Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents (62 page)

1953–56 M. Narsey & Co. becomes Narseys Ltd., first nonwhite company to receive license to sell liquor in Fiji

1963 Duty-free boom begins in Fiji

B
HUPENDRA
H
AJRATWALA
, my father, travels to United States along with Champak Narotam, my mother's brother

1965 United States begins to allow significant Asian immigration

1967
B
HANU
N
AROTAM
marries Bhupendra Hajratwala and travels to United States

1969 New Narseys building completed in Suva

1970 Fiji wins independence; Indians make up more than 50 percent of population

Ratanji Narsey dies in Tokyo airport; company leadership passes to his eldest son, my uncle Chiman Narsey

1971
M
INAL
H
AJRATWALA
born; family migrates to New Zealand

1972 Dictator Idi Amin expels Indians from Uganda

1978 Hajratwalas migrate to United States again

1981 Narseys has 110 employees, six retail divisions, two joint ventures, two factories, and more than one million shares held by family members

1987 Two military coups in Fiji; economic sanctions; Fiji Indians begin to emigrate

1988
R
ANCHHOD
H
AZRAT
, my father's brother, moves with his family to Australia

1989–90 Indo-American hotel and motel owners organize to battle discrimination

1990 United States institutes "Diversity Visa Act," a.k.a. immigration lottery

1992 G. C. Kapitan & Son Vegetarian Restaurant ceases operations in South Africa

1994 Narseys department store closes in Fiji

1995 South Africa holds first post-apartheid elections

1997 British hand over Hong Kong to China upon conclusion of ninety-nine-year lease

1999
M
ALA
K
UMAR
, my mother's niece, and her family move from Fiji to Los Angeles after winning immigration lottery

2000 Military coup in Fiji; Indian emigration increases 3,391 U.S. households have a South Asian head of household and a same-gender partner, according to
Trikone
magazine's analysis of census data

2001 11.5 million people of Indian origin living abroad, according to Indian government

2009 19 million to 30 million people of Indian origin living abroad, according to unofficial estimates

PAGE EPIGRAPH

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On the sixth night Vidhaataa:
While textual references cite Vidhaataa as a god (one face of the masculine deity Brahma), many Hindus worship Vidhaataa as a goddess. I have followed this grass-roots practice.

PAGE 1. WATER

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The Solanki dynasty:
Transliteration creates a diversity of spellings. Various sources call this dynasty by the name Chaulakya or Chalukya, tracing the etymology to
challu,
the palm of the deity's hand, where they were formed (Tod,
Annals and Antiquities,
p. 112; and the 1896
Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency,
p. 156). Sholanki is another modern variation. As for other names cited in this chapter: Mulraaj is found in the texts as Mularaj and Mularaja, and seems to come from
mula,
root, and
raajaa,
king. Chaamundaa (also Camunda, Chamunda) seems to take her name from two buffalo demons she killed, named Chanda and Munda. Tod lists the other fire-pit
(Agnikunda)
tribes as Rathod, Parmar, and Chohan—all common surnames in our Khatri community of the five villages.

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Vadodara is:
The population and relative size of Vadodara—known in the days of the British as Baroda—are drawn from the "Index of Primacy" table, based on the 2001 census, at the website of the Urban Development and Urban Housing Department, Government of Gujarat (
www.udd.gujarat.gov.in/udd/urb_scn.htm
).
an honorary parade:
Photographic engraving, San Francisco Public Library "India" photo file, unsourced image dated February 5, 1876.

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"
emaciated body":
David Kinsley,
Hindu Goddesses
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p. 148.

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Vishnu's sixth incarnation:
The listed number and order of Vishnu's incarnations vary, even among ancient authorities; Dipavali and Bebek Debroy's summary English translation of the
Agni Purana
(New Delhi: Books for All, 1991) lists Parasurama as the sixth. The story of the slaughter of the Kshatriyas twenty-one times is contained in the Mahabharata, the great Hindu war epic. The creation of new warriors from the fire pit is told in various lesser scriptures known collectively as the Puranas.

