100 Years of Cultural Solitude
Patterns of Cultural Retention Among Indo-Fijians and Indo-Fijian Americans


Introduction
Prospectus
Text
Notes on the Text
Bibliography

Notes on the Text

  1. Bandhu, Deen, Personal Conversations: October 16, 2000.

    2.  
  2. For a complete history of Indian emigration to Fiji, see:

    3. Gillion, K.L.  Fiji’s Indian Immigrants.  Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 1962.
    Gillion, K.L.  “The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji” in Population Studies.  Volume 10, Number 2 (November 1956): page 139.
    Lal, Brij V.  “Fiji Girmitiyas: the Background to Banishment” in Rama’s Banishment: A Centenary Tribute to the Fiji Indians.  Heinemann: London, 1979.  Pages 12-39.
    Mayer, Adrian C.  Indians in Fiji.  Oxford University Press: London, 1963.  Pages 13-23.
    Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific.  University of California Press: Berkeley and London, 1961.  Pages 1-12.
     
  3. South and East Africa also received substantial Indian populations during the colonial period.  Their Indian populations, however, were predominantly free in that the emigrants did not come under the auspices of an indentured labor system. A perfect example of just such immigration is Mohandas Gandhi, who lived in South Africa for twenty years as an attorney before returning to India and leading the Congress movement.  See Gillion, K.L. The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji: page 1 and Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page xi.

    4.  
  4. Jayawardena, Chandra.  “Culture and Ethnicity in Guyana and Fiji” in Man.  Volume 15, Number 3 (September 1980): Page 430.

    5.  
  5. Gillion, K.L.  Fiji’s Indian Immigrants: pages 7-10.

    6.  
  6. Lal, Brij V.: page 14.

    7.  
  7. Mayer: Peasants in the Pacific, page 2.

    8.  
  8. “This paper [‘The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji’] is based mainly on the Emigration Proceedings of the governments of India, Bengal, and Madras, in the archives at New Delhi, Calcutta, and Madras, and on materials in the office of the Protector of Emigrants, Calcutta, the statistics being from annual reports on emigration from Calcutta and Madras.  Other useful official sources included the Sanderson Committee Report…the McNeill and Chimman Lal Report…the Fiji Indian Immigration Reports…and the Fiji Indian Immigration Reports.”  Gillion, K.L.  The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji: pages 156-157.

    9.  
  9. Because recruitment from the Calcutta depot focused exclusively on Hindi-speaking regions of northern India the ratio of Hindi speakers to Tamil and Telugu speakers recruited from the Madras depot can be estimated at 3:1.  For a geographic description of Hindi see Barz, Richard and Yadav, Yogendra.  An Introduction to Hindi and Urdu.  Munishram Manoharlal: New Delhi, 1993.  Pages 1-2.

    10.  
  10. Gillion.  The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji: page 152.

    11.  
  11. Renou, Louis (ed.)  Hinduism.  George Braziller: New York, 1962.  Pages 16 and 17.

    12.  
  12. O’Flaherty, Wendy Dongier (trans.) The Rig Veda.  Penguin: New York, 1981.  Page 9 (verse 10.90)

    13.  
  13. There is, in fact, a third distinct system of Hinduism that developed between the ritual and bhakti periods.  This third system can be described as ascetic because of the internalization of certain aspects of the vedic ritual.  The school, however, has been excluded from this analysis because of its limited applicability to modern Hinduism and to groups outside of the brahman class.  See Renou, Louis: page 17.

    14.  
  14. The transition between the ritualistic and bhakti phases of Hinduism are not as easily marked as the transition between older and new variants in other modern religions.   Renou places this transition between 600 and 800 CE.  See Renou, Louis: page 17.

    15.  
  15. O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger.  The Rig Veda.  Penguin: New York, 1981.  Page 267.

    16.  
  16. See also Renou, Louis: pages 30-35.

    17.  
  17. Gupta, Rameshvar Das (ed.)  Mangal-Milan.  Uknown Publisher: New Delhi, 1949.

    18.  
  18. The edition of the Mangal-Milan which I obtained is written in Hindi and includes the Sanskrit verses which are to read at the appropriate moment.  In attempting to understand the text, I consulted V. Mishra, a pandit in Sacramento, California who migrated to the United States in 1992 from Delhi, India.  Pandit Mishra provided decoded the critical detailed used in this analysis for comparing the traditional Indian wedding to the practice in Fiji.

    19.  
  19. “Mark made on the forehead of a newly engaged bridegroom, sign of consecration or investiture, transfer, consecration, etc.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 454.

