A Plea For The Fiji-Indian

Is Government Doing All That Is Possible to Solve Urgent Problem?

YOUR December number is only just to hand, and I should be grateful if you would allow me to make a few comments on the report in this on the Indianization” debate in the Fiji Legislative Council and your leading article dealing with this.

As to the historical part of your article, I will only remark that I very much doubt if the Government of India would have ever agreed to an indenture system with no provision for eventual settlement of those who chose to remain; or if such a system could have succeeded in the long run.

The system followed has had unforeseen consequences, and, among others, two grave defects, which have had last-

ing results—pronounced sex disparity in recruitment, and enlistment from many different Indian races, You agree that but for Indian aid economic progress in the Colony would have been very slow. (Prosperity is, in fact, still very largely dependent on it.) And surely it must be admitted that Indian farmers, both in the sugar area and elsewhere, have contributed some thing by their industry and enterprise, They have made the Sugar Company’s ten-acres farm system a success and they have developed the production of rice and other crops with little outside help.

And, moreover, the rents they pay have played an important part in Fijian pro gress.

WITH war-time developments I am too imperfectly acquainted to maxe any comment, ic is, i am afraid, clear that, in the eyes of others at any rate, the community has a good deal to live down; and the more surprising that its leaders should have chosen this mile to launch an aggressive campaign of selfish demands.

For good or ill the destinies of the Colony are now in the hands of two, not three, very different races, with Fijian interests necessarily paramount as hosts of the other two. And it behoves all three to make the best of it.

From this point of view Sir Lala Sukuna’s speecn is of great importance.

While protesting strongly against un reasonable demands, he very wisely ap peals for more co-operation and greater recognition of Fijian difficulties. And he points out how Indian culture can help towards common ends. I gather that he recognises the difficulties of educating children of different races together. But he would like to see much more co-oper ation, cultural and otherwise, at later stages, possibly by joint societies of dif ferent sorts and eventually, the estab lishment of a local college open to all races.

But, if the Indian community is to make its proper contribution, it seems clearly necessary to improve conditions of progress and give its leadership a saner outlook on public affairs. To my mind, the key to this lies in concerted effort to foster agricultural progress out side the sugar area. (This can probably be trusted to solve its own problems.) I doubt if it is recognised how much there is to be done to improve produc tion among the independent farmers, give these more outlets for intelligence and enterprise, and the great bulk of community much more of a leadership drawn from its own main business.

It has been remarked by high author ity that feelings of frustration and dis content must arise among peasant farm ers treated as a purely “static” body. A colony which neglects this principle does so at its peril.

As things stand at present, though there are exceptions, leadership is largely in the hands cf those with little or no practical or personal interest in farming. This must result in a tendencv to impatient idealism, and narrow-minded concentration on sectional and political questions.

AS it happens, I have recently sug gested some measures to improve matters in connection with the Fiji Development Plan, including the creation of a well-equipped Indian Branch of the Agricultural Department, both to foster crop production, and to make close con tact with the requirements of Indian farmers and their mentality and practice.

For they differ very materially from Fijians in these respects.

Also, I suggest funds for improving settlements, and access to them; meas ures to establish a co-operative organisa tion to foster corporate action and check the evils of improvident borrowing; a resettlement fund for the benefit of those who may lose their farms; and, to pro mote agricultural leadership, steps to give Indians practical proof that farming in its higher branches can offer a satisfy ing and remunerative career.

From figures I saw recentlv I gather that Indian primarv education still lags seriously behind Fijian. This may be the reason for the demand for more schools of this class.

But one outstanding need is, I think, a really good Indian secondary school under Government control, with a strong

practical tinge and possibly with over seas scholarships for further agricultural and technical training, to mitigate the present obsession with academic pur suits, for which there are such limited openings in the Colony.

FIJI is not yet making the best use of its Indian element. It remains for it to give this larger scope and guide it on the right lines.

But to do so the administration must be adequately equipped on the Indian side. And I regret to learn, from a re liable source, that at the present moment there are practically no European offi cials with a competent knowledge of Indian languages to keep touch with locally published and imported litera ture, or take an intelligent interest in what the people are thinking and talking about among themselves.

This cuts both ways. It means in adequate control of Indian affairs. And, from the Indian point of view, it must generate a feeling that their concerns and interests are not thought to be worth worrying about. This is very far from Sir Lala’s principle of enlisting the aid of Indian culture for common ends.

Unless I am misinformed about this matter, there would seem urgent need for improvement. No Colony can hope to be reasonably well governed, if its European officials lack an adequate knowledge of the language of half its population.

I am, etc.,

J. R. Pearson

Secretary for Indian Affairs, Fiji, 1927-32 (C.1.E., 1.C.5., ret’d.).

Auvesque, La Rocque, Jersey, Channel Islands, March 26, 1948.