Indian businesses and services in Suva, Fiji

In Fiji, the Indian community is not a diaspora in the usual sense but a founding part of the nation. Most Indo-Fijians descend from the girmitiyas, indentured labourers brought from India to work on the sugar plantations, beginning with the arrival of the ship Leonidas in 1879 and continuing until indenture ended in the early twentieth century. Smaller numbers of free migrants followed, including from Gujarat and Punjab. Their descendants are Fijian citizens, and Fiji Hindi, the language that grew out of the plantation lines, is spoken across the country.

Suva has Indo-Fijian communities throughout the city and its suburbs, and Indo-Fijians have done much to shape its economy. Indo-Fijian food, from roti and curries to the sweets made for Diwali, is part of everyday eating rather than a speciality. Hindu temples, mosques and gurdwaras are found across the city, and organisations such as the Sanatan Dharam, the Arya Samaj, TISI Sangam and the Fiji Muslim League run schools and religious life nationally.

Diwali is a national public holiday, and homes and shops are lit with lamps and lights across the country in the days before it. Holi, Ram Naumi and Eid are also widely observed. The Diwali holiday falls on a different day each year, so check the official public-holiday list before booking travel around it. The sugar-growing west, around Lautoka, Nadi and Ba, has a larger Indo-Fijian share than Suva, and the well-known Sri Siva Subramaniya temple is in Nadi rather than the capital.