Author Description

Fiji by the year 1900 after a generation as a British Crown Colony was a multi-racial nation with a combined indentured and free Indian component, which was about to expand on a large scale, and contest political predominance with indigenous Fijians and a small but dominant European minority among other ethnic groups. Drawn from primary sources, and packed with original quotations and statistics, Fiji and the Franchise illuminates the history of the struggle that followed. This book introduces modern readers to life in the Fiji islands from 1900 to 1937, when the ultimate question for its inhabitants was how political representation should be achieved, and on what basis. Fiji and the Franchise was Dr. Ali's eminently readable and well-grounded Australian National University doctoral thesis. It was presented in 1973 but still remained unpublished when he suddenly became ill on a visit to India and, as bravely as he had always lived, passed away in 2005. Now, Dr. Ali's work lives on as a tribute to and record of this amazing island nation.