Indian South Africans
Encyclopedia
Indian South Africans are people of Indian
descent living in South Africa
and mostly live in and around the city of Durban
, making it 'the largest 'Indian' city outside India'. Most Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India
(South Asia
) during late 19th-century through early 20th-century. At other times Indians were subsumed in the broader geographical category "Asians
", including persons originating in present-day Iran
and parts of the small Chinese community.
There remains a cultural, religious and racial overlap for "Asians" and "Indian South Africans". During the most intense period of segregation and apartheid, "Indian", "Asian", "Coloured", and "Malay" group identities defined where a classified person was permitted to live under the Group Areas Act
.
During ideological apartheid from 1948 to 1994, Indians were called, and often voluntarily accepted, terms that ranged from "Black" to "Asians" to "Indians." Some citizens believed that these terms were improvements on the negatively defined identity of "Non-White", which was their previous status. Politically conscious and nationalistic Indian South Africans wanted to show both their heritage and their local roots. Increasingly they self-identified as "African", "Black", "South African" and, when necessary, "Indian South Africans".
Nonetheless, the spread of democratic elections has sometimes heightened ethnic loyalties. Politicians and groups have looked for means to mobilize power in the competitive parliamentary democracy which South Africa has become since 1994.
, Sikhs and Buddhists. Sources for the Religion of South African Indians vary, such as one report stating that 60% are Hindu, while 40% are Christian. However, others claim a Muslim majority and Hindu minority. As of 2009, approximately 43% or 551,669 of the total Indian population of 1,279,100 identify themselves as Hindu and 51% or 654,064 identified as Muslim.
Significant communities of Pashtuns
from British India's Northwest Frontier settled in South Africa as part of the subcontinental Muslim population. They have been mostly absorbed into the mainstream Indian Muslim community, along with the other ethnicities, most of whom speak Urdu. Pashto is no longer spoken by their descendants.
d Bollywood
films and television programmes remain popular among South African Indians. These are broadcast both by the South African Broadcasting Corporation
's SABC 2
television channel for a few hours each week (Eastern Mosaic on Sundays), and by the DStv
satellite television
service, which carries Zee TV
, B4U, NDTV
and a Hindi-language Sony
channel. In addition, Tamil
–language channels, Sun TV and KTV, were introduced in 2004.
DVD
and video versions of Bollywood films are widely available. Large movie theatre
chains like Ster-Kinekor
increasingly show Bollywood films. Indian culture in South Africa has some similarities to the worldwide Desi
subculture, although the term Desi is almost unknown in South Africa. South African Indians developed a distinctive musical and literary culture of their own, which has to some extent been eclipsed by Bollywood/Desi culture.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC) also has an Indian-oriented radio service called Lotus FM
, launched during the apartheid era. The Sunday Times has a supplement distributed in Indian areas called the Extra, and the Sunday Tribune publishes a similar supplement, called the Herald. A Bollywood section, 'Bollyworld' is published by the Daily News on Mondays.
)
, however these slaves quickly integrated with the rest of the Cape population, being subsumed into the wider "Cape Coloured" and Cape Malay identities. White Afrikaners also may have some Indian slave ancestry, an example of this being former State President
F.W. de Klerk, who revealed in his autobiography that one of his ancestors was a female Indian slave .
An early Indian to settle in South Africa was Kalaga Prabhu, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin merchant from Cochin. He was the foremost among the Konkani
merchants in Cochin. As punishment for conspiring with the Mysorean
king Hyder Ali
to overthrow the king of Cochin, Kalaga Prabhu and his son Chorda Prabhu were arrested by the Dutch and exiled with their families for life to the Cape of Good Hope
in 1771.
from Madras, followed by the Belvedere from Calcutta. They were transported as indentured labourers to work on the sugarcane
plantations of Natal Colony, and, in total, approximately 150 000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers over a period of 5 decades, later also as coal miners and railway construction workers. The indentured labourers tended to speak Tamil
, Telugu
and Hindi
, and the majority were Hindu with Christians and Muslims among them. Indians were imported as it was found by colonial authorities that local black Africans were economically self-sufficient, and thus unwilling to subject themselves to employment by colonial farmers, while other colonial authorities believed that the "hunting and warrior" African culture of the time was incompatible with a sudden shift to employed labour. The Mercury
newspaper favoured the imporation of labour, although other Natal newspapers were against the idea. In general, the importation of labour was not viewed as politically important by colonists when it was proposed, and the importation of Indian labour was driven by lobbying
by a relatively small group of sugar planters, and the long-term consequences of Indian immigration (the establishment of a permanent Indian population in Natal) were not taken into account. (by 1904, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal). It should be noted that although 1860 is dated as the beginning of Indian settlement in Natal, a farmer called ER Rathbone was the first to introduce Indian labour to the colony in 1849.
