerks, policemen, artisans, gardeners, experienced agricultural workers, a doctor, a school teacher, farmers and craftsmen also paid their own way to Fiji and in later years formed an influential minority as Fijian-Indians to the Indo-Fijians.Indian Platoon during the Second World War
In 1916, Manilal Doctor, the de facto leader of the Indo-Fijian community, persuaded the colonial government of Fiji to form an Indian platoon for the Allied war effort during the First World War. He sent the names of 32 volunteers to the colonial government but his requests were ignored. As a result, a number of Indo-Fijians volunteered for the New Zealand Army while one served in Europe during the First World War.In 1934, Governor Fletcher enacted a policy which warranted an Indian Platoon within the Fiji Defence Force consisting entirely of enlisted-ranked Indo-Fijians. Governor Fletcher encouraged Indo-Fijians to regard Fiji as their permanent home. One could say this was Fletcher's insurance policy against an anticipated anti-European revolt at the hands of the Native population, which subsequently took place in 1959.
While the Indo-Fijian troops had the Europeans as their commanding and non-commissioned officers, the Native Fijians had Ratu Edward Cakobau, a Native Fijian, as their commanding officer. Prior to the Second World War, soldiers served voluntarily and were paid "capitation grants" according to efficiency ratings without regard to race. In 1939, during the mobilisation of the Fiji Defence Force, the colonial government changed its payment system to four shillings per day for enlisted men of European descent while enlisted men of non-European descent were paid only two shillings per day; the Indo-Fijian Platoon quickly disputed this disparity in pay. The colonial government, fearing this dissidence would eventually be shared by the Native Fijians, decided to disband the Indo-Fijian platoon in 1940 citing lack of available equipment, such as military armour, as their reason.