Sources

Sources and the 1981 Booklet

Mahatma Gandhi’s letter to Pandit B.D. Lakshman, as reproduced in the 1981 edition. (1981 edition)

This page explains how the site was put together, what it rests on, and where the sources disagree. The aim throughout has been to tell Pandit B.D. Lakshman's story warmly but truthfully: to invent nothing, and to say plainly where a fact rests on one account alone.

The first edition: D. Sharma, 1981

This site stands on the shoulders of a small booklet. On 30 March 1981, in Suva, D. Sharma published Pandit B.D. Lakshman – Teacher, Politician, Statesman: A Brief Life History. It sold for 50 cents. Mr Sharma wrote it at the request of the India Fiji Girmit Council, which had decided to award Pandit Lakshman its "Fiji Ratana" gold medal. He signed his introduction on 29 March 1981 and wrote that he had known Pandit Lakshman "for close to 50 years".

Indian National Congress tickets issued to Pandit B.D. Lakshman at the Lahore session of the Congress, 1929. (1981 edition)

The booklet was published while Pandit Lakshman was still alive. Its rights of reproduction were "reserved with Pandit B.D. Lakshman", and those rights now rest with his family.

Mr Sharma knew that a short booklet could not hold a long life. "It would take volumes and volumes to write the full story," he wrote, and he hoped that somebody, someday, would sit down to write it. We are grateful to him. Without his booklet, almost nothing would be known of Pandit Lakshman's early life or his seven years in India, and nearly every photograph on this site comes from it.

Because the booklet went to print in March 1981, it could not include the Fiji Ratana medal ceremony planned for 15 May, the presentation of India's copper plate in September, or his death in October.

The Second Edition, 2026

In 2026 his grandson published Pandit B.D. Lakshman (1900–1981): Teacher, Politician, Statesman, Second Edition. It keeps Mr Sharma's account, adds what newer research has found, says plainly where the two disagree, and reproduces the 1981 booklet in full. He is also the author of Prince Gopal Lakshman: A Political Journey & Legacy in Fiji, Version 1 (2026), the book about his father, which is the source for much of the Family and Legacy page.

The “Fiji Ratana” gold medal of the India Fiji Girmit Council, to be presented to Pandit B.D. Lakshman on 15 May 1981. (1981 edition)

How the research was done

The 1981 first edition is the backbone. Wherever this site relies on it alone – especially for the years in India – the text says so, with words such as "the first edition says" or "as told in 1981".

The Second Edition, 2026. (Second Edition, 2026)

New material comes from records made at the time and from careful later scholarship. The most important is Pacific Islands Monthly, the regional news magazine. For the Second Edition, 261 of its issues – from 1938 to 1952, from 1981 and 1982, and selected issues from 1953 to 1963 – were searched in the digitised collection of the National Library of Australia. The magazine's pages were read by computer, which makes mistakes, so quotations were checked against its digitised text, and quotations from the first edition against images of its pages. Where a passage could not be read with confidence, it is given in paraphrase.

Family facts come from the Lakshman family. In 2026 the family also supplied a birth certificate of B.D. Lakshman and a family history statement, which are cited below. Unsourced statements in online encyclopaedias have not been treated as facts.

Names used on this site

His full name was Brahma Dass Lakshman. He was known in public life as B.D. Lakshman, and both family books call him Pandit B.D. Lakshman. A 2026 official extract of his birth certificate spells the middle name Das, with a single s; the family history statement of 2026, like the books, uses Dass. This site follows the books, and notes the variant.
"Prince" and "Princess" are given names in this family, not titles. Family history says the tradition began with Brahma Dass Lakshman as a mark of the worth and dignity of each child. The family makes no claim to royalty.
His wife's name is spelled "Rampiary" in the text of the first edition and "Rampiari" in its 1956 caption. The family uses Rampiari, and so does this site, except in quotations.
Places in India have their usual English spellings of the time, such as Dehra Dun, Mussoorie, Yerwada and Benares.
The medal title is spelled "Fiji Ratana", as on the medal, though the first edition also uses "Fiji Ratna".
Sums of money are given as recorded at the time, in pounds, shillings and pence.

Where the sources differ

The Kisan Sangh. The first edition calls him its "silent master mover". Historians credit its founding at Ba in November 1937 to Ayodhya Prasad, its organiser, and M.T. Khan, its first president. His obituary says he helped to establish it between 1937 and 1940.
The Albert Park crowd, 1959. More than ten thousand, according to the first edition; about 3,000, according to Pacific Islands Monthly.
Independence. The first edition calls him the first person in Fiji to ask for independence, during his visit to London in 1961. A.D. Patel wrote that the demand was raised at an Albert Park meeting a few days before the riots of December 1959, and the editor of his writings, Brij V. Lal, identifies its convener as B.D. Lakshman.
The 1959 Board of Inquiry. The first edition counts the outcome among his victories. The Board recommended a wage rise, and its report criticised both the company and his leadership.
The Deuba land. A 7,000-acre freehold, according to the first edition; 6,000 acres, according to Pacific Islands Monthly's report of the sale.
The button factory. In 1954 Pacific Islands Monthly called it the colony's second shell-button factory; his 1981 obituary called him the first manufacturer in Fiji to make buttons from mother-of-pearl shells.
His degrees. The first edition gives a B.A. and a B.T. from Benares Hindu University; some later summaries mention only a B.A.
The Samabula bridge. The first edition's text places Gopal Sadhu's march in the 1920 strike; one of its captions gives 1930. This site follows the text.
His date of birth. His birth certificate, registered late in Suva on 1 December 1925, records 1906; the family follows 17 September 1900, as in the 1981 booklet and the Second Edition.
The ship of 1888. The first edition spells the ship on which his father came to Fiji the Hareford. Family research, still being checked against the archives, refers to the Hereford voyage of 1888. The arrival in 1888 itself is family tradition, as told in 1981.
His father's name. The birth certificate records the father as Cheta. Family tradition, in the 1981 first edition and in the family history statement of 2026, remembers him as Bahu Chet Singh, also as Bahu Cheta Singh.

