UpdateBot at 16:00, 9 June 2022

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{{EngvarB|date=May 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name= Brahma Dass Lakshman
| image=
| title= Member of the [[Legislative Council of Fiji|Legislative Council]]
| term1 = 1959–1963
| predecessor1=[[Ayodhya Prasad]]
| successor1= ''Seat abolished''
| term2= 1940–1944
| predecessor2= [[Chattur Singh]]
| successor2= [[A. D. Patel]]
| constituency2 = Northern and Western

| birth_date= 1900
| birth_place= [[Waila, Fiji|Waila]], Fiji
| death_date= 5 October 1981
| death_place= [[Brisbane]], Australia
| party=
| residence=
| spouse=
| profession= Businessman, trade unionist
| footnotes=
}}

'''Brahma Dass Lakshman''' (1900 – 5 October 1981) was an [[Indo-Fijians|Indo-Fijian]] politician, trade unionist and businessman, who had a considerable influence on [[Fiji]]’s sugar industry. He served in the [[Legislative Council of Fiji|Legislative Council]] in two spells between 1940 and 1963.

== Education and teaching career ==
Born in the village of [[Waila, Fiji|Waila]] near [[Nausori]] in 1900,<ref name=PIM1/> he was educated in Fiji before travelling to India in 1927 to attend university.<ref name=PIM1/> He graduated from [[Banaras Hindu University]] with a BA degree. While in [[India]], he took part in the independence struggle with [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and was jailed for four months.<ref name=PIM1/> When Indian Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]] later visited Fiji, she presented a [[Indian copper plate inscriptions|copper plate]] to Lakshman's family to honour his contribution.<ref name=PIM1/> On his return to Fiji he established a high school in [[Gurukul]] on behalf of the [[Arya Samaj in Fiji|Arya Samaj]]. In 1939, after some differences with the school committee he left the school and moved into Lautoka town and opened a night school, Gandhi Memorial College.

While in Lautoka he met leaders of the [[Kisan Sangh]] and offered his services to the sugar cane farmers’ union. Between 1940 and 1943 he represented the Kisan Sangh in negotiations with the [[Colonial Sugar Refining Company (Fiji)|Colonial Sugar Refining Company]] and in numerous discussions with the government. He also contested the [[1940 Fijian general election|1940 elections]] to the Legislative Council with the endorsement of the Kisan Sangh, as the sitting member, [[Chattur Singh]], had lost its confidence. He stood for the Northern and Western constituency against Sadanand Maharaj, also a member of the Kisan Sangh, and won easily with just under 70% of the vote.

Following the elections, he became a key advisor to [[Ayodhya Prasad]] during the 1943 cane strike as the Kisan Sangh and [[Maha Sangh]] vied to support from the farmers. When the Kisan Sangh split into left and right wings, he allied himself with the right wing led by Ayodhya Prasad but had secret meetings with members of the left wing. The split led to the left wing of the Kisan Sangh and Maha Sangh nominating [[A. D. Patel]] to run against him in the [[1944 Fijian general election|1944 elections]]; Patel won with 77% of the vote.

In 1953, differences arose between Prasad and Lakshman, who was now the Vice President of the Kisan Sangh, regarding payment to the [[Fijians|Fijian]] landowners to obtain land to construct a building for the Kisan Sangh. Lakshman was expelled from the Kisan Sangh and subsequently involved himself with organising the sugar mill workers. He became the President of the Fiji Industrial Workers Congress following the death of [[Ami Chandra]] in 1954 and was responsible for the gold mine workers strike of June 1955.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2R3Nk3jUlsC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=%22ami+chandra%22&source=web&ots=bw5YhLOo35&sig=vBCbwbF8o-07nOYlvYnRNu4tDis#PPA11,M1 Industrial associations and local politics]</ref>

In the [[1956 Fijian general election|1956 elections]] he ran against Prasad, but received only 109 votes. However, in 1958 he was elected to Lautoka Town Council with the support of the local ratepayers association. After the departure of [[Sidiq Koya]] from the Central Committee of the Kisan Sangh, Muslim supporters of the organisation were alienated. They supported Lakshman in the [[1959 Fijian general election|1959 elections]], in which he defeated Prasad. In the same year he was elected president of the Fiji Trades Union Congress.<ref name=PIM1/> He did not contest the [[1963 Fijian general election|1963 elections]] and although He put up his name for a number of other elections, he did not launch a serious campaign and remained out of politics for most of the rest of his life.

Having ventured into business, he establish a firm that manufactured buttons from [[mother-of-pearl]] shells and became involved in land deals.<ref name=PIM1/> He died in Brisbane in October 1981 at the age of 81.<ref name=PIM1>[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-342127767/view?partId=nla.obj-342150522#page/n73/mode/1up B.D. Lakshman] ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', December 1981, p74</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakshman, B.D.}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:Fijian Hindus]]
[[Category:Banaras Hindu University alumni]]
[[Category:Fijian trade unionists]]
[[Category:Fiji sugar industry]]
[[Category:20th-century Fijian businesspeople]]
[[Category:Members of the Legislative Council of Fiji]]
[[Category:1981 deaths]]
[[Category:Fijian emigrants to Australia]]
[[Category:Fijian expatriates in India]]

B. D. Lakshman - Revision history

UpdateBot at 16:00, 9 June 2022