Arya Samaj In Fiji
   HOME
*





Arya Samaj In Fiji
The Arya Samaj was the first religious, cultural and educational Fiji Indian organisation established in Fiji. From its inception, in 1904, it attracted the young, educated and progressive Hindus into its fold. During the first three decades of the twentieth century, it was the sole voice of the Indian community in Fiji and as Fiji Indians won political rights, it was not surprising that first Indian members of the Legislative Council were all Arya Samajis. The influence of Arya Samaj over the Indians in Fiji gradually waned as other organisations representing Indians were established but it remained the dominant force in politics until 1959. The modern day Arya Samaj in Fiji still speaks out on issues affecting its members and its activities are visible through the numerous educational institutions that it manages. History of Arya Samaj in Fiji As far back as 1893, learning centres had been established by small groups of people who had organised themselves into Samajs. With th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Badri Maharaj
Badri Maharaj was an Indo-Fijian farmer, politician, and philanthropist. He was the first Indian member of the Legislative Council serving for two periods between 1916 and 1923 and 1926 to 1929 as a nominated member, but he was not a popular choice for Fiji Indians, who preferred the lawyer, Manilal Doctor to be their representative. Despite his unpopularity, he was a man of principle and resigned from the Council in protest at what he believed was an unfair imposition of poll tax on the Fiji Indian people. He proposed an innovative system of Indian administration (''panchayat'') and showed himself to be ahead of his time by opposing child marriage and promoting education. Contribution to education He was born in 1868 in Bamoli village, near Rudraprayag in the state of Uttarakhand, India. He came to Fiji as an indentured labourer in 1889 and through his own hard work became a successful farmer. He was the first Fiji Indian to realise the need for schools for Indians a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the Muhammad in Islam, main and final Islamic prophet.Peters, F. E. 2009. "Allāh." In , edited by J. L. Esposito. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . (See alsoquick reference) "[T]he Muslims' understanding of Allāh is based...on the Qurʿān's public witness. Allāh is Unique, the Creator, Sovereign, and Judge of mankind. It is Allāh who directs the universe through his direct action on nature and who has guided human history through his prophets, Abraham, with whom he made his covenant, Moses/Moosa, Jesus/Eesa, and Muḥammad, through all of whom he founded his chosen communities, the 'Peoples of the Book.'" It is the Major religious groups, world's second-largest religion behind Christianity, w ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Christianity In India
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 27.8 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of the Saint Thomas Christians state that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region in the present-day Kerala state in 52 AD. The Acts of Thomas mentions that the first converts were Malabarese Jews, who had settled in India before the birth of Christ. Thomas who was a Jew by birth came in search of Indian Jews. Following years of evangelising, Thomas was martyred and his remains were buried at St. Thomas Mount in Mylapore. A scholarly consensus exists that Christian communities had firmly established in the Malabar by 600 AD at the latest. These communities were composed mainly of the Oriental Orthodox Eastern Christians, belonging to the Church of the East in India, that used Syriac as their liturgical language. Following the discovery o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Shri Krishna Sharma
Pandit Shri Krishna Sharma was an Arya Samaj preacher who came to Fiji in 1926 from Rajkot, India. He was a gifted public speaker and singer of religious songs. He provided impetus to the Arya Samaj movement in Fiji. Under his influence Arya Samaj schools and temples were established in Fiji. He was responsible for the establishment of the ''Hindu Maha Sabha'' for the purpose of uniting all Hindus in Fiji. He advocated ''shuddhi'' (reconversion to Hinduism) and this caused conflict with Muslims and Christians in Fiji. Sharma also started a monthly Hindi language newspaper called the ''Vedic Sandesh''. He returned to India in 1929 and the Government of Fiji refused permission for him to return to Fiji. In 1956, he returned to Fiji to participate in the Golden Jubilee of the Arya Samaj in Fiji. He founded the D.A.V. College in Suva and an Arya temple in Nadi. See also Arya Samaj in Fiji The Arya Samaj was the first religious, cultural and educational Fiji Indian organisatio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. The majority of Muslims also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad ('' sunnah'') as recorded in traditional accounts (''hadith''). With an estimated population of almost 1.9 billion followers as of 2020 year estimation, Muslims comprise more than 24.9% of the world's total population. In descending order, the percentage of people who identify as Muslims on each continental landmass stands at: 45% of Africa, 25% of Asia and Oceania (collectively), 6% of Europe, and 1% of the Americas. Additionally, in subdivided geographical regions, the figure stands at: 91% of the Middle East–North Africa, 90% of Central Asia, 65% of the Caucasus, 42% of Southeast As ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Fiji Samachar
