Indian film bags Asia Pacific award

A documentary on the early Indian immigrants to Fiji has won the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union Award.

A documentary on the trials and tribulations faced by the early Indian immigrants to Fiji has won the 2004 Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union Award in the News and Current Affairs category.

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The bi-lingual documentary titled Girmit ki Kahani in Hindi and Sweet Sorrow in English produced by India-born broadcaster Kumud Merani for the SBS Radio in Australia delves into the injustices meted out to Indian labourers, who were duped and sent to Fiji by the British between 1879 and 1916.

Over 60,000 Indians were transported to Fiji to work in the sugarcane plantations during this period. The uneducated labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh operated under strict articles of indenture. Many, who signed up the five-year 'Agreement' or 'Girmit' as it came to be known in the labour parlance, resigned to their fate and led a life of virtual slavery.

This moving documentary explores the Girmit history and legacy through the eyes of their descendants that includes a 104-year-old activist, a woman whose father was kidnapped at 14, an ex-Parliamentarian and the leading historian of the Fijian-Indian diaspora, Professor Brij Lal. It is a story of their exploitation and degradation.

The film, which was honoured on September 25 at 41st General Assembly of Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union at Almaty, Kazakhastan, brings alive the trauma of Indian labourers, who were tricked with promises of high wages and sent to Fiji and put in small huts. Almost 35 per cent of the labour force comprised of women, who were repeatedly abused and raped.