Ayodhya Prasad

Ayodhya Prasad Sharma (Hindi: अयोध्या प्रसाद शर्मा, 30 April 1909 – 28 February 1972) was an Indo-Fijian farmers' leader and politician.

He formed the most successful farmers' union in Fiji and forced the Colonial Sugar Refining Company to make concessions to farmers after 60 years of total control over Fiji's economy.

However, other Indo-Fijian leaders formed rival unions and his initial success was not repeated.

Ayodhya Prasad was born in Butana village in the district of Rohtak in the state of Punjab in India on 30 April 1909.

While studying in India, he learned about the freedom enjoyed by people in foreign countries and decided to go to one of these countries.

He persuaded his father to let him travel overseas for three years and arrived in Fiji in January 1929.

Since there was a shortage of teachers in Fiji he obtained a third grade teacher's certificate and started teaching in Gurkul Primary School in Saweni, Lautoka.

Due to public demand he soon left for Tunaliya, Nadi where he helped to build a school.

There was no syllabus for teaching Hindi and when the school inspector found him teaching Hindi using a book which aroused nationalistic spirit amongst the Fiji Indians, Ayodhya Prasad was asked to stop using the book.

He refused and his registration as a teacher was cancelled.

In 1931 he returned to India.

On his way to India, Ayodhya Prasad met an American, with whom he had a discussion about the political situation in India.

At the end of the discussion he realised that Indians were under the control of foreigners, not because the English were bad but because the Indians were not united.

Ayodhya Prasad returned to Fiji in April 1932 to prepare to go to America to study.

To earn money for his trip, he acquired some land in Yalalevu, Ba and started cane farming.

He worked very hard on this farm but was told by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) that most of his cane had turned into molasses and his cane had very low sugar content.

The money he received for the cane was not even sufficient to cover his costs.

He did not receive any statement from the company detailing the amount received for the cane and the amount deducted for costs like fertiliser.

His dream of going to America was in tatters.

In the 1937 Legislative Council elections he supported Chattur Singh, who defeated his more educated opponent, A. D. Patel by a narrow margin but this result was to have profound implications for the relationship between A.D. Patel and Ayodhya Prasad in later years.

After the election, people who had seen the determination with which he had campaigned in the election, persuaded him to give up his dream of going to America and to organise the farmers of Fiji.

Well aware that there was great fear amongst the Fiji Indian cane farmers of the Company, he started organising the farmers union in secret concentrating among the young members of the community because they were more passionate and were unlikely to be owners or lessees of property.

In September 1937, he held the first secret meeting in Drasa, Lautoka following the celebrations marking the birth of Lord Krishna.

On 27 November 1937, at a meeting in Wailailai, Ba, the Kisan Sangh (Farmers' Union) was formed.

The first task for the new Union was to find someone to take up leadership of the new union.

A number of people which included A.D. Patel, S. B. Patel and Swami Rudhrananda, Chattur Singh and Vishnu Deo were approached, but all declined the invitation.

Undeterred, Ayodhya Prasad decided that the best solution was to learn from Mahatma Gandhi and live amongst the farmers while he preached the virtues of the Union to them.

He decided to set up tents on Company land in different settlements so that he and his helpers could preach from it.

On 18 May 1938, with the help of his young volunteers, he set up tent on Company land starting in Nadroga which is at the Southern end of the North Western cane growing area of Viti Levu and moved along the coast to the Northern end of Viti Levu.

Initially none of the local farmers approached the tent but as the farmers saw the sacrifice being made by Ayodhya Prasad and his young volunteers and the inability of the Company overseers to stop him, they gradually started to join up.

Following the success of this grass-roots campaign, Ayodhya Prasad spent the next four months organising the Kisan Sangh.

First village committees were formed.

These committees then met and formed district committees which selected members for the Central Committee based on the membership of the district committee.

On 9 February a letter was sent to the Company seeking negotiations for a cane contract but the Company ignored the Kisan Sangh.

The CSR controlled the farmers through the sardars, and so Ayodhya Prasad put up candidates in the election for sardars and won most of these positions.

Most sardars then took advice from the Kisan Sangh on receiving any Company directive.

On seeing the strength of the Kisan Sangh, the Company started issuing statements with cane payments and circulated a contract for the next season's crop, both of which were original Kisan Sangh demands.

Ayodhya Prasad and the Kisan Sangh advised the farmers not to plant crops for the following year until a suitable contract was agreed to.

Under pressure from the Government, agreement was reached for a 10-year contract which included several concessions by the Company and an increase in the price of cane.

He also served as a member of the Legislative Council between 1953 and 1959.