Satyamns1946

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-- New user message (talk) 00:14, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

== A Votualevu Girmitiya Descendants’ Contributions ==(Suchit Maharaj by Satya Nand Sharma)

I am a proud to be a descendant of gimitiya grand parents. My grand father Pandit Suchit Maharaj and grand mother Ramani Devi were free settlers in Votualevu. They came to Fiji in ship no. 24 called Jumna II on 23 May 1893. On its second trip to Fiji, the 310 passengers Jumna brought, was the smallest number of passengers carried by any ship transporting Indian laborers to Fiji. This brought the total population of Indians in Fiji to only 12,281.

In fact, 42 ships made 87 voyages and brought in 60,553 passengers (including births but excluding deaths). Of these ships 29 were sailing ships and only 13 were steam ships which began transporting laborers from 1905.

Considering the fact that a total of 60,965 passengers had left India, the total of deaths at sea was, therefore, much higher than the births. Syria, which was wrecked on Nasilai Reef alone, amounted for 59 deaths out of the 497 passengers it was carrying.

From the total of 60,965, a majority of 45,439 boarded ships in Calcutta and starting in 1903 only 15,114 in Madras. (Total South Indians who came to Fiji was 15,132; and Muslims 9,098)) Sailing ships took, on an average, seventy-three days for the trip while steamers took 30 days.

The first ship, Leonidas, which was named after King Leonidas of Sparta, with 463 indentured laborers, arrived in Fiji on 15th May 1879. On 3 March, 1879 a total of 498 passengers had embarked on Leonidas and departed from Calcutta - 273 men, un proportionately 146 women and 79 children, less than twelve years of age. Of these17 died before the ship arrived in Levuka, after a journey of 72 days. Yanuca Lailai was chosen as a quarantine station where fifteen more of the new arrivals died on the island due to dysentery, diarrhea and typhoid leaving only 463 survivors, before they were released from the island on 9 August 1879. According to Fiji Times of 17 May, 1879 there were two buffaloes as well on board.

And the last ship No. 87 called S.S.Sutlej V (steamship) arrived on 11 November 1916 carrying the last batch of 888 laborers.

Jumna, a 1,048-ton iron sailing ship, was built in 1867 and was 208.6 feet long and 34.1 feet wide. Tota Ram Sanadhya (1876 to 1947) who later wrote My Twenty One Years in Fiji was a famous passenger of ship. According to the agreement each girmitiya was required to work six days a week. Sundays and authorized holidays were off. They had to work 9 hours during week days and five hours on Saturdays. Daily wages per day for males was one shilling.

While Totaram Sanadhya was sent to Rewa my grand parents were sent to serve their girmit in Toga, Nadi. After completing their girmit, they moved to Votualevu as free settlers. They had four sons and three daughters. They were 1) Baij Nath Tewari married to Ram Dasi (father of Rishi Nath of Tunalia and Shiri Ram- Suva) 2) Ganga Jali married to Pt Har Dayal Sharma (mother of Pt Vishu Deo Sharma - Dentist Rama Kant’s father , Surya Deo Sharma father of Dr Vimal Sharma , Dr Nar Deo Sharma of Raki Raki and Chandra Wati of India) 3) Sarju Dei married to Sital Din Maharaj ( mother of Sheel Wati of India and Vidya Wati Mishra - former school teacher and mother of Bal Karan Mishra- teacher) 4) Suruj Dei married to girmitiya Ram Sumer Maharaj 5) Vishwa Nath Sharma teacher at Votualevu Government School who went to India in 1929 for higher studies and became a victim of cholera 6) Surya Nath Sharma married to Ram Raji f/n Ram Pal Singh ( father of Shardha Nand Sharma and grand father of Ishwara Nand Sharma- teacher and also the father of Saras Wati who was the mother of Satya Nand Sharma -Suva City Councillor) 7) Rama Nand Sharma married to Raghu Raji (father of Pt. Daya Nand Sharma, President of S.S.D. Brahman Purohit Sabha, Dr Vivekanand Sharma former politician, an authority on Hindi, a writer and the founder of Maharishi College and Tirth Dham, Parma Nand Sharma former Principal of Tailevu North Junior Seconday, Tilak High School and Labasa College and Satya Nand Sharma former Head Teacher of Drasa Indian, Andrews Primary and Vashist Muni Memorial) Other grand sons - Birja Nand Sharma father of Akhila Nand Sharma, Barma Nand Sharma father of Bibhaya Nand Sharma(U.S.P), Savita Nand Sharma father of Vidhyotama Sharma (teacher) and Sada Nand Sharma father of Renuka Sharma and Sanjay Sharma (Sydney) Because of shortage of space I have not been able to include the names of all the grand children and the great grand children of Suchit Maharaj who was blessed to have two daughters of girmitiya Ram Pal Singh as his daughters in law.

