FIJI

officially Sovereign Democratic Republic of Fiji, Fijian Viti, country and archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. It surrounds the Koro Sea about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometres) north of Auckland, N.Z. The archipelago consists of some 300 islands and 540 islets scattered over about 1,000,000 square miles (3,000,000 square kilometres). Of the 300 islands, about 100 are inhabited. The total land area is 7,056 square miles. The capital, Suva, is on the southeast coast of the largest island, Viti Levu (Great Fiji). Fiji includes within its borders Rotuma, an island of 18 square miles located about 400 miles north-northwest of Suva; Rotuma has a Polynesian population and was administered from Fiji in colonial times. officially Republic of Fiji, Fijian Viti nation and archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. Culturally it is part of the Melanesian island group. Fiji lies 1,300 miles (2,100 km) north of Auckland, N.Z. Fiji comprises some 540 islets and 300 islands, of which about 100 are inhabited. The main islands are Viti Levu (Great Fiji), Vanua Levu, Taveuni, and Kandavu. Fiji also includes within its borders Rotuma, an island located about 400 miles (640 km) north-northwest of Suva, which is Fiji's capital, on the island of Viti Levu. Area 7,056 square miles (18,274 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 748,000. Additional reading On geography and demography, see R. Gerard Ward, Land Use and Population in Fiji (1965). Socioeconomic aspects are studied in Cyril S. Belshaw, Under the Ivi Tree: Society and Economic Growth in Rural Fiji (1964); H.C. Brookfield, F. Ellis, and R.G. Ward, Land, Cane, and Coconuts (1985); and R.F. Watters, Koro: Economic Development and Social Change in Fiji (1969). Traditional Fijian society and 20th-century change are discussed in R.R. Nayacakalou, Leadership in Fiji (1975); John Nation, Customs of Respect: The Traditional Basis of Fijian Communal Politics (1978); and G.K. Roth, Fijian Way of Life, 2nd ed. (1973). R.A. Derrick, History of Fiji (1946), is a pioneering study and an excellent introduction. Deryck Scarr, Fiji, a Short History (1984), gives a general account. Peter France, The Charter of the Land: Custom and Colonization in Fiji (1969), deals with the foundations of colonial policy. Bruce Knapman, Fiji's Economic History, 18741939: Studies of Capitalist Colonial Development (1987), examines the colonial economy. On the history of Indians in Fiji, see K.L. Gillion, Fiji's Indian Migrants: A History to the End of Indenture in 1920 (1962), and The Fiji Indians: Challenge to European Dominance, 19201946 (1977). See also Adrian C. Mayer, Peasants in the Pacific: A Study of Fiji Indian Rural Society, 2nd ed. (1973). The political situation is outlined in Brij V. Lal (ed.), Politics in Fiji: Studies in Contemporary History (1986); and the coup is discussed in Brij Lal, Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Crisis (1988).