vadodara he plays an indian father in the firstever indofijian film in hindi jhumka a story that reflects the changing values and lifestyles of the migrant communities in australia who came from fiji after the military coup for anandilal amin an nri gujarati settled in fiji reel life seems to have merged with real life he has lived at least a part of the life depicted in jhumka and has grabbed the first opportunity to visit indiaa country he can trace back his roots to and also has had his daughter son and sister married in gujarat to keep the ties aliveborn in fiji as his father migrated to the country in 1928 amin has never forgotten his roots and this time came down to attend the pravasi bharatiya diwas in new delhi as an art and culture envoy from fiji amin an actor musician social leader and insurance professional was in vadodara recently to meet his sister who married herewe intend to strengthen ties with india through art and culture trade and tourism we have plans to set up cultural exchange centres promote art of both lands says amin who confides that fiji is an extended family of india as 44 per cent of fijian population comprises indians out of which gujaratis alone form about eight per centthough he has been part of the two movies on the indian diaspora in fiji and australia jhumka and the dreamland of the moonless night amins passion lies in promoting art he is the first gujarati in fiji to have received the medal of the order of fiji by the fijian president for promoting music and performing arts in the last 48 yearstracing the history of the indian community which left the homeland to work as indentured labourers in 1900s amin narrates my father chaturbhai ishwarbhai amin a village leader from bharuch district was one among the many gujaratis who left the calcutta shores in 1928 by then the indenture system had come to an end and most labourers went back to their homelandshowever many indians arrived in fiji to join those migrants who had made fiji their homeland there were gujaratis punjabis south indians and north indiansfrom the softspoken bombaiya khichadis gujaratis came to be known as mahajans for their business acumen and today after two military coups gujaratis still hold a major stake in the economy of fiji says amin tracing the journey of indian art on the islands amin explains in 1970 fiji became independent some top musicians like hemant kumar mohammad rafi manna dey gopi krishna and lata mangeshkar besides actress hema malini visited fiji in 1972 the first indian culture centre was established in suva and i began promoting art under the guidance of swami davend vijay swami vallabhdas and hari prasadji of sangeet vidyalayapromotion of art and culture seems to have helped bridge the gap between the two major racesfijian and indian since 1965 under the banner of the president of ba cultural society students of