Akhil Fiji Krishak Maha Sangh (All Fiji Farmers’ Grand Union) was a

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

farmers' union formed on 15 June 1941 in opposition to the existing union, the

Kisan Sangh Kisan Sangh was the first farmers' union formed in Fiji on 27 November 1937. This was the result of one man's determination to improve the plight of Fiji's Indian cane farmers. Ayodhya Prasad had arrived from India in 1929, and after a stint a ...

. Supporters of Kisan Sangh tried to stop the formation of the Maha Sangh but were unsuccessful. The people responsible for the formation of a second sugar cane farmers' union were A. D. Patel and

Swami Rudrananda Swami Rudrananda (11 March 1901 – 30 June 1985), born Muthukrishnan, was an Indian Hindu monk and a disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic, Swami Shivananda, the direct disciple of Ramakrishna. After moving to Fiji in 1936 he became one ...

. The union was supported by the

South Indian South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

sugar cane farmers in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

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The 1943 Strike

The Maha Sangh claimed that the 1940 sugar cane contract was not fair to cane farmers, and in 1943 its members went on strike supported by dissident members of the Kisan Sangh, led by Padri Mehar Singh and Ramcharan Singh. The farmers did not gain anything from the strike, but A.D. Patel emerged as a new leader for Fiji Indians and in the 1944

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

election won the North West Indian seat. The strike action in the middle of the second world war, caused the native Fijians to view the Fiji Indians with suspicion and drove a wedge between the two major races in Fiji.

Maha Sangh splits into two Factions

The Maha Sangh continued to compete with the Kisan Sangh for the support of farmers in the 1940s and 1950s but had its own share of internal divisions. When K.S. Reddy was nominated into the Legislative Council, the leader of the Maha Sangh, A.D. Patel, was for the first time faced with a possible challenge to his leadership, as Reddy was also based in Nadi, was a South Indian like most Maha Sangh supporters and held the powerful position of General Secretary of the union. Competition between the two reached a crisis on 31 March 1956, when at a meeting in Nadi, Reddy asked non-financial members to leave. Their refusal to leave led to police being called and tear gas used. K.S. Reddy later joined the Alliance Party while A.D. Patel had formed the Federation Party, which later merged into the

National Federation Party The National Federation Party ( Fiji Hindi: नेशनल फेडरेशन पार्टी; Fijian: ''Mataisoqosoqo ni National Federation'') is a Fijian political party founded by A. D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Fe ...

Negotiations for 1960 Contract

In 1959, the Maha Sangh and four other cane farmers' unions formed an umbrella organisation known as the

Federation of Cane Growers The Federation of Cane Growers was formed as an umbrella organisation to negotiate the new cane contract due to take effect from 1960 with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (Fiji), Colonial Sugar Refining Company. Negotiations for 1960 cane con ...

to negotiate with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company for the new cane contract. While negotiations were still in progress, the Kisan Sangh withdrew from the Federation and signed the contract offered by the sugar company, leaving the Maha Sangh as the dominant group within the Federation of Cane Growers.

References

* A.P. Sharma, ''Farmers Struggle in Fiji: a History of Fiji Kisan Sangh'', Kisan Sangh, Lautoka, 1962 * B. V. Lal, ''A vision for change: AD Patel and the politics of Fiji'', Australian National University, ACT, 1997 Sugar cane grower associations in Fiji Fiji Indian organisations 1941 establishments in Fiji Trade unions established in 1941

The 1943 Strike

Maha Sangh splits into two Factions

Negotiations for 1960 Contract

See also

References