Besides Suchit Maharaj , some other girmitiyas and elderly persons of Votualevu whose names and faces are fresh in my memory are: Bas Deo Maharaj (father of Ram Karan F.S.C. sector clerk), Bharat ( father of Bhagauti Prasad tabalchi), Bhikha ( grand father of Suresh Chand), Raj Man ( father of Shyam Baran), Brahma Dutt (Father of Pt. Ram Deo), Guru Charan Gosai ( grand father of Sat Narayan Gosai), Shiu Prasad Gosai (father of Shiu Kishore Gosai), Suresar Dutt Maharaj (father of Deva Nand Sharma ) . Buddhu Dada (father of Shiu Prasad Tabalchi of Nasau), Ram Dhan Dhannu (a disciple of Suchit Maharaj) Ram Pal Singh and Dukhantiya (my nana and nani and grand parents of Bhagwan Singh - teacher), Ramani Devi (my grand mother) and Pt Raj Bali Sharma - a founder of Shri Sanatan Dharam Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji and Vijay Bahadur Singh (father of Ved Prakash Singh) They all face the same problem of being evicted from their janambhumi

In early 1930s Suchit Maharaj together with a Pandit Ram Chandra Sharma, a sanatani preacher from India, was able to influence some people from Votualevu to go to India for higher studies. Notable amongst them were: Hari Prasad, Babu Mahend Pratap, Pt. Vishnu Deo Sharma, Vishwa Nath Sharma, Chandra Wati and Sheel Wati.

Later in early 60s and 70s, Satendra Pratap nandan, Vivekanand Sharma, Narend Pratap Nandan, Satya Nand Sharma, Vishnu Deo, Ramesh Chand Sharma, Jagdish Singh, Jagdish Gosai, Ramesh Chand, Davendra Pratap Nandan, Mohammed Habib, Deo Prasad, Vijay Singh, Davendra Dutt Sharma, Ishwara Nand Sharma and few others, to quench their thirst for higher education, went to India while Bhashkara Nand and Prem Singh went to England.

Suchit Maharaj family continues to contribute immensely to Sanatan Dharam; to the development of Hindi and the spread of education in Fiji. Thus, we acknowledge our indebtedness to the matagalis for availing the land at Valemasima for the survival of the family in the past. However, because non renewal of leases, we have been compelled to move else where in search of jobs, to provide shelter and to feed our families. Some have found shelter in squatter areas, some relocated to Navua, and some others forced to migrate to greener and richer pastures in the hope that their children will not have to face the same fate.

Votualevu, however, is dear to many of us as we were born and bred there. That’s where we built our houses with our sweat and blood, did all the tyag and tapasya for a better life for our children. Performed the final funeral rites of near and dear ones at the aam ghat. It’s that part of the Mother Earth that we worshipped. It’s there that we made all our Offerings. Our umbilical chords are buried there. We have very deep sentimental attachments and fond memories of Votualevu.

Departing from the place of our birth- the ancestral land where we resided for four generations has been very painful and sorrowful. Families are disintegrated. There is lot of metal, family, social and economic problems. It is now a national problem.Will there ever be a day when we can buy a piece of land in Fiji and call it our own. Or from which our children will not be removed forcefully?

Satya Sharma Monday, April 14, 2008 (Ram Naumi)

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