The Fiji Indians : challenge to European dominance, 1920-1946 /
K.L. Gillion.
- Canberra : Australian National University Press, 1977.
- x, 231 pages ; 22 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-223) and index.
Preface -- Abbreviations -- 1. The setting -- 2. The 1920 strike -- 3. The sadhu and the CSR -- 4. Second thoughts -- 5. Negotiations -- 6. Dharma, disputes and education -- 7. Common roll -- 8. Kisans unite -- 9. War, land, Fijians.
"The period 1920-1946 was an important one in the history of Fiji, of the Fiji Indians, and of Indians overseas in general. In 1920 the place of India in the Empire and the Indians in Fiji was undefined. The indenture system had been abolished, but it was not known whether further assisted Indian immigration would be possible and whether the Indians already in Fiji would stay or return to India. If they stayed, would they supplant the indigenous Fijians as the preponderant population of the islannds, and would the local European settlers be able to hold their own against them, or would Fiji be transformed into an area of Indian cultural, economic, and possibly even political dominance? In the period the question of whether the Indian challenge could be contained aroused intense anxiety and discord. The 'Indian problem' as it was popularly known - though it could as well have been called the European problem or the Fijian problem - was, in short, the principal question of Fiji history at that time."--Preface, P. VII.