On this day in 1879, the first group of 473 indentured laborers arrived in Fiji from Calcutta aboard the Leonidas. The indentured labourers who disembarked were the first of over 61,000 to arrive from the Indian subcontinent over the following 37 years, forming the nucleus of the Fiji Indian community that now numbers close to forty per cent of Fiji’s population.
The Indian indenture system was a system of indentured servitude, by which more than 1.6 million workers from India were transported to labour in various overseas European colonies, beginning shortly after the abolition of slavery in the early 19th century. The system began with the Atlas voyage to Mauritius in 1834, but early journeys were marked by mortality rates of over 17%, prompting British authorities to impose stricter shipping regulations. The system expanded after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, in the French colonies in 1848, and in the Dutch Empire in 1863. British Indian indentureship lasted until the 1920s. This resulted in the development of a large Indian diaspora in the Caribbean,[6] Natal (South Africa), Réunion, Mauritius, and Fiji, as well as the growth of Indo-South African, Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Mauritian and Indo-Fijian populations.
Indian indentured workers at a Sugar mill.
GROWING UP IS HARD…
Today is the birthday, in 1946, of Derek Leckenby, guitarist with English beat rock band, Herman’s Hermits who scored the 1964 UK No.1 single ‘I’m Into Something Good’ (cover of Earl-Jean’s) and the 1965 US No.1 single ‘Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter’. He died on 4th June 1994 aged 51. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0J6q42zLH0
