FOREIGNERS AT HOME: DISCOURSES OF DIFFERENCE, FIJI INDIANS AND THE LOOTING OF MAY 19

Authors

Susanna Trnka, University of AucklandFollow

Abstract

This essay focuses on Fiji Indians' reactions to the property destruction and ethnic violence that followed the 19 May 2000 coup. In particular, it explores why, in the first few weeks following the coup, Indo-Fijians despaired over the looting of downtown shops, rather than over other acts of seemingly more direct anti-Indian violence, such as the burning of Indo-Fijian homes and physical attacks against Indo-Fijian men and women. I analyze how Fiji's Sanatan Hindus discursively posited Indians, on the one hand, as central to the development of Fiji as a "modern," capitalist nation, and Fijians, on the other, as detrimental to national "progress." Looting, in particular, came to represent the demolition of all that Fiji Indians considered themselves to have built out of the nation of Fiji.

Recommended Citation

Trnka, Susanna (2002) "FOREIGNERS AT HOME: DISCOURSES OF DIFFERENCE, FIJI INDIANS AND THE LOOTING OF MAY 19," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 25: No. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol25/iss3/5