The remaining Indian immigration was from passenger Indians: traders, and others who migrated to South Africa shortly after the indentured labourers, paid for their own fares and travelled as British Subjects. The majority of passenger Indians were Muslim
s, from Gujarat (including Memons
and Surtis), later joined by Kokanis
, and Urdu
speakers from Uttar Pradesh
. These Muslims played an important part in the establishment of Islam
in the areas where they settled. There was also a significant number of Gujarati Hindus in this group. Passenger Indian traders were often referred to as "Arab
traders" because of their dress, and because the majority were Muslims.
Indentured labourers on sugar plantations were frequently mistreated, and lived in unsanitary conditions. However, formerly indentured labourers quickly established themselves as an important general labour force in Natal particularly as industrial and railway workers, with others engaging in market gardening
, growing most of the vegetables consumed by the white population. A large percentage of indentured labourers returned to India following the expiry of their terms, and some of those who returned alerted authorities in India to abuses taking place in Natal, which led to new safeguards being put in place before further recruiting of indentured labourers was allowed to take place.
Passenger Indians, who initially operated in Durban, expanded inland, to the South African Republic
(Transvaal), establishing communities in settlements on the main road between Johannesburg
and Durban. Natal's Indian traders rapidly displaced small white shop owners in trade with other Indians, and with black Africans, causing resentment among white businesses.
Researchers have made efforts to collect and make available shipping lists of Indian immigrants.
In 1893, Mohandas Gandhi, arrived in South Africa to represent an Indian businessman in a legal dispute. Following his arrival in South Africa, Gandhi experienced racial discrimination, and, following the proposal of legislation to restrict Indian voting rights in Natal, he helped organise resistance, leading to the formation of the Natal Indian Congress
. This organised resistance led to the unification of disparate groups of South African Indians for the first time. Although the bill was defeated, it was successfully reintroduced in 1896.
government first instituted discriminatory legislation against Indians in 1885, which led to protests from the British authorities, as the Indians were British Subjects, and was used as one of the justifications for the Anglo-Boer War.
Indians were banned from working in the mining industry, and areas were set aside for coolie locations in various towns in the Transvaal. Persons of colour could also not walk on sidewalks in the Transvaal.
Following the end of the second Anglo-Boer War, the new British government of the Transvaal Colony continued discriminatory practices against Indians.
, although facing petty discrimination, were generally well treated, could own property, could vote, and could trade freely. The Muslim men in this group married Cape Malay women, and thus integrated into the existing community.
, then an independent Boer Republic, and this led to the almost total absence of Indians from the area, a situation that persisted into the apartheid era.
, applied in 1950, Indians were forcibly moved into Indian townships
, and had their movements restricted. They were not allowed to reside in the Orange Free State Province
, and needed special permission to enter that province. They were also, as a matter of state policy, given an inferior education compared to white South Africans. The Asiatic Land Tenure and the Indian Representative Act of 1946 were repealed.
In 1961, Indians were officially recognised as permanent part of the South African population, the Department of Indian Affairs was established, with a white minister in charge. In 1968, the South African Indian Council came into being, serving as a link between the government and the Indian people.
The University of Durban-Westville
(now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal
) was built with a Rand-for-Rand contribution from Indian South Africans and the government in the 1970s. Before that, Indian students had to take a ferry to Salisbury Island's abandoned prison, which served as their university.
Casual racist expressions were used during the years of apartheid. Indians in South Africa were (and sometimes still are) referred to by the racial epithet coolie
.
In 1983, the Constitution
was reformed to allow the Coloured
and Indian minorities a limited participation in separate and subordinate Houses of a Tricameral Parliament
, a development which enjoyed limited support and very low voter turnoutshttp://www.sahistory.org.za/official-or-original-documents/tricameral-parliament. The Indian house was called the House of Delegates
. Some aspects of Indian life were regulated by this house, including education. The theory was that the Indian minority could be allowed limited rights, but the Black majority were to become citizens of independent homelands
. These separate arrangements were removed by the negotiations which took place from 1990 on to provide all South Africans with the vote.
, although this changed in later elections .
