Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population of 924,610 live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts: either in the capital city of Suva; or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi—where tourism is the major local industry; or in Lautoka, where the sugar-cane industry is dominant. The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain.
Roshan Seth OBE is a British-Indian actor, writer and theatre director who has worked in the United Kingdom, United States and India. He began his acting career in the early 1960s in the UK, but left acting the following decade and moved to India to work as a journalist. In the 1980s, he rose to prominence for his comeback performance as Jawaharlal Nehru in Richard Attenborough's Academy Award-winning film Gandhi, which brought him a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and reignited his interest in acting.
Irene Jai Narayan, was an Indian born teacher and politician, who had a significant influence on politics in Fiji. She came to Fiji in 1959 after marrying Jai Narayan, a well known school Principal in Suva, and began her career as a teacher. She taught in DAV Girls School and MGM High School in Suva before entering politics.
The Fijian coups d'état of 1987 resulted in the overthrow of the elected government of Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra, the deposition of Elizabeth II as Queen of Fiji, and in the declaration of a republic. The first coup d'état, in which Bavadra was deposed, took place on 14 May 1987; a second coup d'état on 25 September ended the monarchy, and was shortly followed by the proclamation of a republic on 10 October. Both military actions were led by Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, then third in command of the Royal Fiji Military Forces.
Brij Vilash Lal was an Indo-Fijian historian who wrote about the Pacific region and the Indian indenture system. A harsh critic of the Bainimarama government, which originated in the military coup of 2006 and retained power in the 2014 elections, he lived in exile in Australia.
Islam In Fiji has a high following in Fiji. There are about 60,000 Muslims in Fiji. Muslims in Fiji are mostly Sunni Muslim. In the 1966 Fiji elections, a Suva-based Muslim communal party, the Muslim Political Front, took part. Presently, Arabic is widely taught among Muslim schools for the Fijian Muslims all across Fiji.
The Syria was a 1,010 ton, iron sailing ship with a length of 207.7 feet, breadth of 34.1 feet and depth of 20.8 feet. She was built by William Pile of Sunderland for the Nourse Line, named after the Syria River in Karnataka, India and launched in 1868. She was primarily used for the transportation of Indian indentured labourers to the colonies.
Sudesh Mishra is a contemporary Fijian-Australian poet and academic.
Andrew Indar Narayan Deoki was an Indo-Fijian statesman who served his community as a social and religious leader, soccer administrator, member of the Legislative Council and Senate in independent Fiji and as Attorney General.
Thakur Kundan Pal Singh Kush (1881–1967) was an Arya Samaj missionary and teacher who arrived in Fiji, from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1928. He first taught at the Dharamshala School in Nausori where he later became the founding Head Teacher of Vunimono Arya School in 1929. He taught in a number of Arya Samaj schools which included Gurukul Primary School near Lautoka in 1939, Arya Samaj Girls' School in Saweni, Lautoka, from 1940 to 1945, Swami Shraddanand Memorial School in Suva, Vunikavikaloa Arya School in Ra, and Veisari Primary School near Suva.
Operation Morris Dance was an Australian military operation conducted in May 1987 in response to the first of the 1987 Fijian coups d'état.
Unlike the majority of Fiji's Indian population, who are descendants of Indian indentured labourers brought to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, most of the Sikhs came to Fiji as free immigrants. Most Sikhs established themselves as farmers. Sikhs also came to Fiji as policemen, teachers and preachers. In recent years large numbers of Sikhs have emigrated from Fiji, especially to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Sikhs in Fiji are generally referred to as Punjabis.
Hindu Maha Sabha was an organisation representing various Hindu organisations and was formed in Fiji in 1926, following the formation of All-India Hindu Maha Sabha in India. The formation of the organisation both in India and Fiji occurred after the assassination of Swami Shraddhanand, a Hindu activist in India. The formation of the Sabha in Fiji coincided with the formation of a national Muslim organisation, the Fiji Muslim League.
Epeli Hauʻofa was a Tongan and Fijian writer and anthropologist born of Tongan missionary parents in the Territory of Papua. He lived in Fiji and taught at the University of the South Pacific (USP). He was the founder of the Oceania Centre for Arts at the USP.
Indo-Fijians or Indian-Fijians are Fijian people of Asiatic Indian descent and include people who trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent. Although Indo-Fijians constituted a majority of Fiji's population from 1956 through the late 1980s, discrimination and the resulting brain drain resulted in them numbering 313,798 (37.6%) out of a total of 827,900 people living in Fiji as of 2007.
Among the first published works of Fijian literature, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, were Vivekanand Sharma, Raymond Pillai's and Subramani's short stories and Pio Manoa's poetry. The emergence of Fiji's written literature coincides with the country's transition to independence in 1970.
Aftab Seth is a retired Indian diplomat who served as ambassador of India to Greece, Vietnam and Japan. He is the brother of British-Indian actor Roshan Seth.
Vijay Chandra Mishra is an academic, author and cultural theorist from Fiji. He is currently a professor at Murdoch University, Australia.
Fijian nationality law is regulated by the Fijian Constitution of 2013, as amended; the 2009 Citizenship of Fiji Act, and its revisions; and various British Nationality laws. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Fiji. Fijian nationality is typically obtained either on the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Fiji or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to parents with Fijian nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalisation. Nationality establishes one's international identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, for rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the commonwealth, have traditionally used the words interchangeably.
Subramani is a Fijian author, essayist, and literary critic. According to The Literary Encyclopedia, he is "one of Fiji's leading prose fiction writers, essayists, and critics". His essays have dealt with multiculturalism, education, and cinema. Subramani writes fiction and non-fiction in English and Fiji Hindi, and has combined writing with university administration. He has served in all three universities in Fiji and has been a Dean, Pro Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor. He has established himself as a novelist, short story writer, essayist and a literary critic. He has written on education, language, the university, cinema and civil society. In his fiction, as a bilingual writer, and working from the intersection of two languages, he been able to depict, in the words of the Samoan novelist, Sia Figiel, the "struggles of Fijian society and present us with a haunting salusalu of melancholy, despair, anguish, madness, terror, loss interlaced with moments of satire and humour that encapsulates the history and experience of men and women and children caught up in the violent shadow of colonialism".
