Sargeant Akal Singh does not want to be in Suva, Fiji. His supervisor doesn’t want him there, either, which is why Singh always gets the worst, most pointless cases. Unfortunately for Singh, he’s been banished from his post in Hong Kong to the island backwater to help the British keep order in their colony, which means putting up with constant racism, strict social divides, and the loneliness of being one of the few Indians not in indentured servitude. A Disappearance in Fiji, by Nilima Rao, puts us in Singh’s shoes as he embarks on another seemingly futile case: to find a missing indentured Indian woman.
In 1914, Fiji was very different from what we Westerners see in tourist brochures these days. In Rao’s Fiji of more than a century ago, the islands are still a British colony. There is no air conditioning. Plantations sprawl across the island, with thousands of indentured Indians (lured on flimsy promises and mostly unable to read the contracts they signed) laboring in the heat and humidity to bring in sugar and other commodities. The rest of the world is days or weeks away by boat. Indigenous Fijians have been pushed to the side politically and geographically. Society is a pyramid with Europeans firmly ensconced at the top. Somewhere in the middle of all this is the very resentful Akal Singh.
When we first meet him, Singh is the policeman the other police give cases they want to give lip service to, the ones that are probably unsolvable but need to have someone assigned to so that the higher-ups can say something is being done. We find Singh on the day that Kunti’s disappearance lands in his lap. A vicar near the plantation where Kunti was indentured has kicked up a fuss in the newspapers that Kunti has been kidnapped. The plantation owner and Singh’s superior are sure that Kunti just ran away and they want the story to go away, as a group of government officials is on its way to inspect the treatment of indentured Indian workers in the colony.
Singh travels into the interior of the island, to the Parkins’ plantation, under orders to ask a few questions and file a quick report listing Kunti as just another runaway. But when Singh starts to ask those questions—and sees the appalling conditions the indentured workers are expected to deal with—his inner sense of justice springs into action. He asks more questions. He bothers people he’s been told to leave alone. He goes places he’s been warned off of. And, of course, he finds a nasty snarl of crimes pulsing just below the skin of the ostensibly respectable plantation.
A Disappearance in Fiji is an intriguing mystery that I wish had included more about the landscape, culture, and history of the islands. Singh, given that he is very clear that he wants to be off the islands, is not the best guide with all his carping and irritation. On the other hand, Singh has a sharp eye for injustice and is a fantastic guide for the systemic racism of Britain’s colonial system.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
