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GIRMIT MEMORY AND FACTSHEET: “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.” FBC, Check Up, Facts

9/5/2023

 

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.

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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.”

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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
​
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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. 

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The former girmitiya Totaram Sanadhya
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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

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“Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks (LAMB CHOPS) at a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian.” – Heywood Broun

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