Do you know who Girmitiya are? Have you ever wondered how Fiji became home to so many Indians? Link in bio to full story. This week’s column is about my relationship with the Crown. The Crown ordered its colonisers to enslave my ancestors. The Crown starved, beat and shipped Indians to Fiji. They fed Indians dog biscuits on the ship. The Indians who died due to sickness spread by the British were thrown into the ocean. On arrival, Indians were worked on sugarcane plantations. The Crown’s employees flogged, kicked, punched and raped Indians on plantations. Some Indians hanged themselves to death. Girmitiya were those enslaved Indians. The Queen reigned for 70 years, longer than the life expectancy of Indians. To Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, the Queen symbolised a genocidal imperial regime. She represented the family that destroyed my people. Indians continue to live in some of the world’s poorest conditions, but the Queen - the Queen died as she lived, surrounded by stolen Indian wealth. The Queen spent her life adorned by the Koh-i-Noor, a diamond worth more than $660 million, stolen from Punjab during colonisation. The Queen never attempted to return it. She never acknowledged or apologised for our suffering, or offered colonial reparations. The Queen was crucial for maintaining stolen Indian wealth for the benefit of herself, her family, and her people while Indians continued to suffer in entrenched poverty. If you wish to remember the Queen's legacy, I insist we remember all of it. Do not sanitise the bloodshed of my people to make history palatable for white people. The Royal Family stole my ancestors. I mourn them, not the Queen. Rest in Power the stolen generation of Girmitiya. #girmit #girmitiya #indian