Indo-Fijians are people born in Fiji, but are ethnically Indian. The constitution of Fiji defines "Indian" as anybody who can trace, through either the male or the female line, their ancestry back to anywhere on the Indian subcontinent. They are mostly descended by indentured labourers brought by Fiji's British colonial rulers between 1879 and 1916 to work on Fiji's sugar plantations. These were complemented by the later arrival of Gujarati and Sikh immigrants.
Indo-Fijians comprised the majority of the population in the 1970s, but by 2000 this had declined to 43.7 percent, because of a higher ethnic-Fijian birthrate and particularly because of the greater tendency of Indo-Fijians to emigrate. Emigration accelerated following the coups of 1987 (which removed an Indo-Fijian-supported government from power and, for a time, ushered in a constitution that discriminated against them in numerous ways) and of 2000 (which removed an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister from office).
Differences between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians complicated preparations for Fijian independence, which the United Kingdom granted in 1970, and have continued to define Fijian politics since. Prior to independence, Indo-Fijians sought a common electoral roll, based on the principle of "one man, one vote." Ethnic Fijian leaders opposed this, believing that it would favour urban voters who were mostly Indo-Fijian; they sought a communal franchise instead, with different ethnic groups voting on separate electoral rolls. At a specially convened conference in London in April 1970, a compromise was worked out, under which parliamentary seats would be allocated by ethnicity, with ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians represented equally; about half of each ethnic group's seats would be elected on a communal franchise, and the remainder by universal suffrage.
Political differences between the two communities, rather than ideological differences, have characterized Fijian politics since independence, with the two communities generally voting for different political parties. The National Federation Party founded by A.D. Patel was the party favoured overwhelmingly by the Indo-Fijian community throughout most of the nation's history, but its support collapsed in the parliamentary election of 1999, when it lost all of its seats in the House of Representatives; its support fell further still in the 2001 election, when it received only 22 percent of the Indo-Fijian vote. The party currently favoured by Indo-Fijians is the Fiji Labour Party, led by Mahendra Chaudhry, which received about 75 percent of the Indo-Fijian vote in 2001, and won all 19 seats reserved for Indo-Fijians. Originally founded as a multi-racial party in the 1980s, it is now supported mostly by Indo-Fijians.
The majority of Indo-Fijians are Hindi speakers, with large minorities speaking Tamil, Bihari, and Punjabi, among others. Almost all Indo-Fijians are also fluent in English, and in the younger generation, English appears to be gradually replacing Indian languages.
About 75 percent of Indo-Fijians are Hindus and a further 16 percent are Muslims. Christians comprise about 6 percent of the Indo-Fijian population, while about 1 percent are members of the Sikh faith. The remaining 2 percent are nonreligious.
See also
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