Indians who were citizens before 1994, and thus discriminated against by apartheid, are considered black for the purposes of Employment Equity, that is, they are classified as having been disadvantaged under apartheid. They are thus eligible for affirmative action. They are also eligible for Black Economic Empowerment
. Despite this, some Indians complain that they are discriminated against for "not being black enough".
n immigration commenced from both India, and Pakistan, paralleling the movement of Africans from the diaspora and neighboring African countries to the new South Africa. Some of the immigrants were illegal, or obtained their residency by dubious means, while other post-apartheid immigrants from India have managed to acquire vast political and economic influence in a short time.
Indian people
Indian people or Indisians constitute the Asian nation and pan-ethnic group native to India, which forms the south of Asia, containing 17.31% of the world's population. The Indian nationality is in essence made up of regional nationalities, reflecting the rich and complex history of India...
descent living in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and mostly live in and around the city of Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
, making it 'the largest 'Indian' city outside India'. Most Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India
Colonial India
Colonial India refers to areas of the Indian Subcontinent under the control of European colonial powers, through trade and conquest. The first European power to arrive in India was the army of Alexander the Great in 327–326 BC. The satraps he established in the north west of the subcontinent...
(South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
) during late 19th-century through early 20th-century. At other times Indians were subsumed in the broader geographical category "Asians
Asians in South Africa
The majority of the Asian South African population is Indian in origin, most of them descended from indentured workers transported to work in the 19th century on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area, then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the...
", including persons originating in present-day Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and parts of the small Chinese community.
There remains a cultural, religious and racial overlap for "Asians" and "Indian South Africans". During the most intense period of segregation and apartheid, "Indian", "Asian", "Coloured", and "Malay" group identities defined where a classified person was permitted to live under the Group Areas Act
Group Areas Act
The Group Areas Act of 1950 was an act of parliament created under the apartheid government of South Africa on 27th April 1950. The act assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid...
.
During ideological apartheid from 1948 to 1994, Indians were called, and often voluntarily accepted, terms that ranged from "Black" to "Asians" to "Indians." Some citizens believed that these terms were improvements on the negatively defined identity of "Non-White", which was their previous status. Politically conscious and nationalistic Indian South Africans wanted to show both their heritage and their local roots. Increasingly they self-identified as "African", "Black", "South African" and, when necessary, "Indian South Africans".
Nonetheless, the spread of democratic elections has sometimes heightened ethnic loyalties. Politicians and groups have looked for means to mobilize power in the competitive parliamentary democracy which South Africa has become since 1994.
Religion
Almost all South African Indians are either Muslim, Hindu or Christian. There are also small groups of Parsis, ZoroastriansZoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
, Sikhs and Buddhists. Sources for the Religion of South African Indians vary, such as one report stating that 60% are Hindu, while 40% are Christian. However, others claim a Muslim majority and Hindu minority. As of 2009, approximately 43% or 551,669 of the total Indian population of 1,279,100 identify themselves as Hindu and 51% or 654,064 identified as Muslim.
| Source | % Hindu | % Muslim | % Christian | % Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| southafrica.info | 43% | 51% | NA% | 6% |
| about.com | 60% | NA | 40% | NA |
| mediaclubsouthafrica.com | 47.3% | 24.7% | 24.4% | 3.6% |
| info.gov.za (only for Hindus) | 66% | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
Languages
English is the first language of most Indian South Africans. A minority, especially older people, still speak some Indian languages as a first language. But English is the predominant first language, and in younger people, the only language spoken. Many South African Indians still understand a variety of Indian languages to varying extents, often as a result of promotion by cultural organisations.Significant communities of Pashtuns
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
from British India's Northwest Frontier settled in South Africa as part of the subcontinental Muslim population. They have been mostly absorbed into the mainstream Indian Muslim community, along with the other ethnicities, most of whom speak Urdu. Pashto is no longer spoken by their descendants.
Media and entertainment
Although Indian languages are seldom spoken or understood by younger Indians, English-subtitleSubtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
d Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
films and television programmes remain popular among South African Indians. These are broadcast both by the South African Broadcasting Corporation
South African Broadcasting Corporation
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is the state-owned broadcaster in South Africa and provides 18 radio stations as well as 3 television broadcasts to the general public.-Early years:Radio broadcasting began in South Africa in 1923...