Not yet found

Some records could not be consulted, and they are good places for the next researcher to look: the debates of the Legislative Council (Fiji Hansard); older issues of The Fiji Times; the 1933 prohibited-immigrant order and any Privy Council ruling; records of Benares Hindu University and of his imprisonment in 1930; the farmers' newspaper Kisan; and K.W. Hince's study B.D. Lakshman and the Fiji Trade Union Movement (University of the South Pacific, 1991), which is known to exist but was not available to consult.

Sources

Family books and family records

D. Sharma, Pandit B.D. Lakshman – Teacher, Politician, Statesman: A Brief Life History (Suva, Fiji, 30 March 1981).
His grandson, Pandit B.D. Lakshman (1900–1981): Teacher, Politician, Statesman, Second Edition (2026).
His grandson, Prince Gopal Lakshman: A Political Journey & Legacy in Fiji, Version 1 (2026).
Family birth certificate of B.D. Lakshman (family records). A 2026 official extract, used for his parents' names, Cheta and Sampat, both recorded as born in India, and for the place of birth, Waila, Nausori, Rewa. No registration or document numbers are cited here.
Family history statement (2026). Used for the Bareilly origin, the spellings Bahu Chet Singh and Bahu Cheta Singh, the family's account of the Hereford voyage of 1888, and the Prince and Princess naming tradition.

Pacific Islands Monthly (National Library of Australia, nla.gov.au), cited by issue: 15 August 1940; 15 June 1942; 17 February, 17 July and 18 October 1943; 18 September 1944; 1 April 1953; 1 April and 1 July 1954; 1 September 1957; 1 February 1959 (R.W. Robson, “How B. D. Lakshman Can Call a Strike On and Off”); 1 May, 1 June, 1 August, 1 September, 1 October and 1 December 1959; 1 January and 1 October 1960; 1 January, 1 February, 1 May and 1 September 1961; 1 March and 1 April 1962; 1 February 1963; 1 December 1981, p. 74 (obituary). Issues are dated as the Library catalogues them; an issue can report events from shortly before that date.

Other sources

Ana Madigibuli, “Look Back: Lakshman recognised as India Independence hero”, The Fiji Times, 27 September 2020.
Brij V. Lal, A Vision for Change: AD Patel and the Politics of Fiji (ANU E Press, 2011), chapter 4.
Brij V. Lal (ed.), A Vision for Change: Speeches and Writings of AD Patel, 1929–1969 (ANU E Press, 2011), Part I, p. 35 and note 25; Part II, pp. 121–137 and note 2.
Philip Cass, “Baptism of Fire”, The Round Table (2002), 366, pp. 559–574 (interview with Prince Gopal Lakshman, July 2001).
“Seven Indo-Fijian MPs to skip polls”, Hindustan Times, 29 March 2006.
Adam Carr, Psephos election archive (Fiji, 1999 and 2001).
BBC News, “Fiji hostages tell of ordeal”, 12 July 2000, as cited in the 2026 book on Prince Gopal Lakshman.
Fiji Elections blog (Legislative Council elections, 1940–1959).
Library of Congress Name Authority File, “Lakshman, B. D. (Brahma Dass), 1900-1981”.
Parliament Digital Library of India, “Award of Tamra Patra to Freedom Fighters”.
K.W. Hince, B.D. Lakshman and the Fiji Trade Union Movement, SSED Working Paper No. 18 (USP, 1991). Known to exist; not consulted.

Photographs. All photographs are from the 1981 first edition; the 1975 Hong Kong photograph was credited there to Air India. See Photographs and Documents.

The 1981 booklet

D. Sharma's booklet of 1981 runs to a cover, twenty-four numbered pages and a final page, which carries the welcome address presented to Pandit B.D. Lakshman on his release from the Benares Central Prison. It is reproduced in full in the 2026 Second Edition.

The complete 1981 booklet will be offered here, page by page, once the family decides whether it may be downloaded or read online only.

The Second Edition

Copies of the Second Edition: please get in touch.

Ask about the family

Researching Pandit B.D. Lakshman or the Lakshman family, or think you may be related? Please write to prince.lakshman@hotmail.com, and the family will reply when they can.