Indenture and the Indian Experience of Leprosy on Makogai Island, Fiji

The Central Leprosy Hospital on the Fijian Island of Makogai received patients of many ethnicities and from many localities across the British southwest Pacific. Yet, during the years of the hospital’s operation from 1911 to 1969, Indians comprised the largest single ethnic group. They were almost all indentured labourers, brought to Fiji to work on sugar plantations, or the descendants of those who remained after their contracts expired. Drawing on archival records, this paper explores Indian identity on Makogai. On one hand, the experience of Indian patients was shaped by an ambiguous connection to place formed partly through both the stigma and the mechanisms of indenture. On the other, they shared with fellow patients on Makogai the stigma of leprosy and the experience of the disease and isolation.