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 www.indo-fiji.webs.com       INDO-FIJI ACTION     www.tinyurl.com/indofiji

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              Fiji's Indians looking for a place to call home 


AFP 
Suva, June 26 

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After four generations living in Fiji, the Pacific nation's ethnic 
Indians are being forced into rethinking their definition of "home". 
While political turmoil, including three coups, has left many feeling 
unsafe in the country of their birth, an equal majority are now finding 
that their ancestral home -- India -- has equally little to offer. 

"They maintain family, economic and cultural links to various Pacific 
Rim countries while India's role is best a marginal one," says 
Australian Carmen Voigt-Graf who is doing PhD research on Fiji's Indians. 

Disillusioned and discriminated against, many have sought new homes 
outside Fiji. 

Voigt-Graf believes that since Fiji's independence in 1970 at least 
150,000 Indo-Fijians have left and are now scattered across Australia, 
Canada and New Zealand. 

Today they make up 44 percent of the 800,000 people in Fiji. 

Indians were first brought to Fiji by the British in the late 1800s 
to work as indentured labourers in the sugarcane farms, marking the 
start of their split from India. 

"Already during the voyage to Fiji, caste system divisions weakened 
as a result of members of different castes, who would not socially 
interact in India, being accommodated in the same dormitories and 
eating together," Voigt-Graf told an academic gathering last week. 

But in the early years, many Indians yearned nostalgically for their 
ancestral homeland, she said. 

"Despite the fact that most individual Indo-Fijians did not maintain 
contact with their relatives in India and never visited the subcontinent 
again, they did maintain links in the form of sentimental memories and 
emotional attachment," she said. 

These illusionary memories however were dashed when those who could 
afford to return to India were met with an experience "not only intense 
but often quite shocking." 

"A number of respondents commented that they would not visit again as 
they found it hard to deal with the daily life in India... while those 
who visited the ancestral region were overwhelmed by the number of people 
who claimed to be their long lost relatives, hoping to share in their 
relative wealth," Voigt-Graf said. 

And for those who sought acceptance further afield, in Australia,. for 
example, it was only to find themselves judged by both the indigenous 
population and Indian migrants who have come direct from India. 

The realisation that they are rejected, ridiculed and kept at a distance 
by the very people they have regarded as their brothers and sisters is a 
bitter experience, Voigt-Graf said. 

Asked about their interactions with Indians from India, the respondents 
in Sydney could hardly hide their disappointment, she said. 

Such responses from Indo-Fijians interviewed by Voigt-Graf include: 
'Indians from India are arrogant'. 

'They think they are better and treat us very badly'. 'We tried to 
reach out to them but we were rejected'. 'They don't even marry their 
children to ours'. 'We are more tolerant but they think they are 
culturally richer'. 'They are very conservative'. 'They have their 
caste system and all those traditions'. 'Indians from India shake 
their head when they talk'. 'They laugh at the way we speak Hindi'." 

Voigt-Graf said Pacific rim countries will witness the arrival of 
many more Indo-Fijians as they seek to find a new homeland that will 
accept them for who they are. 

"Currently almost one third of the total Indo-Fijian population lives 
outside Fiji -- a proportion that is likely to rise." 

Excerpted from: Hindustantimes.com
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The Following is a comment from a visitor to our site: August 22, 2002
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RE: "The realisation that they are rejected, ridiculed and kept at a 
distance by the very people they have regarded as their brothers and sisters is a 
bitter experience, Voigt-Graf said."

Comment:

Hi I am an Indo Fijian living in Canada now. My experience with people 
of India have been a positive one. They are been nice to me and marvel at 
the fact that we still have kept our Hindi, language, culture and customs. 
My sister studied for several years in India and she was widely accepted by
everyone. She has very pleasant memories of India and her university 
days.

Professor Voigt-Graf may have interviewed an isolated case.
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The Following is a comment from a visitor to our site: OCT 3, 2003
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Hi!!All,
I am a Indo Fijian  currently living in Ontario Canada, I dont find 
Professor Voigt-Graf isolated case. It is very true for us indo fijian 
in NZ. I lived in NZ for 4 Yrs. Then I moved to California, US. 
I found the same thing....But now I am in canada in a very small city.  
I hope I will have better experience here....
FROM: sfmouse@hotmail.com  DATE: Oct 3, 2003
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