''Fiji Samachar'' (Fiji News) was a Hindi language newspaper published in Fiji from 1924 to 1974. It was published in Suva by the Indian Printing and Publishing Company and its first editor was Babu Ram Singh. It started as a bi-lingual Hindi and English Monthly newspaper but from 1935 became a weekly Hindi newspaper. The editorial committee was headed by Pandit Vishnu Deo and included Pandit Ami Chandra and Pandit Gopendra Narayan Pathik, all active members of the Arya Samaj in Fiji and consequently the newspaper was seen as the mouthpiece of the Arya Samaj. In the 1930s Vishnu Deo became the editor. The newspaper was involved in a number of controversies. In 1927, the newspaper was sued for making allegations against some Fiji Indian civil servants, with Ram Singh and Vishnu Deo being charged but the charges were withdrawn after a public apology arranged by S. B. Patel. In 1932, Deo was convicted of publishing objectionable material against the religious practices of others ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been described as a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas of North India. Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with English. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Hindi is the '' lingua franca'' of the Hindi Belt. It is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi). Outside India, several ot ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Vishnu Deo
Pt. Vishnu Deo (Hindi: विष्णु देव) OBE (17 July 1900 – 7 May 1968) was the first Fiji born and bred leader of the Indo-Fijians. From his initial election to the Legislative Council in 1929 to his retirement in 1959, he remained the most powerful Indo-Fijians political leader in Fiji. He was a staunch supporter of Arya Samaj in Fiji and also the editor of the first successful Hindi-language newspaper to be published in Fiji. Early life Pandit Vishnu Deo was born on 17 July 1900. He attended Marist Brothers School and had a keen intellect, becoming a fluent debater in both English and Hindi. He joined the immigration department as a clerk in 1918, taught at a school established by M. N. Naidu in Lautoka in the early 1920s, and started his own importing and exporting agency in 1927. In 1922, he had assisted the Raju Commission which had been sent to Fiji to make enquiries into the plight of the Indian community. Vishnu Deo also founded a number of social ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Kundan Singh Kush
Thakur Kundan Pal Singh Kush (1881–1967) was an Arya Samaj missionary and teacher who arrived in Fiji, from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1928. He first taught at the Dharamshala School in Nausori where he later became the founding Head Teacher of Vunimono Arya School in 1929. He taught in a number of Arya Samaj schools which included Gurukul Primary School near Lautoka in 1939, Arya Samaj Girls' School in Saweni, Lautoka, from 1940 to 1945, Swami Shraddanand Memorial School in Suva, Vunikavikaloa Arya School in Ra, and Veisari Primary School near Suva. The Arya Samaj Centenary Publication, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Arya Samaj, made the following statement about the abilities of Kush: Thakur Kundan Kush came to Fiji in 1928 as a teacher, served the Arya Samaj with distinction. He conducted debates and lectured ably. His logic and method of presentation of arguments were really very marvellous and worthy of remark. The Fiji Governm ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Ami Chandra
Pandit Ami Chandra Vidyalankar (1900 – 13 March 1954) was an Indo-Fijian educator, preacher, labour leader, politician and football administrator. He served as a member of the Legislative Council between 1947 and 1953. Biography Chandra, a graduate of Gurukul Kangri University in India, arrived in Fiji on 22 December 1927 at the behest of the Arya Samaj, which wanted to improve the education standard of Indo-Fijian students and promote Arya Samaj in Fiji. After a brief sojourn at Suva, he started teaching at the Gurukul Primary School in Saweni, Lautoka. In 1928 he became the Principal and under his leadership, boarding facilities were established at the school with 45 boarders out of a total population of 140, including 25 native Fijian students. During his time as Principal, the school made remarkable progress and he was commended by the Governor, Sir Murchison Fletcher. He was the founder of the Fiji Teachers Union in 1929 and its first President. He was mentor of ma ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lautoka
Lautoka () is the second largest Local government in Fiji, city in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division, Fiji, Western Division. Lying in the heart of Fiji's sugar cane-growing region, the city has come to be known as the Sugar City. Covering an area of 32 square kilometres, it had a population of 71,573 at the 2017 census, the most recent to date. Economic activities Lautoka is known as the ''Sugar City'' because of its sugar cane belt areas. The main Lautoka Sugar Mill was founded in 1903, and is the city's biggest employer by far. Built for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (Fiji) (CSR) by workers from India and the Solomon Islands between 1899 and 1903, it hires some 1,300 employees today. Other industries include timber milling, garment manufacturing, distillery, brewery, jewellery, blending, steelworks, fishing, hatchery, domestic items, paints, and construction. History The name of the city is derived fr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]