The Girmit Centre in Lautoka was the brainchild of Pandit Banarsidas Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi, who had been an associate of Rev. C.F. Andrews, considered himself a spiritual citizen of Fiji. Though he had never been to Fiji, it had been nearest to his heart for a long period of time.

So at the time of the Girmit Centenary in 1979 Chaturvedi asked Mr. Atal Behari Vajpai, who was then the Foreign Minister of India, to donate a sum of 6 to 7 lakh rupees to build a centre for racial integration in Fiji. The government of Fiji donated prime land in a central location in Lautoka and the foundation was laid when the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, visited Fiji in 1981.

The Centre was duly built and it is an outstanding building and is often used for public and private functions. Chaturvedi wanted it to be named the Gandhi-Andrews House but it came to be known as the Girmit Centre (‘girmit’ was the debased term used by the labourers for the ‘agreement’ they signed before coming to Fiji on indenture, and today it means ‘indenture’ in Fiji).

Chaturvedi also wanted it to be managed by not Indians alone, but by all the races and his hope was that it would help to promote better relations between different races. I am not sure if the Girmit Council ever had any non-Indian members though I know that Fijians used to use the place for church services.

Chaturvedi believed that Indians should respect the Fijians like elder brothers as they were the first settlers. A.D. Patel, the founder of the National Federation Party and the first Leader of the Opposition in Fiji, also used to express similar sentiments. Patel had always stressed that the interests of the Fijians should take precedence over others as they are the original settlers.

It is not clear how much was ever done through the Girmit Centre for bringing about racial integration as Chaturvedi had hoped. The Girmit Council also gave scholarships to students to study in India but again I am not sure on what basis these scholarships were given – if they looked at only merit or if they also looked at need and ethnic background. There was also a Girmit Women’s Association. I am again not sure whether they had women of all races among its members and what sort of activities they had.

When the Indian Cultural Centre was established in Suva the aim was not just to teach Indian music and dancing to Indian children but also to teach them to children of all races, especially Fijian children. It could have been possible to have a branch of that in the west based at the Girmit Centre but I do not think it was ever done.
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Just outside Lautoka, on the way to Nadi, is the Viseisei village in Vuda which is important as the first settlement of the Fijians. There is a cultural and handicraft centre, the Ratu Jeremiah – Motibhai memorial cultural centre. It was the initiative of Motibhai and Company in the 1970s and it was to be a symbol of multiracial co-operation. The Girmit Council could have asked for help from Viseisei villagers in having Fijian handicraft and for teaching Fijian culture.

Chaturvedi noted that Rev. Andrews had great hopes that “racial integration will proceed amicably in those distant lands”. People of Fiji also had great hopes at independence that there would be multiracial harmony. Chaturvedi was happy to note that Fijians had a sympathetic outlook towards Indians and that the Prime Minister of Fiji (Ratu Mara) was also sympathetic.

Ratu Mara and A. D. Patel were both for multiracialism and though Patel died before independence, Siddiq Koya who succeeded him also seemed to support the idea at that time. But a few years after independence Koya seemed to take a different line and in 1975 R.D. Patel, the brother of A.D. Patel, left the NFP saying that the party had changed beyond recognition. The most important change was that it became an Indian party.

An attempt could have been made at the Girmit Centenary to revive multiracialism, with the “centre for racial integration” proposed by Chaturvedi, as the focus. Indeed there was a brief moment when Mrs. Gandhi visited Fiji two years later, and laid the foundation for the Girmit Centre, when it seemed that the country would succeed in fulfilling the euphoria felt by the people at independence.

But then came the 1982 general elections and the relations between Fijians and Indians went back several years to what it was during the 1968 by elections when Fijian became “dangerously angry” and demonstrated their resolution “not to be dominated in the land of their heritage”. It was noted that Fiji came as close to the brink of racial confrontation as it ever had.

However, in 1968 Indo-Fijians had a leader like A. D. Patel who believed in multiracialism and dialogue. So at the first sitting of the Legislative Council after the elections Patel made a “symbolic gesture of reconciliation which helped to heal wounds”. In the next decade Fiji was able to become an example for multiracial harmony as it became the ‘Paradise of the Pacific’.

From 1977 the multiracial political party that A. D. Patel founded became a communal party in policies as well. And the gap between the Fijians and Indians in political outlook became wider and wider until in April, 1987 the Fijian dominated Alliance Party was defeated by an Indian dominated Coalition. The Coalition ruled for a month till May 14, 1987 when the third ranking officer in the Fiji Military Forces, Lt. Col. Sitiveni Rabuka, executed the first coup d’etat in the Pacific. The Fijians rallied behind him almost to the last man.