This is a story about our ancestors who were brought to Fiji from British India in the early 1900s. 

A story of my girmiteer ancestors: Book 1

Aajua and aajiya would have possibly walked quite a long way to get to a railway station. They had very little money. It is likely that they may have only had a few cents in their possession.

Aajua and aajiya boarded Mutlah II on 20 July, 1911 for their onward journey to Fiji. This was the steamer’s second voyage to the country. Hence, it was identified by the number 2. Mutlah was a 3,393-ton steamship which was built in 1906 mainly to transport indentured labourers to British colonies. On this voyage, there was a total of 863 girmiteers destined for Fiji. 

After completing their girmit, aajua and aajiya moved from Olosara to a place called Yandua that was about 20 kilometres away.&nbsp;They started growing sugar cane, and even today the crop is still grown by some of our extended family members who live there. It has been one of the most productive farms in the area.

Life was very hard. Both aajua and aajiya had to work on the CSR plantation. They worked long hours and their combined income was about fifty dollars a year. Once their five year contract expired, they had the option to go back to India at their own expense or stay for another five years and be allowed to settle in Fiji. We cannot thank them enough for not opting to go back to India.

In the summer of 1911, both our ancestors decided that they will travel to this place called Fiji where they were promised easy work and lots of money. They were uneducated and could not read or write. They did not even know where Fiji was. But they were risk-takers and were willing to take a chance.

In this story we focus on the lives of our ancestors; Bechan and Sangamdei who were my aaja's paternal grandparents from his grandfathers side. The family always called them aajua and aajiya.

Aajua and aajiya and many of their girmiteer contemporaries seem to have never shied away from hard work. Like aajua and aajiya, many were still in their twenties, and for the first time in their lives, they had the freedom to toil on the land in the way they wanted. For once, they got a chance to think for themselves and were no longer under the complete grip of their colonial masters. 

After travelling nearly 12,770km on the high seas, aajua and aajiya arrived in Fiji – almost a month later on 18 August 1911. This was their first and last overseas trip. Like all other girmiteers, after the ships docked at the Suva Port, they were put on barges that were towed to Nukulau – a small island off the island of Viti Levu and not far from the City of Suva . This was used as a quarantine station for the emigrating indentured labourers. Like the trade of slaves, the girmiteers were bought by the plantation owners on the basis of their needs.

This story is about our aaja's great grandparents. For us, they were our great great great grandparents. They all came from the state of Uttar Pradesh which in those days was known as the United Provinces.

In Calcutta, aajua and aajiya were issued with their emigration passes which formalised their travel to Fiji. They were now known as girmiteers. They could not sign their names because they were illiterate. So their thumb print made using an <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lelong.com.my%2Fshiny-thumb-print-pad-fingerprint-ink-pad-oaoffice-214997175-2019-11-Sale-P.htm&amp;psig=AOvVaw1fC2rNMkZy0QkFqiMJzT_R&amp;ust=1586578545802000&amp;source=images&amp;cd=vfe&amp;ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJC2nOr_3OgCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAF">ink pad</a> confirmed that they had accepted the conditions of their contracts and were willing to travel.

My ancestors were very poor and life in the village was tough. Aajua was desperate to get a job. In those days men were the bread winners while women managed the household chores. There were hardly any job opportunities in the village. 

Image source: <a href="https://monovisions.com/calcutta-india-1890s-vintage-historic-bw-photos/">https://monovisions.com/calcutta-india-1890s-vintage-historic-bw-photos/</a>

Calcutta would have been yet another experience for them. They were in a large city for the first time. We sometimes wonder what they would have thought when they saw the Bay of Bengal and the large body water that was contained within it.

Like nearly all other girmiteers, aajua and aajiya were illiterate. But the one thing they valued was education. They viewed education as a passport to a better life. They were not wrong. As a result of their sacrifices and foresightedness, many of their descendants gained primary education which set them on own unique paths in life. We thank and salute them for their efforts!

Ancestors map - Google My Maps

Our ancestors came from the districts of Balrampur, Basti and Faizabad. Click and explore the map to see where these districts are located.

Little did they know that they would never come back to their hamlet and be with their families and friends again. Aajua would never see his brothers Murli and Nepal.  

Balrmapur and surrounds - Google My Maps

They needed to get the town of Gonda. Getting on a train was the best way to get there.  The closest railway service ran between Jarwa and Gonda. Unfortunately it was not close to where they were living.  

Gonda Calcutta - Google My Maps

After their registration in Gonda, they became entrapped. In some respects they were like caged animals waiting to be transported by freight train to Calcutta - a port city and a former capital of India. The distance between Gonda and Calcutta was more than 2000km and trip would have taken a few days.

On the steamer, men and women were kept in separate compartments. Each passenger was allocated a floor space measuring one and half feet wide and six feet long or about two by half a metre. This was their cabin space for their journey. There was no sympathy for those who complained about these confined spaces. Their colonial masters were quick to quell any dissent. 

Someone must have told them about work opportunities in Fiji. At that time Fiji was a British colony and the country needed labourers to work on farms which was set by people from overseas. The CSR company from Australia was one of them which set large sugar cane farms.

They lived in a hamlet called Luxsmanpur Dhrampur (in the thana of Lalia) which is in the district of Balrampur. They came from farming families.

As aajua and aajiya set foot on this steamer for the first time, they could not have known that their feet were never going to touch their homeland again. Life on board the steamer was very difficult and has often been described as a harrowing experience. The roller coaster rides of the huge ocean waves together with the ill-treatment of their colonial masters were some of the many challenges they had to contend with.

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of aajua and aajiya was their leadership and the role they played in setting up the local primary school in the village. They teamed up with other girmiteer families and contributed more than a year's earnings to set up the Naidovi Primary School.

To read more books and for more information visit the SEE Project website (<a href="https://theseeproject.org/">https://theseeproject.org/</a>) 

This link provides some information on the Girmiteers and their pass numbers: <a href="http://archivesfiji.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Indian-Immigration-Pass-list.pdf">http://archivesfiji.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Indian-Immigration-Pass-list.pdf</a>

If they were lucky, aajua and aajiya would have got a ride on a rickshaw or a horse drawn cart before they got to the nearest railway station.

Aajua and aajiya developed excellent comradery and good working relationships with the indigenous Fijian people. In many instances, this was achieved through mutual respect, despite language and cultural differences. This was also the case with many girmiteers and the local Fijian communities. 

They were provided accommodation in ‘coolie lanes’. Their British masters used the term coolie to describe the Indian labourers. The coolie lanes were large rectangular wooden buildings with six to eight poorly ventilated rooms. Some of them measured no more than 3 by 2 metres. These rooms were used for sleeping, cooking, dining, and everything else.

Fiji map - Google My Maps

Following their quarantine, our aajua and aajiya were assigned to a CSR estate in Olosara near Sigatoka. This is where they served their five-year girmit.

Gonda is a township with a lot more hustle and bustle and very different to the village lives that aajua and ajiya would have been used to. This was the start of their 5 year contract or Girmit which was a bit like slavery. The only difference was that they had the option to come back home after 5 years.

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