Influential Indo-Fijian politician Harish Sharma believes the South Pacific nation's two largest ethnic groups are on a path to reconciliation.
Speaking in Auckland at the launch of a memoir titled Road to Parliament: A Glimpse into the Life of Hon. Harish C. Sharma on Saturday, Sharma said Fiji was less divided than it had been several decades ago.
Sharma, deputy prime minister of Fiji in 1987 at the time of Sitiveni Rabuka's first military coup, believed it was time for the South Pacific nation to move on.
"Fiji is now a multiracial country, with educated classes running it. They think very differently from what people thought in 1987," the 92-year-old said. "I see a bright future for Fiji, where the two races work together and run the country in the interest of the people."
In May 2023, leaders from across Fiji's political spectrum signed the Forward Fiji Declaration, hoping to usher in a new era of understanding between indigenous Fijians (iTaukei) and citizens of Indian descent.
Indo-Fijian politician Harish Sharma attends the launch of his memoir in Auckland on Saturday. Photo: RNZ / Gaurav Sharma
Sharma blamed Fiji's colonial past for the divide that had plagued his country for decades.
"The colonial government never allowed the two races to get together," he said. "There were different schools ... different settlements."
Fiji was a British colony from 1874 to 1970, when it gained independence.
Indo-Fijians trace their ancestry to India, which was also a British colony until 1947.
Between 1879 and 1916, more than 60,500 Indians were sent to the Pacific from British India to work in sugarcane plantations.
These workers came to be known as the Girmitiyas, as they were bound by a "girmit" - the Hindi word for "agreement".
The hardships of plantation life, squalid living conditions, resettlement, displacement, religious restrictions, lack of companionship and the pivotal role the system played in shaping Fiji's economy is one of the lesser-known chapters of modern Indian and Pacific history.
These days, younger generations of Indo-Fijians are looking to learn more about the girmit era.
"It is true modern Fijians and the educated class is interested - and so they should be - in knowing more about the history of Girmitiyas and the contribution they made in economic development of Fiji," Sharma said. "I believe Girmitiyas deserve a special place in Fiji's history."
Meanwhile, Indo-Fijians have also expressed concern about their ethnicity classification in New Zealand.
While Fiji is located in the Pacific, Indo-Fijians are not classified as people of Pacific descent in New Zealand.
Instead, Stats NZ lists them as having Indian and Asian heritage.
Sharma, who is the former leader of National Federation Party, which is part of the current coalition government in Fiji, calls the policy "very discriminatory".
"If this is what is happening in New Zealand, it is very discriminatory," he said. "Indo-Fijians should always be considered Pacific islanders."
Sharma called on the Indo-Fijian community in New Zealand to be patient in advocating for their rights in New Zealand.
Speaking in Auckland, Sharma recalled how he had grown up in abject poverty.
Education gave him upward social mobility as he first became a lawyer and then a politician, he said.
Sharma thanked former New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange for supporting the deposed leadership under Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra during the 1987 coup.
Sharma was Bavadra's deputy at the time.
The former politician concluded with a few simple words of advice for young people today.
"Have a goal in life and work hard towards it," he said. "Always be ready to make sacrifices."