19 Facts About Totaram Sanadhya

Totaram Sanadhya was deceitfully recruited as an indentured labourer from India and brought to Fiji in 1893.

Totaram Sanadhya spent five years working as a bonded labourer but was never afraid to fight for his rights.

Totaram Sanadhya sought the help of Indian freedom fighters and missionaries and encouraged the migration to Fiji of Indian teachers and lawyers who, he believed, could improve the plight of Indians in Fiji.

The family lived in poverty and Totaram Sanadhya saw himself as a burden to his mother so in 1893 he left home to look for work.

Totaram Sanadhya was told to lie to the magistrate who registered him as an indentured labourer.

Totaram Sanadhya was taken to a depot in Calcutta, where he changed his mind about going to Fiji but was locked up until he accepted his fate.

Life on the plantation was tough for Totaram Sanadhya, who found that due to the hard work that he was doing, the weekly ration he was supplied with was exhausted in only four days.

Totaram Sanadhya then borrowed some money, leased some land and became a cane farmer.

Eager to improve his skills, Totaram Sanadhya learned the Fijian language, acquired carpentry and metalwork skills and took up photography.

Totaram Sanadhya knew that farming alone would not provide him with enough income, so he decided to become a pundit.

Totaram Sanadhya could read and write in Hindi but needed religious books to educate himself.

Totaram Sanadhya educated himself and started working as a pundit and very soon had a following in the Rewa area.

Totaram Sanadhya was responsible for the first Ram Lila organised in Navua in 1902.

Totaram Sanadhya would sit outside the boundary of the estates singing religious songs and when people from the plantation came out to listen to him he would stop singing and discuss their problems.

The Association discussed grievances such as the lack of educated leadership amongst the Indians and the dependence on European lawyers and authorised Totaram Sanadhya to write a letter to Gandhi to send an Indian barrister to Fiji.

Manilal exchanged letters with Totaram Sanadhya, who organised for collection of money for Manilal's fare and law books and made arrangements for his stay in Fiji.

Totaram Sanadhya's departure from Fiji was a major event, even gaining the attention of the European Press.

Totaram Sanadhya published his experiences in Fiji in the book, My twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands in 1914.

Totaram Sanadhya joined Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram in 1922, with other followers of Gandhi.