Mr. Tulsi's Store: A Fijlan Journey

Mr. Tulsi's Store is Brij Lal's personal account of his voyage from childhood in a remote and poor cane-growing region of Fiji to a distinguished international career as a historian, and as an actor in the political developments of modern Fiji. In this collection of autobiographical essays Professor Lal, the grandson of a girmitiya (indentured laborer) who migrated from India in 1908, explores the enduring claims of family, tradition, and culture among the Indian diaspora and probes the private and community tensions between the old ways and the new. He also examines the misunderstandings and mistrust between native Fijians and Indo-Fijians which continue to trouble the country today, and expresses his hopes for its democratic resolution.