Problems of Political Advancement in Fiji1

Abstract

THE BACKGROUND against which political advancement in Fiji must occur can be described succinctly. Its population includes some I70,000 Indians, most of whom are not immigrants but Fijian-born, looking upon Fiji as home, against I48,000 Fijians; and the age structure of the Indian population is such that the Indians will become even more numerically dominant. By i97i, the total population of Fiji will probably be about 548,ooo of whom 314,000 Will be Indian. The Fijian population is spread fairly uniformly, but the Indian is concentrated into urban centres and the six main sugar-cane areas. The European and Chinese groups are demographically insignificant. These facts of population are important because they mean that the political advancement of the Fijians cannot be considered in isolation, and because of the Indian population growth, it is a matter of great urgency. No less urgent is the economic background with which Professor Spate has dealt in his report.' The economy of Fiji is dominated by Indian labour and European capital; economically the Fijians are the weakest section of the community, but they hold about 84 percent of the land, which is preserved for them by the traditional interpretation of the Deed of Cession. The political consequence of this is that the economically and demographically inferior group in Fiji is politically paramount because of the long tradition of British policy, which has interpreted the Deed of Cession to mean that Fijian interests must always be protected and preserved, and which has usually worked through the system popularly called indirect rule to preserve Fijian society in its villages under its own traditional leaders. It was consciousness that this tradition had been modified with unfortunate consequences which led the authorities to recreate (in I945) a system designed to protect the Fijians politically and economically from the competition of the other racial groups. The present Fijian administration was set up in I945 after some years of discussion. On July i6, I943, the Governor (Sir Philip Mitchell) addressed a