Indo-Fijian Rāmlīlā as a Cultural Ethos Among Girmitiyas

Girmitiyas are Indian indentured labourers who were brought to Fiji, Guyana, Caribbean, and Mauritius to work in plantation sites during the nineteenth century under British colonial era. They felt nostalgic for their left-behind homeland culture. They tried to overcome their fear of crossing Kalapani by chanting mantras, carrying Rāmāyana to the new foreign land. Naturally, their formation of community was stronger due to various associations they created amongst themselves to preserve their cultural ties at hostland. Fiji organizations like Sat Sang Rāmāyana Mandali and Hindu Parishad helped to preserve their culture through Rāmlı̄lā enactment, which Indo-Fijians used to perform in India. Rāmāyana and Rāmlı̄lā became a way for them to express the hardships and exile endured by their forefathers through Ram’s story, which strengthened the mythic epic as more than a Hindu religious scripture. This chapter tries to situate the perseverance of cultural ethos among Indo-Fijians through Rāmlı̄lā enactment. Multivocality and crystallization in the representation and stage performances of Ramlila are detected, where the Fijian music and language are majorly used throughout such presentations. Ramlila is found to be a major binding force among these hyphenated identities.