Business and Deuba

Alongside his work as a teacher, legislator and union leader, Pandit B.D. Lakshman was a man of business. He ran a printing press, opened a factory near Lautoka, and in 1962 bought the land at Deuba on which Pacific Harbour stands today.

A merchant of Lautoka

By the 1950s he was well known in Lautoka as a merchant as well as a public man. In April 1954 Pacific Islands Monthly described him as a "well-known Indian merchant, of Lautoka" who would shortly open a pearl-button factory.

Early in June 1954 the Governor officially opened the factory, on the outskirts of Lautoka. It was equipped with modern German button-making machinery and made buttons from mother-of-pearl shell. Sources describe its place in Fiji's history differently: in 1954 Pacific Islands Monthly called it the colony's second shell-button factory, while his obituary in the same magazine in 1981 described him as the first manufacturer in Fiji to make buttons from mother-of-pearl shells. Either way, it was an early venture in a new local industry.

In 1959 he said that he would be glad to train the staff of any co-operative or organisation that took over the plant.

Deuba

In 1962 he bought a large tract of freehold land at Deuba, on the south coast of Viti Levu, near Navua. The seller was the planter J.P. Bayly. When Mr Bayly died, Pacific Islands Monthly's obituary of him, in February 1963, noted that only the year before he had sold "6,000 acres of his valuable Deuba lands to the Indian leader, Mr. B. D. Lakshman".

In 1970 he turned the first sod of the Deuba Development. A photograph of that day was kept and printed in the 1981 first edition. His obituary records that the Pacific Harbour resort stands on the site today, and that he later sold the Deuba land to a Canadian company. The obituary does not name the company, and no other record of the sale has been used for this site.

Deuba became his home. In 1981, when the first edition was written, he was living there with Mrs Rampiari Lakshman, and readers who wanted copies of the booklet were directed to his son Prince Gopal Lakshman at "Deuba Freehold". It was at the Pacific Harbour Resort at Deuba, in September 1981, that India's copper plate was presented to his sons (see The Copper Plate and a Farewell).

Navua, and one last plan

His obituary in Pacific Islands Monthly records that he later acquired more land at Navua and was planning, before his death, to restart commercial cane-farming for ethanol and rum-making. That plan is known only from the obituary.

Travels

He travelled widely. The first edition says that, besides his seven years in India and his journey to London in 1961, he toured the world several times, attended trade fairs in Germany and Italy, and went to Turkey and Cyprus to study their new constitutions.

In 1974 he and Mrs Rampiari Lakshman were photographed together at a convention in Suva. In 1975 they toured the world together, visiting, the first edition says, Australia, India, Pakistan, Tehran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Europe, Canada, the United States and Hawaii. A photograph of the couple in Hong Kong that year, taken by Air India, was printed in the 1981 booklet.

Old friendships

Old friendships lasted. In 1981 a friend from India, Mr B.D. Sanathak, whom he had first met in India fifty-four years before, came to see him at his home in Deuba. Mr Sanathak was then teaching religion at the Gurukul, Saweni, where Pandit Lakshman had started his model high school in 1934.

The family business

The family's connection with Deuba continued. His youngest son, Prince Gopal Lakshman, was later managing director of B.D. Lakshman & Sons Properties Limited, based at Deuba, as recorded in the 2026 book on his life. More about the family is on the Family and Legacy page.

Accounts differ: the size of the Deuba land

The 1981 first edition speaks of a 7,000-acre freehold at Deuba. Pacific Islands Monthly, reporting the sale in February 1963, gave 6,000 acres. The difference has not been resolved, so this site describes the purchase as "a large tract" and gives both figures here.

Sources for this page: Pacific Islands Monthly: 1 April 1954, “Another Pearl Button Factory for Fiji”; 1 July 1954; 1 June 1959; 1 February 1963 (obituary of J.P. Bayly); 1 December 1981, p. 74 (obituary of B.D. Lakshman). D. Sharma, A Brief Life History (Suva, 1981), including the 1970, 1974 and 1975 photographs. his grandson, Prince Gopal Lakshman: A Political Journey & Legacy in Fiji (2026). Second Edition (2026), chapters “Teacher and Man of Business” and “Deuba and the Later Years, 1962–1981”. Full details are on the Sources page.