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an old Gujarati text
: Raobahadur Govindabhai Hathibhai Desai, ed.,
Vadodaraa Raajya-Praantik Sarava Sangraha
[Survey of the Baroda State, Baroda District] (Baroda: Lohana Mitra Steam Printing Press, 1921), pp. 25–29.

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invaders from Bombay:
Tod,
Annals and Antiquities.
"Scythian mercenaries":
A. H. Bingley,
Handbook on Rajputs
(1899; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1986), p. 111.

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In every wedding
: I supplement my own viewing of the Mulraaj ritual with two written descriptions, both contained in booklets self-published by community members: "Our Kshatriya Samskaras, I—Srimant" by my parents, Bhanu and Bhupendra Hajratwala (Pleasanton, Calif., 2007), and "An Indepth Study of Gotarej" by Venilal A. Khatri and Prabhat C. Kapadia (Lautoka, Fiji, 1997). The latter attempts to explain the tradition thus: "In the olden days when wedding processions used to take place, it required the services of soldiers or security people to protect them from bandits etc. This has remained in the psyche of the people...[O]ne could say that the couple's life may have obstacles now and then; thus protection may be required from society or any other worldly cause" (p. 25).
11.5 million: Report of the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora,
2002. See the note at the beginning of Part I below for an explanation of how I have calculated this and other estimates of the size of the diaspora.

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nostalgia was a diagnosed condition:
Joy and Peter Brain, "Nostalgia and Alligator Bite—Morbidity and Mortality Among Indian Migrants to Natal, 1884–1911,"
South African Medical Journal
65 (January 21, 1984): 98–102.

PAGE PART ONE: "COOLIES
"

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Various methods have been used over the past two centuries to calculate the size of India's diaspora. The numbers I cite on the opening pages for Parts I, II, III, and IV, while not directly comparable to one another, represent the best information available in each time period. The 1900 figures, from a report to the British House of Commons titled
Restrictions upon British Indian Subjects in British Colonies and Dependencies,
can be considered quite accurate in representing the size of the population of those who left India via the indenture system; they do not count "passenger" Indians, who formed a fairly small group relative to the whole. From 1916 to 1947, after indenture voyages ended, the primary source is the British Empire, which relied on its governors abroad to report or estimate their local figures. The data sets are flawed, as censuses in the colonies were irregular; also, some surveys collected data worldwide, while others counted only British possessions. After 1947, there is a gap in official information until independent India's first comprehensive effort at measuring its diaspora, in 2001. Nongovernmental organizations and scholars attempted to fill the gap. Sources are marked in the notes for each set of numbers given. Readers interested in the figures from which I drew these cumulative numbers may wish to review the complete data at the following website:
www.minalhajratwala.com/statistics
.

PAGE
 2. CLOTH

To reconstruct the history of M. Narsey & Co. in this chapter, as well as of the Narseys firm in Chapter 5, I relied on four written sources: (1) For 1900–1945, Kamal Kant Prasad's unpublished dissertation. (2) For official minutes and filings during the 1953–97 period, the Narseys Ltd. file at the government Registrar of Companies, Suva, which I viewed there in November 2001. (3) For a narrative summary of the company's history until 1981, an unpublished scholarly paper written by my cousin Kiran C. Narsey while a student that includes details furnished by his own father (now deceased), who was then the patriarch of the company. (4) For insight into the company's final years, from January 1991 onward, copies of correspondence and meeting minutes kindly provided to me by Jiten M. Narsey. Where these accounts differed in matters of fact, I have relied on the written documents in the order listed above. Interpretation of the facts is, of course, mine.

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 "
What is Fiji?":
The recruiter is quoted in the memoirs of Totaram Sanadhya,
My Twenty-one Years,
pp. 33–35.

