Ranil Kumar 
Shiu Kumari
Between 1879 and 1916, thousands of indentured workers were brought from India to Fiji to work as indentured who had a significant impact on the country’s history and development.
The girmitiyas not only contributed to the growth of sugar cane but also to the introduction of rice and banana plantations.
Seventy-year-old Shiu Kumari, whose great-grandfather was sent to Bua to work on the rice plantations recalls that those were dark times.
She says the British had told the indigenous people and the girmitiyas not to interact with one another, but over time they overcame this and learned from each other’s skills.
“It was difficult that time because they were not allowed to talk to each other but overtime our ancestors taught us and the I-taukei on how to harvest rice, how to cut them,and even cultivate them.”
Kumari says the i-taukei and Indians learnt various techniques from each other one of them being using the hand pounder for pounding grog.
“Before grog was pounded on stones by the Fijians and the powder was mixed with coconut husks to extract the yaqona that we drink.”
Kumari says that the art of garland making was taught by Indians to the Itaukei which is now known as Salusalu.
The Girmit system brought a large number of people from different parts of India to Fiji, and their descendants make up a significant portion of Fiji’s population today.
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