President Murmu conferred with Fiji’s Highest Civilian Award

President  Droupadi Murmu was honoured with Fiji’s highest civilian award- Companion of the Order of Fiji, during her first official visit to the country.

President Murmu is on a three-nation tour of Fiji, New Zealand, and Timor Leste. On the first leg of her visit, she visited Fiji from 5 to 7 August 2024. She is accompanied on this visit by the Minister of State for Minority Affairs and Minister of State for Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, George Kurien and two Lok Sabha MPs, Jugal Kishore and Saumitra Khan.

First Indian President to Visit Fiji 

• President Murmu is the first Indian President to visit the South Pacific island nation of Fiji.
• She landed at the Nadi International Airport which is the main airport of Fiji. 
• From Nadi she  traveled to the Fijian capital, Suva, where she was received by Fijian  Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
• During her meeting with the President of Fiji, Ratu William Maivalili Katonivere, she was conferred Fiji’s highest civilian award - Companion of the Order of Fiji.
• During her visit, the Fiji government allocated the site for the construction of a 100-bed Super Speciality Hospital in Suva. 
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the hospital project at the 3rd FIPIC Summit in 2023, for which India is providing a grant to Fiji. 
• The 3rd Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation meeting was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in  May 2023.
• President Murmu also addresses the 55 member Fijian Parliament.
• She also addressed a meeting of Fijians of Indian descent along with Fiji’s deputy Prime Minister, Biman Prasad.
• Around 40 per cent of the Fiji population consists of people of Indian descent, also known as Girmitiyas.

President later left for her state visit to New Zealand.

Girmitya system 

• Girmitiyas refers to the indentured labourers who were brought from India to work in the British colonies.
• Britain abolished slavery in 1833, and it needed labourers to replace the African slaves working in its sugar plantation field.
• The British signed an agreement with Indians, mainly from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to work as labourers in these sugar fields.
• They were promised high wages and initially a five-year contract.
• These agreements were pronounced by the labourers as GIRMIT. The descendants of these labourers are called Girmitiyas.
• The indentured labour system was abolished by the British in 1917. 
• By then, more than 13 lakh Indians were sent as indentured labourers to 19 British colonies, such as Fiji, Mauritius, Jamaica, South Africa, Guyana, Suriname, etc.