Vishnu Deo

Pandit Vishnu Deo OBE (17 July 1900 - 7 May 1968) was the first Fiji born and bred leader of the Fiji Indians. From his initial election to the Legislative Council in 1929 to his retirement in 1959, he remained the most powerful Fiji Indian political leader in Fiji. He was a staunch supporter of Arya Samaj in Fiji and also the editor of the first successful Hindi-language newspaper to be published in Fiji.

Early life

Pandit Vishnu Deo was born on 17 July 1900. He attended Marist Brothers School and had a keen intellect, becoming a fluent debater in both English and Hindi. He joined the immigration department as a clerk in 1918, taught at a school established by M. N. Naidu in Lautoka in the early 1920s, and started his own importing and exporting agency in 1927. In 1922, he had assisted the Raju Commission which had been sent to Fiji to make enquiries into the plight of the Indian community.

Vishnu Deo also founded a number of social and religious organisations. The Governor of Fiji proclaimed 15 May 1929 a public holiday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first Indians in Fiji, but Vishnu Deo wanted this to be a day of mourning; at a meeting in Lautoka on 12 May 1929, it was decided to fast and pray on the day and to form the Fiji Indian National Congress. While there was an official ceremony and floats through Suva, Vishnu Deo and his associates displayed a black flag and burned the indenture system in effigy.