Associations in Fiji Indian Rural Society

INDIANS who have settled in the rural areas of the Colony of Fiji have two principles behind the management of their associations. On the one hand, there is the idea of decisions unanimously arrived at by all parties concerned or by all the men acting as arbitrators and leaders. On the other hand, there is the principle of open voting, in which the decision of a majority is adopted. It is clear that these two methods of procedure will often conflict if applied to the same association. A compromise may be possible in communities whose members have a common background and interest and a tradition of strong leadership, for differences may then remain subordinate to an over-all sense of solidarity and a trust in accepted leaders. But the varied cultural and social segmentation of Fiji Indian society, and the lack of any pattern of accepted authority, make for wide differences in the rural settlements. Frequently, then, the unanimity which is formally shown by the open vote of all assembled, or of the chosen arbitrators, is no more than the result of pressure used by more powerful groups and individuals. The attempt to have such overt unanimity may, in these circumstances, result in deeper divisions than if there were an open recognition of differences. For if an insistence on formally unanimous action precludes the overt expression of minority opinion through a vote, the secession of these minorities may take place, the "unanimity" then becoming a factor of division. Further, an association which acts on the assumption that such an overt unity is real will sooner or later divide if it undertakes work (such as the arbitration of disputes) which needs a real interdependence and unity. The analysis of these principles, though made for a single area, is of wider interest, particularly to students of India. For the principle of unanimity plays a large part in the operations of the panchayat, the traditional arbitrative and administrative council in India, which also has an important place in Fiji Indian life. Conditions in Fiji may be found relevant to those in India, where the processes of panchayat unanimity and the new democratic majority rule increasingly confront one another. For there is, on the one hand, the development of rural panchayats based on universal suffrage and the voting of decisions and, on the other, the plea of people such as Acharya Vinoba Bhave for unanimous, rather than majority, decisions. The paper embodies material gathered during a year's stay in Fiji in 1950-51. During this period three settlements were studied in detail, each of which appeared typical of Fiji Indian rural areas. All were of average size, containing some 500 people in an area about one and a half miles square, and each was within five to fifteen miles of a small market town. They contained representatives of all the major cultural groups to be noted below, and farming followed the broad variations of crops found elsewhere.