    20.  
  20. Unless otherwise noted, puja means the reading and recitation of Sanskrit mantras by an officiating priest.

    21.  
  21. In my experience, the lack of a younger brother can be resolved by means of another male relation who is younger than the bride such as a cousin.

    22.  
  22. By “actual wedding rites” I mean the actual ceremony, called shadi, to be described later, in which the bride and groom are made husband and wife, as opposed to the rituals and events before and after the specific ceremony.

    23.  
  23. Tumeric sauce.

    24.  
  24. The text is vague in terms of when the haldi must be applied.  It can take place once a day for five days on one extreme while on the other extreme, all five spreadings can be done on one day.

    25.  
  25. “A small round cake of unleavened wheat flour, deep-fried in ghi or oil.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 641.

    26.  
  26. “A dish of rice boiled in milk, with sugar.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 238.

    27.  
  27. Between the tilak and the actual wedding there are a series of events, which are not particularly religious, at the respective homes of both the bride and the groom.  These vary by region, class, and the personal interests of the families.

    28.  
  28. The following description of the wedding and its elements comes from the Mangal-Milan.

    29.  
  29. As with the younger brother of the bride in the tilak ceremony, the term “sister” here can be constructed loosely to mean any female kin, particularly a cousin, if no real sister is present.

    30.  
  30. Literally, prayer at the door.

    31.  
  31. The arthi is a traditional form of respect and is reserved to the arrival of bridegrooms and to the images of gods during a puja.  It involves the rotation of a plate with a burning light in the center of it around the bridegroom, in this case.

    32.  
  32. It is important to understand the importance of the fire in the Hindu tradition.  As early as the vedic period, as shown in the Rg Veda, the fire was considered to be the intermediary between the gods and humans.  By sacrificing into the fire and before the fire, the oblation would be reach heaven.

    33.  
  33. This element of the wedding is perhaps the most ancient, with textual evidence in the Rg Veda of a groom leading his bride around the fire.  In fact, the Sanskrit word “to wed” has, as a base meaning of “to lead around the fire.”

    34.  
  34. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: pages 66 and 67.

    35.  
  35. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: pages 68-69.

    36.  
  36. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 70.

    37.  
  37. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: pages 70-72.

    38.  
  38. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 74.

    39.  
  39. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 71.

    40.  
  40. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 67.

    41.  
  41. Renou, Louis: page 33

    42.  
  42. The only major exception between Mayer and the Mangal-Milan is the number of rotations around the havan each of the wedding pair leads.  Mayer states that the bride leads four while the groom leads only three.  The Mangal-Milan is clear in that the groom is to lead four times after the bride has led three rotations.  If Mayer has correctly described the ritual in Fiji, this particular ceremony would present a significant departure from the philosophical underpinning of the Hindu marriage, which subordinates the wife to her husband; a subordination that is represented in the groom’s domination of the rotations around the havan.  Nevertheless, Mayer’s description is an isolated incident in terms of my field work.  No other wedding description involved the bride leader the groom around the fire four times.

    43.  
  43. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 74.

    44.  
  44. Space does not permit a full analysis of other ritualistic aspects of Hinduism.  Nevertheless, an analysis of the funeral rites among the Indo-Fijians, as described by Mayer, would reveal an essentially Indian and Hindu ritual performed in accordance with the Garuda Purana, a Sanskrit text composed at the beginning of the common era.  See Mayer, Peasants in the Pacific, pages 80-81 and the Garuda Purana.  Mayer also describes other rituals that correspond to a great degree with their Hindu predecessors.  For example, Mayer describes the practice of shaving a newborn’s hair, known as the muran on page 82.

    45.  
  45. Hindus maintain both a lunar and solar calendar.  Therefore, there are two different new years depending on which calendar is used.

    46.  
  46. http://timepiece.shubhkaamna.com/diwali.htm, October 23, 2000.

    47.  
  47. Diwali is a Hindi corruption of the Sanskrit work dipavali.

    48.  
  48. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 86.

    49.  
  49. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 87.

    50.  
  50. Similar to the cultural continuity of dipavali is the Hindu spring festival of holi which has retained its essentially Indian character in Fiji.  For more information on holi see http://timepiece.shubhkaamna.com/holi.htm and Mayer, Peasants in the Pacific: page 87.

    51.  
  51. A perfect example of this is the Mangal-Milan, the text defining the wedding ritual for officiating brahmans.

