Hinduism in Fiji

Hinduism in Fiji has a following primarily among the Indo-Fijians, who are descendants of indentured workers brought to Fiji by the British, as cheap labor for colonial sugarcane plantations. Hindus, along with Indian Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, started arriving in Fiji starting with 1879 through 1920 when slavery-like indenture system was abolished by Britain. Some Indo-Fijians came to the island nation in the 1920s and 1930s. Fiji identifies people as Indo-Fijians if they can trace their ancestry to the Indian subcontinent, but not necessarily India. Most of the Hindus in Fiji, however, are of Indian descent.

According to 1976 Census of Fiji, 40% of its population professed to be Hindus. From late 1980s through early 2000s, Fiji witnessed several coups and communal unrests, where Hindus faced persecution in Fiji. Many Hindus of Fiji emigrated to other countries. A 2004 estimate suggests about 261,000 Fijians were Hindus (33% of its 775,000 population).

The Hindu community in Fiji has built many temples, schools and community centers over time. Diwali is their primary festival of the year.

Fiji became part of the British colonial empire in 1874. Few years later, in 1879, the British government brought the first Indians on coolie ships, as indentured laborers to work in the sugarcane plantations of Fiji owned by British colonial officials. By 1919, about 60,000 Indians had been brought to Fiji, with job advertisements and work contracts that promised Indians right to return or right to stay, own land and live freely in Fiji after the 5 year work contract period was over. These contracts were called grimit (phonetically derived from the English word "agreement").

Nearly 85% of Indian origin people brought to Fiji as indentured laborers were Hindus (others were Indian Muslims, Indian Christians and Indian Sikhs). The indentured laborers were poor, escaping famines and poverty during the British colonial rule of India, and brought to Fiji as part of a wave that saw human migration as cheap labor from India, China and southeast Asian countries to plantations and mining operations in the Pacific Islands, Africa, Caribbean and South American nations. About a fourth of the immigrants came from South India primarily Tamil Nadu, while the remaining 75% are from northern states primarily Uttar Pradesh, but also from Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana and Punjab - each group bringing their own version of Hinduism.

...
Wikipedia