So the site looks okay on your PC, notebook, tablet, Iphone, Android phone.

Maybe some people can donate some sagamoli or dough to fijigirmit.org@gmail.com (active again since today).

Maintaining and quality-checking a single website is a big task. I am personally proud that we did that 12 years ago. Others were still sleeping ;-)

I did *not* check on any e-mail. Just because I never had the time. But I guess that 5'000 mails have been sent since - and never answered.

Mea culpa & moce mada
dani
 

PS: Treasure the short time with Doc G.C. while in Lautoka last month. I never had the time to visit all my old collegues and friends. Lautoka has more money transfer outlets than Zurich/Switzerland. But it was a great 5-week trip. And thanks to Dave S. we even got a nice appartment in Suva.

I am trying to find information about my great grandfather who arrived into Fiji under the indentured labourers system.

"Fiji me kisaan andolan - Volume 2" is out. For a very limited time, we provide here the book for free.

Editor: For me, as a "ghora", it is unbelievable how people can write such stories to share it with the world.

Why nobody ever paid a single cent to us? We have this guestbook, the majority is raving about the information on the site. Yet, our bank account has been closed since the only F$50 donation has been eaten up by bank fees.

Why is not a single visitor donating? What do we do wrong? What would we have to do to encourage even a small donation?

If you have any suggestion, please let us know.

PS: No reply from the Fiji Girmit Council yet. And this is the institution in Fiji that claims to be the representative of the Girmit people!

My personal opinion: what a shame!!!

We will try to delele those rubbish but can't guarantee anything. The problem is that FrontPage does not offer a better protected discussion list - and we dont habe a dedicated builletin board software.

Editor: Dr. Ahmed Ali has indeed been of help for the Fijigirmit.org cause since we started this site. Numerous articles written by him can be found on this web. He was also kind enough to help people wanting to track their ancestors personally. We thank and salute you - may you rest in peace.

Editor: We love to provide articles on our website that have something to do with the Fiji Girmit Era. However, we were rather reluctanct to put this article on our site. What it beauty, what is just cute, what is beautiful? There are 500 millions of good-looking Indians abroad. They make up for probably 20% of the female popolation of the earth.

What does that have to do with a site devoted to Indians that went - at least sometimes - through hell do make it through a foreign country?

Yes, we love the pictures of those beauties. But then again, if they were born 100 years ago in Fiji: would they show their bodies like this? Would not the the portrayal of  such cute women attract the senses of the colonialists and sirdars?

We leave it to you to be the judge.

Editor: Fijigirmit.org is a non-political organisation. The views here, specially in this e-mail, may or may not reflect the personal beliefs of the members of the organisation committee. With this website we are politically neutral - we try to be unbiased. However, we don't want to block political views. We would even invite any opposing article or e-mail. On demand, we would even conceal the source.

But let us make one thing straight: We are not a publishing vehicle for any political party or affilliation of views. Our website has only one aim: to shed light on the Girmit era in Fiji. And not to comment on any current political happenings in Fiji (could this be a reason for a new website?).

The event will take place on Saturday 14th May 2005 at 7:00 pm, at Hilda Davis Centre, 185 Bigge Street, Liverpool, UK.

Click here to download the inivitation.

Thanks, Rod

Thanks a lot for your generous offer, Rattan Prakash (Executive Officer, New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils)!

Note: We disagree with his assessment of our negative reply to an inquiry from a Lata Lakhan to help her trace her ancestors in India. We have been and are doing this website without any financial support. We maintain that research on behalf of an individual would absorb too much of our own spare time. However, we want to make it perfectly clear that we clearly see the need for a computerisation of the emigration passes in the National Archives of Fiji. Already on 25 May we have written to the Minister of Information asking him for a support letter for such project. Till today no reply!

We just received word that the new book of Professor Vijay Naidu, called "Violence of Indenture in Fiji" is soon to be released. Click here () to download the preface.

The book is available from the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies.

Editor: Link does no longer work as per Sept 2005

Editor: As end of 2004 the website was no longer visible.

Vicas Press, the publisher of "Fiji me Kisan Andolan", by Ayodhaya Prasad, gives permission to fijigirmit.org to publish the book online on its site, and to use any revenue it so receives for the benefit of the said site. Please also place a statement that Vol. 2 of the book is to be published by July.
Ganesh Chand, Director, Vicas Press

Ultimately, this means the 240-page book will soon be downloadable from this website at a not yet determined price.

Click here for the title page
Click here for the table of content and introduction
Click here for the back cover

I am currently researching to produce a commemorative gold coin in conjunction with the Government of Fiji which will mark the 125th Anniversary of the first indenture labourers reaching Fiji from India.

It is our intention to include the ship 'Leonidas' in the design of the coin, but I am having difficulty finding an image of the ship we can use as reference.

Do you have any good images of this ship that we may be able to use, or alternatively can you recommend some other organisation that may be able to help.

Both the Suva City Council and the Shri Sanatan Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji have placed advertisements about scheduled celebrations in the local media.

Up to 1'000 pages are downloaded daily from this website. Thus we informed the local media about this with a press release.

23 April 2004

22 April 2004

Should you need any help with your donation, please contact us by e-mail, call (++679) 665 2595 or 3315191, or fax to (++679) 665 2596.

21 April 2004

19 April 2004

18 April 2004

17 April 2004

Preface	HTML	Acrobat
Chapter 1	HTML	Acrobat

Preface
Chapter 1

16 April 2004

16 April 2004

15 April 2004

14 April 2004

13 April 2004

11 April 2004

We have just received excerpts from a new book of Dr. Brij Lal. It is called "Girmitiyas: The Origins of the Fiji Indians"
What is it all about? We quote here from the book:

"This study does not look at the lives of the girmitiyas once they had reached Fiji; instead it examines the circumstances which led to their departure from India. Various questions are discussed: the reasons for introducing indentured labourers into Fiji, the structure and operation of the recruitment system in India, the regional origins of the migrants, their social and economic background in India, and the migration of women and families...."

Click here to read excerpts from this book.

The book will be available mid-May from the Fiji Institute of Applied Science

8 April 2004

2 April 2004

12 March 2004