History
Indian indentured labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, North-West Frontier and South India such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They spoke numerous dialects and languages depending on their district of origin. These have been grouped into related dialects and summarised in the table below:
| Language/Dialect | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Bihari | 17,868 | 39.3% |
| Eastern Hindi | 16,871 | 37.1% |
| Western Hindi | 6,903 | 15.2% |
| Rajasthani | 1,111 | 2.4% |
| Other Languages | 1,546 | 3.4% |
| Overseas Colonies | 640 | 1.4% |
| Unknown | 500 | 1.1% |
| TOTAL | 45,439 | 100% |
Note that Bhojpuri, spoken by 35.4% of north Indian migrants, has been included in the Bihari group and Awadhi, spoken by 32.9%, has been included in the Eastern Hindi group.
Over time, a distinct Indo-Fijian language developed in Fiji, which combined the common elements of the Hindi dialects spoken in these areas with native Fijian, Urdu, Arabic, and English, Tamil words; this has diverged significantly from the varieties of Hindi and Urdu spoken on the Indian sub-continent. The development of Fiji Hindi was accelerated by the need for labourers speaking different dialects and sub-dialects of Hindi to work together and the practice of young children being left during working hours in early versions of day care centers. Percy Wright, who lived in Fiji during the indenture period, wrote:
Indian children born in Fiji will have a mixed language; there are many different dialects amongst the Indian population, and of course much intercourse with the Fijians. The children pick up a little of each language, and do not know which is the one originally spoken by their parents. —Other writers, who included Burton (1914) and Lenwood (1917) made similar observations. By the late 1920s, Fiji Hindi was being learned by all Fiji Indian children born in Fiji, becoming the common language of North and South Indians alike.
Read more about this topic: Fiji Hindi
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)