    52.  
  52. Wilson, Jim.  “Fiji Hinduism” in Rama’s Banshiment: A Centenary Tribute to the Fiji Indians.  Heinemann: London, 1979.  Page 107.

    53.  
  53. Wilson, Jim: page 88.

    54.  
  54. Wilson, Jim: page 107.

    55.  
  55. Both bhakti and the ritual can involve the use of icons and worship to the divine.

    56.  
  56. Wilson, Jim: page 88.

    57.  
  57. Wilson, Jim: page 90.

    58.  
  58. Hindu pantheism holds that all of the numerous gods are actually representations of a single divine force.  See Renou, Louis: page 36.

    59.  
  59. Martin, E. Osborn.  Gods of India.  Cosmo Publications: 1996, New Delhi.  Page vi.

    60.  
  60. Lutgendorf, Philip.  “Ramayan: The Video” in Drama Review.  Volume 34, Number 2 (summer 1990): pages 127-148.

    61.  
  61. Wilson, Jim: page 89.

    62.  
  62. Grieco, Elizabeth M.  “The Effects of Migration on the Establishment of Networks: Caste Disintegration and Reformation Among the Indians in Fiji” in International Migration Review.  Volume 32, Number 3 (Fall 1998): page 709.

    63.  
  63. Barz, Richard and Yadav, Yogendra: pages 17 and 18.

    64.  
  64. Barz and Yadav: page 2.

    65.  
  65. Moag, Richard F.  “The Linguistic Adaptations of the Fiji Indians” in Rama’s Banishment: A Centenary Tribute to Fiji Indians.  Heinemann: London, 1979. Pages 134 and 135.

    66.  
  66. Moag, Richard F.: pages 128-130.

    67.  
  67. Hindi, like many languages, is composed of several distinct dialects that range from Rajasthani in the far west, near Pakistan, to Bihari at the mouth of the Ganges in the east.  The Avadhi dialect is spoken in the eastern portion of Uttar Pradesh where, according to Gillion, many of the Indo-Fijian migrants originated.  The grammatical structure of the dialects is similar enough that a person literate in the mechanics of one is familiar with all.  Barz and Yadav: pages 1-3.

    68.  
  68. Moag, Richard F.: page 117.

    69.  
  69. Moag, Richard F.: pages 112-138.

    70.  
  70. This lack of concordance with Western Hindi dialects has important political and social ramifications for Indo-Fijians because Western Hindi, particularly the dialect spoken around Delhi, is considered to be Standard Hindi used by the government in all official publications and now the official language of India.  The Eastern and Bihari dialects are primarily regional.  Although some of the dialects, such as Avadhi, in which Tulasidas wrote his Ramayana, have long literary traditions, the vast majority of them are oral.

    71.  
  71. The name Ram provides an example of an interesting note to Indian names: Ram and Rama are, for all practical purposes, the same name.  Ram is a Hindi name while Rama is Sanskrit in that Hindi drops the final short a of most Sanskrit words.  This is not an issue with the name Sita because both Hindi and Sanskrit make a distinction between short a and long a.  The long a of Sanskrit is not dropped in Hindi.  See Jain, Usha R.  Introduction to Hindi Grammar.  Center for South Asian Studies: Berkeley, 1995.  Page 2.

    72.  
  72. Bandhu, Deen: October 22, 2000.

    73.  
  73. Prasad, Sembhudai.  Personal Conversations: December, 1999.

    74.  
  74. O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger: page 9 (verse 10.90).

    75.  
  75. For a more complete description of caste patterns in northern India see Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: pages 156-163.

    76.  
  76. Grieco, Elizabeth M.: page 720.

    77.  
  77. Grieco, Elizabeth M.: page 720.

    78.  
  78. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 157.

    79.  
  79. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 158.

    80.  
  80. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 160.

    81.  
  81. This type of clothing is actually the etymological root of the English word pajamas.

    82.  
  82. A good source for visual images of all four types of this closing are Indian movies which almost always have characters in roles that necessitate one or more of these garbs.

    83.  
  83. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: in between pages 66 and 67.

    84.  
  84. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: between page 82 and page 83.

    85.  
  85. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: between pages 114 and 115.

    86.  
  86. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: between pages 50 and 51.

    87.  
  87. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacfic: page 13.

    88.  
  88. The similar elements of the salwar kamiz would cause equal discomfort.

    89.  
  89. A good example of this fashion change is the Indian film industry.  Movies such as Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke and Choti Bahu reserve the sari for household and ritual use.  In these films, men only wear traditional clothing during the wedding ceremony or, in the case of the pajama suit, to bed.

