2_ The Indo Fijians...

After our orientation process each FRE-7 was designated to learn Hindi or Fijian. Save for myself and what should have been five others, the rest of the group was tasked with learning Fijian, the indigenous language here. Unfortunately, two of our members were moved to the Fijian language group as something hadn’t worked out with their future site placements. This left the Hindi group with three members including myself.

I don’t want to write at length yet about the Indo-Fijians living in Fiji as I don’t know enough yet. The basic information is that the Indo-Fijian community makes up around 40% of the population. They are the descendents of indentured laborers brought to Fiji by the British to serve as farmers and laborers in the sugar cane plantations.

Because laborers came from a variety of regions and castes, the Indo-Fijian language and culture adapted to accommodate all the differences- the caste system (as near as I can tell) was eliminated and the language “Fiji-Hindi” became an amalgam of several Hindu dialects plus additional Fijian words.

So, to anyone wondering if I would be able to plop myself down in Delhi and start working immediately after Peace Corps, the answer is… maybe, but it would be challenging. I have been told that a person fluent in Fiji-Hindi can “get by” in most areas of India, but the language is different enough that it would still be difficult since the vocabulary and conjugation reflects the smashing together of different Hindi dialects, adoption of some Fijian language vocabulary, and modified English words.

At this point, it’s all moot as I can’t even talk about eating dinner in the past, present, or future tense.

Historically, there has been tension between the Indo-Fijian and Fijian communities. Because the IF’s came to Fiji as indentured labor, very few of them have been able to actually purchase land (which was communally owned by villages and chiefs).

I don’t want to get into the minutia of lifestyle and education practices between the two groups as I know so little at this point and to attempt to summarize would be insulting- I will say however that land ownership is a big issue in the IF community as they have worked hard to “make it” here and find themselves with power and capital but no land, while some Fijians find themselves to be impoverished but with plenty of communal land. The history of this dynamic has been written about in a variety of sources and is very interesting.

In my IF settlement, we live close to two Fijian villages and our community have several friends in each of them. School children are in mixed Fijian/IF classes and many Fijians learn Hindi as they work with IF. In short- the dynamic between the ethnicities is complex and textured and not as black and white as I first though when researching the country prior to my trip.