Rohit Deo
Opposition member and SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka. Picture: FILE
The Social Democratic and Liberal Party has wished everyone an inspirational Girmit Divas 2021.
It was 142 years ago on May 14, 1874, when the first Girmitiyas arrived in Levuka on the Leonidas.
In a statement issued today, SODELPA party leader Viliame Gavoka said it was an epic voyage by many from rural settings in India, not familiar with the seas, unaware it would be a journey of some months over the ‘kalapani’ (dark waters) to a tiny island in the Pacific, Fiji.
“What awaited them was pure misery; and under the ‘Girmit’, they toiled in the fields of Fiji through sweat and tears under intolerable conditions. Yet, they overcame the hardships, they persevered, they thrived and put in place the modern economic system that has made Fiji what it is today,” Mr Gavoka said.