    90.  
  90. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: plate IV(a) between page 34 ad 35.

    91.  
  91. I have no explanation as to why men do not wear traditional Indian garb as observers to ceremonies, but do wear a dhoti or pajama suit as participants.

    92.  
  92. It is interesting to note that in India, too, the use of traditional garb has receded in urban areas.  A good example of this fashion change is the Indian film industry.  Movies such as Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke almost entirely lack traditional Indian garb while Choti Bahu reserves it for the household and married women.  This is in contrast to older films, such as Prem Kahani, in which all women, both married and umarried, wear generally wear saris.  In all of these films, men only wear traditional clothing during the wedding ceremony or, in the case of the pajama suit, to bed.

    93.  
  93. Curry powder.

    94.  
  94. “Turmeric (used as a spice, and as a dye).”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 1064.

    95.  
  95. “A bread-cake.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 872.

    96.  
  96. “A small round cake of unleavened wheat flour, deep-fried in ghi or oil.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 641.

    97.  
  97. “Propitiatory offering or gift; boon, blessing.  Food offered to an idol; the remnants of such food.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 666.

    98.  
  98. “A sweet made of flour, ghi, and sugar, or of semolina, ghi, syrup, coconut and spices.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 1064.

    99.  
  99. “A dish of rice boiled in milk, with sugar.”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 238.

    100.  
  100. “A large thick bread-cake.  A sweetcake (offered to a deity); sweets (offered to Hanuman).”  Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, page 872.

    101.  
  101. Abhinesh Ram and his mother Nirmila hosted a puja on October 29, 2000 in their Menlo Park home which I attended.

    102.  
  102. Bandhu, Deen: October 22, 2000.

    103.  
  103. August 31, 2000 – September 5, 2000.

    104.  
  104. The Mangal-Milan was, in fact, the text used by the priests officiating the wedding rites for both the groom and the bride.

    105.  
  105. Shandil, Anginie.  Wedding Videotape, March 1999.

    106.  
  106. This is in fact the case with Mayer.

    107.  
  107. Bandhu, Deen: October 22, 2000.

    108.  
  108. The populations in London, Sacramento, and Menlo Park all watched Indian films during the field work and Mr. Bandhu has in fact installed Z-TV and TV Asia, to all Indian channels.

    109.  
  109. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 105.

    110.  
  110. Mr. Bandhu’s third child named his third son Rickesh, a combination of the American name Ricky and the common Sanskrit suffix –esh.

    111.  
  111. It is interesting to note that immediately after the conclusion of the ceremony, the pandit went into a private chamber and changed into slacks and a shirt.

    112.  
  112. Melwani, Lavina.  “The Twice Migrant: No Place Called Home” in Little India.  October 1997: page 32.

    113.  
  113. Melwani, Lavina: page 29.

    114.  
  114. Melwani, Lavina: pages 28-38.

    115.  
  115. Jayawardena, Chandra: pages 430-450.

    116.  
  116. Jayawardena, Chandra: pages 433 and 449.

    117.  
  117. Jayawardena, Chandra: page 439.

    118.  
  118. Jayawardena, Chandra: page 438.

    119.  
  119. Jayawardena, Chandra: page 433.

    120.  
  120. Jayawardena, Chandra: page 438.

    121.  
  121. Buchignani, Norman.  “The Social and Self Identities of Fijian Indians in Vancouver” in Urban Anthropology.  Volume 9, number 1 (Spring 1980): pages 81 and 82.

    122.  
  122. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 11 and 12.

    123.  
  123. Mayer, Adrian C.  Peasants in the Pacific: page 1.

    124.  
  124. Gillion, K.L.  The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji: page 139.

    125.  
  125. Gillion, K.L.  The Sources of Indian Emigration to Fiji: pages 139 and 155.

    126.  
  126. Rangoonwalla, Firoze.  75 Years of Indian Cinema.  Indian Book Company: New Delhi, 1975.

    127.  
  127. Ragoonwalla, Firoze: page 70.

    128.  
  128. See page 20 of this analysis.

    129.  
  129. When meeting with Deen Bandhu’s wife in Sacramento, California a compact disc including songs from these two popular Hindi movies was playing in the background while she gleefully hummed the lyrics almost perfectly.  A similar experience occurred in London, Ontario and Fremont, California where the Indo-Fijian population continues to enjoy the songs from movies long forgotten except for their memorable tunes.

    130.  
  130. Bandhu, Deen and Prasad, Durga: Personal Conversations, October 21, 2000.
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