Fijileaks: It has recently come to our notice that in their zeal to publish memories of GIRMIT, Fiji media reporters have been reproducing recollections without cross-checking the veracity of such recollections. It is quite possible the 91-year-old SAMPAT LAL is relaying what she was told but the truth is there was no 'Coolie Ship' named Matana and the coolies did not directly travel from India to Vanua Levu. Yes, most came from Bihar, and the Labasians are referred to as 'The Biharis of Fiji'.
*We wrote to FBC but are yet to hear from the public broadcaster.
 91-year-old Sampat Lal still has vivid memories of the stories shared by her grandparents, who came to Fiji under the indenture system. Lal, who was born in Labasa, says her grandparents arrived in Fiji in the late 1880s to work on the sugarcane plantations. She adds that the majority of the Indians were brought from UP Bihar and most of them settled in Labasa after completing their contracts. “My grandfather came in the ship Matana which brought many Indians. The ship directly travelled from India to Vanua Levu to work in cane plantations.” |  Lal recalls that her father faced a lot of hardships while working on the cane plantations and was often mistreated by the British officers, or “Kulambars”. Lal says the determination and hard work of the Girmityas have left a huge impact in Fiji. |
The table below provides details of the 87 voyages made by the 40 ships that brought Indian Indentured Labourers to Fiji. Of these ships, 27 were sailing ships and 13 were steam ships.
| Ship Date of Arrival in Fiji Allanshaw 17 June 1890 Allanshaw 17 June 1890 Arno I 23 July 1900 Arno I 23 July 1900 Arno II 4 September 1903 Arno II 4 September 1903 Arno III 3 May 1904 Avon I 5 May 1892 Avon II 25 July 1899 Bayard 20 August 1883 Berar 29 June 1882 Boyne 26 April 1886 British Peer 23 April 1892 Bruce 21 May 1886 Chenab I 24 March 1914 Chenab II 16 June 1914 Chenab II 16 June 1914 Chenab III 1 September 1916 Clyde 1 June 1897 Clyde 1 June 1897 Danube 15 June 1891 Elbe I 13 June 1896 Elbe II 14 July 1900 Elbe III 5 August 1903 Ems I 20 April 1894 Ems II 30 July 1904 Erne 24 April 1896 Fazilka I, SS 28 March 1901 Fazilka II, SS 18 June 1901 Fazilka III, SS 20 June 1902 Fazilka IV 17 April 1906 Ganges 21 June 1900 Ganges 27 June 1885 Ganges 27 June 1885 Ganges 3 September 1899 Ganges 3 September 1899 | Ganges I 22 July 1911 Ganges I 22 July 1911 Ganges II 18 July 1912 Ganges II 18 July 1912 Ganges III 8 November 1912 Ganges IV 21 February 1913 Ganges V 29 May 1913 Ganges VI 9 September 1913 Ganges VI 9 September 1913 Ganges VII 21 June 1915 Hereford I 24 April 1888 Hereford I 24 April 1888 Hereford II 15 June 1892 Hereford III 28 June 1894 Howrah 26 June 1884 Indus 8 June 1912 Jumna I 27 June 1891 Jumna II 23 May 1893 Leonidas 14 May 1879 Main 30 April 1885 Mersey 13 June 1903 Moy I 3 May 1889 Moy II 14 April 1893 Moy III 1 June 1898 Mutlah I 22 May 1911 Mutlah I 22 May 1911 Mutlah II 18 August 1911 Mutlah II 18 August 1911 Mutlah III 7 May 1915 Mutlah III 7 May 1915 Mutlah IV 1 August 1915 Mutlah IV 1 August 1915 Newham, SS 23 July 1884 Pericles 3 July 1884 Poonah I 17 September 1882 Poonah II 19 June 1883 Rhine 30 August 1900 | Rhone I 15 May 1890 Rhone II 11 May 1897 Sangola I 18 March 1908 Sangola I 18 March 1908 Sangola II 6 June 1908 Sangola II 6 June 1908 Sangola III 1 February 1909 Sangola III 1 February 1909 Sangola IV 21 April 1909 Sangola V 7 March 1910 Sangola V 7 March 1910 Sangola VI 5 June 1910 Santhia I 22 April 1910 Santhia I 22 April 1910 Santhia II 8 July 1910 Santhia II 8 July 1910 Sutlej I 25 June 1911 Sutlej II 4 October 1911 Sutlej III 27 April 1912 Sutlej III 27 April 1912 Sutlej IV 11 April 1913 Sutlej IV 11 April 1913 Sutlej V 11 November 1916 Syria 11 May 1884 Vadala, SS 26 March 1895 Vadala, SS 26 March 1895 Virawa I, SS 26 April 1895 Virawa II, SS 26 April 1902 Virawa III 17 July 1905 Virawa IV 23 March 1907 Virawa IV 23 March 1907 Wardha I 28 July 1905 Wardha II 28 June 1906  |
NFP and COUPIST RABUKA: In 1994, the NFP made the racist coupist Sitiveni Rabuka Prime Minister, by giving him their votes in Parliament. They agreed to be governed by the autocratic and racist 1990 Constitution that had disenfranchised the Indo-Fijians. In the 1997 Constitution, they agreed to give him IMMUNITY from prosecution, and went on to fight the 1999 election in Coalition with his SVT party. In 2022, they once again formed Coalition with the racist (telling Fijileaks Editor to go slow on 'Biman Prasad' for we need Rabuka to defeat the FFP). After the election, the NFP once again made the COUPIST the Prime Minister of Fiji. As far as we are concerned, the man should be in JAIL for TREASON and Crime Against Humanity, for his treatment of the Indo-Fijians.
 The former girmitiya Totaram Sanadhya |  |
SICKENING TREATMENT: Those who fell seriously ill onboard the coolie ships to Fiji were simply thrown into the ocean
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By VICTOR LAL
The 1990 Constitution:
This Constitution brought me into direct conflict with Ratu Mara, Ratu Penaia Ganilau and Sitiveni Rabuka when the late Professor Asesela Ravuvu and I exchanged sharp words at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office seminar in London on the constitutional developments in Fiji after the 1987 coups. Also present across the table was Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, then Rabuka's High Commissioner to London, and later the post-Ghai constitution President of Fiji. It was at this seminar where I repeated what I had told the British television audience: "The 1987 coups raise one and only question: how many generation does one have to wait to become a native. My ancestors were coolie Indians, not ME or my fellow Indo-Fijians." Defending the nauseating racial and constitutional developments was the racist Major Isikeli Mataitoga, later High Court judge after the Bainimarama coup. Mataitoga later became Bainimarama's ambassador to Japan, and is now back as Rabuka's JUDGE in the Fiji Court of Appeal.
The 1990 Constitution also led to arrests, beatings, and tortures when a group of Indo-Fijians, led by Dr Anirudh Singh, set fire to this Constitution in public as a mark of protest.
BIMAN PRASAD WAS HIDING UNDER THE BED AT USP, and one 'Gandhu Chacha' refused to join us in our struggle for Indo-Fijian rights in Fiji
“Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks (LAMB CHOPS) at a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian.” – Heywood Broun
