Missing pieces: Enduring hardship for a brighter future

The final installment of a four-part series on Indian migration to New Zealand

Early Indian immigrants to New Zealand arrived to find themselves in a completely different climate battling an anti-Asian sentiment that persists today. Despite the early struggles, their perseverance paved the way for them to build a new life in a foreign land that would become their adopted home. The lessons they learned as part of their journey can now inform younger generations as they look to build on their forebearers' sacrifices.

Bhula Chhania knew just how cold Wellington winters could get but his 16-year-old son Lala, newly arrived from a sweltering Indian summer, couldn't have possibly imagined what was to come.

It was 1935 and New Zealand had entered a state of economic decline. Bhula had just bought a fruit shop in Lower Hutt, which he ran with his sons, Bhaga and Manga.

However, rising costs and limited resources meant the family didn't have much to keep the cold out - just rough potato sacks and pumpkin jute bags.

"The winters in Wellington were very wet and icy cold, and blankets were mighty expensive," recalls Nagin Lala, Bhula's grandson.

"My uncle Bhaga was quite strict in not buying luxury items, and there was no heating due to the expense," he says.

"The business wasn't earning that much money ... instead of blankets, potato sacks or pumpkin jute bags had to be used as bed covers for warmth."

Read the Missing Pieces series in full:

• Part 1: Leaving India in search of a new life
• Part 2: A bridge between two nations
• Part 3: The motivations behind Indian migration
• Part 4: Enduring hardship for a brighter future

Nagin is the third of five generations of Indian New Zealanders from a single family.

For the past 40 years, Nagin has been involved with the Auckland Indian Sports Club, bringing the city's Indian community together through cricket and hockey.

Like his father and grandfather, he spent much of his life involved in the fresh produce business, running a long-standing fruit shop in Epsom.

Now retired but still involved with the Auckland Indian Sports Club, he spends his days at club games and tends to a flourishing garden, filled with Indian vegetables such as papdi and karela.

It's been 117 years since his grandfather first boarded a boat that would eventually bring him to New Zealand's shores. Nagin sat down with RNZ at his home in Epsom to reflect on that journey.

First to set sail

Bhula Chhania was born in Sagra, a small village in the Navsari region of Gujarat.

In 1908, at just 20 years old, he left his village to board a cargo ship bound for Fiji.

His plan was simple - work for a year on the sugarcane plantations, earn a decent wage and return with just enough to improve life back home.

However, fate had other ideas.

On his journey back to India, Bhula's ship made a stop in Wellington - and what was meant to be a brief detour turned into an opportunity he couldn't ignore.

Bhula would spend the next six months in New Zealand, working as a scrub-cutter to improve the land for farming.

Nagin imagines it was a lonely and at times hard life, but one borne from necessity.

"It was quite challenging in those days ... we weren't making enough money back home and we were struggling a bit," Nagin says. "In India, obviously he wasn't getting paid for work at all or, if he was, it was very minimal.

"My grandfather would have heard about agricultural work overseas and they would've had a paying job for him," he says.

"Menial jobs [are] what they would've been doing to get paid in those days, but any job was better than nothing and it was a paying job, so I think he respected that," he says.

"That's what would've led him to take the plunge. He was the first in our family to venture out."

Bhula returned to India once winter in the South Pacific set in and the cold became unbearable, but the image of New Zealand still lingered in his mind.

Two decades later, he returned, this time accompanied by his sons, Bhaga and Manga. Together, they opened a fruit store in Lower Hutt.

It was a step up from laborious farm work, but it wasn't easy. The business wasn't doing too well, and hostility towards Asian migrants that had grown in his time away hadn't really subsided.

White New Zealand League

Indian and Chinese immigration had picked up in the early 1920s post-war period and the presence of these "alien" communities wasn't welcome.

European New Zealanders saw these communities as a threat to economic and racial purity, so in 1926, they formed the White New Zealand League and campaigned aggressively to keep Asian migrants out of New Zealand.

The league found support among a range of groups - grower associations, labour organisations, local bodies and many Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Associations were on board.

In the following decade, more and more restrictive immigration laws would soon come into place too.

But for Bhula, there was a slight loophole.

His previous work in Wellington had secured him the right of return - so in 1935, he visited India again, this time returning with his youngest son, Lala.

"My grandmother would've said to my grandfather, 'These two older boys are doing okay in New Zealand, why not take Lala over there as well?' and they would've had a bit of a squabble about it.

"My grandfather would have said, 'No, no, I want Lala to look after the land because who's gonna look after it when we're gone?' My grandmother obviously won that little battle."

War years

The Great Depression hit New Zealand in the 1930s and the family struggled to stay afloat.

By the end of the decade, an even greater threat was looming.

World War II was approaching, and the boys were fearful of conscription. Lala had just turned 21, so Bhaga, seeing what was coming, urged him to return to India before he could be drafted.

Lala left New Zealand, but life in India was no less turbulent. The Quit India Movement against British colonial rule erupted in 1942, leading to mass arrests and violent crackdowns.

By the time India gained independence in 1947, the region was thrown into chaos again as violence erupted between newly divided India and Pakistan.

While Lala had escaped war in New Zealand, he found himself in the middle of a different kind of conflict.

A fresh start

Lala returned to New Zealand in 1947, but didn't stay in Wellington this time.

Instead, he joined his brother-in-law in Auckland, where he helped run their fruit and vegetable shop in Ponsonby. Nagin and the rest of his family followed just five years later.

"I came here with my mum and sister ... we boarded a boat in Bombay and it would've gone to several ports along the way: Colombo to Sumatra to Fremantle to Sydney. It would've taken us a good six or seven weeks to get here," he recalls.

"From Sydney, we got a twin-engine seaplane to Auckland, so we actually landed at Mechanics Bay and that was a new experience for me: flying. A 10-year-old, never flown before, it was kind of a scary thing.

"Dad had already bought a house at number 4 Douglas Street so that's where we lived."

By this time, the family had found its footing. In 1964, Nagin's father opened another fruit shop, this time in Epsom.

The fruit store remained in the family until 1986.

Looking back, Nagin sees his family's journey as one of immense sacrifice.

"My grandparents spent most of their lives apart: my grandfather in New Zealand and my grandmother in India, her looking after the land and its related issues, looking after the house in Sagra and raising a family," he says. "I felt very much for my grandmother being left alone by herself when all her sons were here in New Zealand."

For Nagin, the journey of his ancestors is a reminder of the struggles they endured to create a better future.

"We were into fruit right from our village life, growing fruit and veges, so I guess when we came here, we just decided, 'Let's stick to what we know', and that's what my grandfather did.

"Their journey, their sacrifices … they were absolutely immense."

* Jogai Bhatt travelled to India with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.