Why Fiji-Indians Reject Christianity

Interesting Sidelight on Pacific Racial Problem

to convert any substantial sec -T tion of the Fiji-Indians to Christianity is the subject of interesting comment by Rev. R. Piper, in the Missionary Review, issued by the Methodist Missionary Society.

Fourteen years ago, when there were 60,000 Indians in Fiji, the Society’s Indian Mission there claimed 200 members. To-day there are 84,000 Indians, and the member ship claimed by the Methodist Mission does not exceed 270. The Society has been at work there for 40 years, and “the aggre gate amount spent must be about £250,000.”

Mr. Piper admits that it is a discourag ing outlook. “At the next census the Indians will undoubtedly outnumber the Fijians. . . . . The racial problem will embarrass* the Fiji Government for genera tions yet to come. And what shall we dare to predict regarding the Cross, the Hindu Trident and the Moslem Crescent?”

But Mr. Piper refuses to be discouraged; and, in setting forth his reasons for urging a continuance of this mission w r ork, he gives us some history which is not only interesting, but which everyone should bear in mind when considering the problem of the Fiji-Indians. Says Mr. Piper: “The conditions under which Indians were brought to Fiji, and the manner in which they were treated (or rather ill treated) on the plantations should be care fully considered. Missionary work among Indians prior to the cessation in 1920 of the iniquitous indenture system was a for lorn hope.

“The dominating motive in filling Fiji with Indians was to provide a plentiful supply of cheap labour for the plantations.

Owing to the difficulty and expense of obtaining female immigrants, the Govern ment permitted the recruiters to fill the emigrant ships with three men to every woman.

“Great abuses crept into the system of recruiting labourers. There was a large proportion of undesirables in each shipload that arrived in Fiji. The housing condi tions on the plantations were disgraceful, Indians of all castes and religious scruples were herded together in coolie lines, where they became the prey of forms of evil that could not be checked while the indenture system lasted.

“Fiji became notorious for the callous treatment of the servile Indian population.

The unfavourable sex proportion was more ominous than in any British Crown Colony.

There was an excessive amount of crime.

In the last dozen years of the indenture system capital punishment reached an alarming figure. The suicide rate exceeded that of any country in the world.

“Theoretically, an Indian in a strange land, freed from the shackles of caste and priestly domination, should more readily accept Christianity than in his own land.

But his ancestral customs, beliefs and pro tective armour of caste had been blasted away. The process was so cruel, so un intelligible, that large numbers, particu larly from the South of India, committed suicide in fits of despondency.

“Those who bore their humiliations more stoically treasured a bitter resentment for the European and all his ways, including the religion that was offered him in sub stitution for his own. For forty years the Government of Fiji declined to spend even a penny upon educating the thousands of Indian children that were being reared in such debasing conditions.

“Our Indian missionaries opened schools and orphanages and did much in other

ways to ameliorate the lot of the unfortu nate indentured labourers. But it was not till the stream of indentured labour was stopped during the World War, and the indenture system was abolished once and for all in 1920, that Christian missionaries had any hope of overcoming the dread incubus of suspicion, distrust and moral apathy that characterised the Indian com munity. Here again I must confess that facts are baldly stated. The full import of these * facts will not be realised by our Church until the history of Fiji-Indian has been written.

“Since 1920 the Indians have gained rapidly in self-respect and self-assertive ness. Economically they have greatly im proved their relative position in the Colony.

The climate is agreeable and conditions generally favour an inordinate numerical growth. Natural laws are correcting the disproportion of the sexes.”

Mr. Piper urges the continuance of mis sion work. He was attracted by the rising generation of Indians in Fiji. “What is most needed is a steadfast attitude of understanding sympathy for the Indians.”

Mr. Enoch Perkins, director of the So ciete Chimique du Chrome, will arrive in Noumea from America in June to inspect the company’s mines in New Caledonia.

Mr. A. T. Day, chairman of directors of Aloha Central Gold Mine, N.L., left Syd ney by the Monterey early in February to visit the Tavua goldfield, Fiji.

Mr. Bergmann, an American engineer of the Societe Chimique du Chrome, who had charge of the Fantoche mine in New Caledonia, recently left Noumea for the United States. Mr. Sinclair, formerly en gineer in charge of mines at Tiebaghi, New Caledonia, has been appointed to replace Mr. Bergmann.