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Casting about for a practical solution:
Abolition of slavery was "the first great impetus" for Indian indenture, says an official history included in the 1910
Report of the Committee on Emigration from India to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates:
"Indian indentured immigration has rendered invaluable service to those of our Colonies in which, on the emancipation of the negro slaves, the sugar industry was threatened with ruin..." (p. 21). Tinker's
A New System of Slavery
includes a comprehensive treatment of the economic relationship between slavery and indenture in the empire.

The Indians signed up for:
Lal,
Crossing the Kala Pani,
pp. 6–7.

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Eventually 1.5 million:
Tinker,
New System of Slavery.

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Excavated from:
Calico Museum of Textiles,
Textile Trade.
Four millennia ago:
Chaudhuri,
Trade and Civilisation.
the Gypsies trekked north:
Angus Fraser,
The Gypsies
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), notes the similarities between Romany and northern Indian languages, although the provenance of these peoples is, of course, not definitive. He also cites Heinrich Grellman, a German ethnographer and historical linguist writing in 1787, who reached "the tentative conclusion that the closest affinity was with the Surat dialect (i.e. Gujarati)," and theorizes that the Gypsies were members of the Kshatriya or warrior caste who fled defeats in the eighth and twelfth centuries. But he admits that this notion "will hardly endear itself to the more sceptical reader" (pp. 15–22, 196).
Muslim traders built boats:
Chaudhuri,
Trade and Civilisation.
"The sun never sets":
Henry Lytton Bulwer (Lord Dalling) and Evelyn Ashley,
The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston: With Selections from His Correspondence
(London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1874), 3:121. Lord Palmerston was secretary of state for foreign affairs at the time of this speech before the House of Commons on March 1, 1843.

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Founded as a minor port:
Janaki,
Some Aspects,
chap. 3.

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Under Muslim rule:
Das Gupta,
Indian Merchants,
p. 20.
Each March, four ships:
Ogilby,
Asia, the First Part,
p. 223.
Muslims from Gujarat traversed:
Janaki,
Gujarat as the Arabs Knew It.
Company ships:
Historians use various dates for the beginning of the British presence in Surat. The first British East India Company expedition to reach Surat landed in November 1607. In 1609 the British established a small settlement; in 1611 they obtained permission to trade. The company's factors were allowed to establish a warehouse and offices (known as a "factory") in 1613. Fragmentary journals from these voyages are housed at the British Library's India Office and catalogued in the "List of Marine Records of the Late East India Company, Introduction" (1896). Unfortunately, the journal pages that would have referred to the first landing have been lost.
The Portuguese and the Dutch:
A New General Collection,
pp. 346–47.
John Ovington, chaplain:
A Voyage to Surat,
pp. 130–31.
the list of items traded at Surat:
Janaki,
Some Aspects;
and Ogilby,
Asia, the First Part,
p. 215.

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 "
Portugefes, Arabians, Perfians":
Ogilby,
Asia, the First Part,
p. 211.
"fwallows all the Gold":
Ibid., p. 222.
In London the craze:
Calico Museum of Textiles,
Textile Trade.
Parliamentarians fretted:
Janaki,
Some Aspects,
chap. 3.
"the clamour reached":
Ibid.
And the city was plagued:
Das Gupta,
Indian Merchants,
p. 7.

[>]
 "
As a class they are said to be": Surat District Gazetteer,
1877, quoted in R. K. Patil,
Gold and Silver Thread Industry of Surat: A Socio-Economic Survey
(Surat: Chunilal Gandhi Vidyabhavan Studies No. 6, 1956).
Few were educated:
Choksey,
Economic Life,
p. 227.
Navsari was more cosmopolitan: Census of India, 1941.
As hub of its subdistrict: Baroda Administrative Report 1908–09
and
1909–10.
In Motiram's time, the region: Census of India, 1931.
Map.