The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance this morning highlighted the profound significance of the indentured labourers’ story, describing it as both a tale of triumph and tragedy.

Recognizing its crucial place in Fiji’s shared history as a global community, Professor Biman Prasad stresses the importance of Girmit, a term that goes beyond its formal Hindi equivalent, Gulami.

Prasad, drawing upon personal reflections, ponders the profound impact Girmit must have had on his grandparents.

For him, Gulami Girmit represents the denial of the fruits of one’s labour and the systematic deprivation of workers’ rights.

He also underlined that colonialism was fundamentally constructed upon the deliberate denial of humanity, making the attainment of independence a paramount endeavour for their parent’s generation.

“It was the denial of their political rights, it was the denial of their social and economic rights. It was the denial of their cultural and religious rights. In short, it was the denial of their humanity.”

The Deputy Prime Minister further elucidates that Girmit serves as a unifying thread among Indo-Fijians, forming the bedrock of their shared language and spiritual interpretations.

Prasad says the party he belongs to, the National Federation Party, has been resolute in their pursuit of Fiji’s independence, owing to the deep-rooted significance of Girmit in their community.

In a related perspective, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific, refers to Mahatma Gandhi’s interpretation of Girmit as a corrupted rendition of the English word agreement.

“The document, under which 1000s of labourers used to emigrate and still emigrate, and Gandhi was writing really about Natal to Natal in other countries on contract for five years, is known by the labourers and employers as a Girmitiya, and when he was writing, Gandhi said about 12,000 such indentured labourers emigrate annually from India, mostly to the Fiji Island, near Australia, Jamaica, New South America, British Guyana, and Trinidad.”

The narrative of Girmit, as described by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Vice Chancellor, presents a profound understanding of the struggles and resilience of indentured labourers.

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