's SABC 2
SABC 2
SABC 2 is a South African television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation . SABC 2 broadcasts programming in English, Afrikaans, Venda, and Tsonga.It was created in 1996, after the SABC restructured its television channels...
television channel for a few hours each week (Eastern Mosaic on Sundays), and by the DStv
DStv
DStv is MultiChoice's multi-channel digital satellite TV service in Africa, launched in 1995. It operates from two satellites over Africa, broadcasting on Ku band via Eutelsat W7 and Intelsat 7 , which only requires a small satellite dish...
satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
service, which carries Zee TV
Zee TV
Zee TV is an India-based satellite television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, which broadcasts various programmes in Hindi and other regional languages of India. Broadcasting is also present in various nations of South Asia, Europe, the Middle East,...
, B4U, NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
and a Hindi-language Sony
Sony Entertainment Television Asia
For the version in India, see Sony Entertainment Television .Not to be confused with Sony Entertainment Television , the SET version in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Fiji....
channel. In addition, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
–language channels, Sun TV and KTV, were introduced in 2004.
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and video versions of Bollywood films are widely available. Large movie theatre
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
chains like Ster-Kinekor
Ster-Kinekor
Ster Kinekor is a South Africa-based cinema company. Its head office is in the Ster-Kinekor Office Park in Sandton, City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.-History:...
increasingly show Bollywood films. Indian culture in South Africa has some similarities to the worldwide Desi
Desi
Desi or Deshi refers to the people, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and, increasingly, to the people, cultures, and products of their diaspora. Desi countries include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh...
subculture, although the term Desi is almost unknown in South Africa. South African Indians developed a distinctive musical and literary culture of their own, which has to some extent been eclipsed by Bollywood/Desi culture.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation
South African Broadcasting Corporation
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is the state-owned broadcaster in South Africa and provides 18 radio stations as well as 3 television broadcasts to the general public.-Early years:Radio broadcasting began in South Africa in 1923...
(SABC) also has an Indian-oriented radio service called Lotus FM
Lotus FM
Lotus FM is a South African national radio station based in Durban, loosely similar to the BBC Asian Network in the United Kingdom, that caters for the needs of the South African Indian community. It combines a mix of Indian music, news, current affairs, interviews and entertainment...
, launched during the apartheid era. The Sunday Times has a supplement distributed in Indian areas called the Extra, and the Sunday Tribune publishes a similar supplement, called the Herald. A Bollywood section, 'Bollyworld' is published by the Daily News on Mondays.
Dutch slavery in the Cape
A significant proportion of slaves imported into the Cape were from India (including modern BangladeshBangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
)
, however these slaves quickly integrated with the rest of the Cape population, being subsumed into the wider "Cape Coloured" and Cape Malay identities. White Afrikaners also may have some Indian slave ancestry, an example of this being former State President
State President of South Africa
State President, or Staatspresident in Afrikaans, was the title of South Africa's head of state from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic in 1961, and Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be head of state...
F.W. de Klerk, who revealed in his autobiography that one of his ancestors was a female Indian slave .
An early Indian to settle in South Africa was Kalaga Prabhu, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin merchant from Cochin. He was the foremost among the Konkani
Konkani people
Konkani people , form a group of people mainly found in the Konkan Coast of western India whose mother-tongue is the Konkani language....
merchants in Cochin. As punishment for conspiring with the Mysorean
Kingdom of Mysore
The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. The kingdom, which was ruled by the Wodeyar family, initially served as a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire...
king Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali
Hyder Ali was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born Hyder Naik, he distinguished himself militarily, eventually drawing the attention of Mysore's rulers...
to overthrow the king of Cochin, Kalaga Prabhu and his son Chorda Prabhu were arrested by the Dutch and exiled with their families for life to the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
in 1771.
Indentured labourers and passenger Indians
The modern South African Indian community is largely descended from Indians who arrived in South Africa from 1860 onwards. The first 342 of these came on board the TruroTruro (ship)
The Truro was the ship containing the first batch of 342 indentured Indian labourers to arrive in Durban on 16 November 1860. The second batch of 342 arrived in Durban on board the Belvedere 10 days later. Passenger lists have been made available online...
from Madras, followed by the Belvedere from Calcutta. They were transported as indentured labourers to work on the sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
plantations of Natal Colony, and, in total, approximately 150 000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers over a period of 5 decades, later also as coal miners and railway construction workers. The indentured labourers tended to speak Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, and the majority were Hindu with Christians and Muslims among them. Indians were imported as it was found by colonial authorities that local black Africans were economically self-sufficient, and thus unwilling to subject themselves to employment by colonial farmers, while other colonial authorities believed that the "hunting and warrior" African culture of the time was incompatible with a sudden shift to employed labour. The Mercury
The Mercury (South Africa)
The Mercury is an upmarket English language newspaper owned by Independent News & Media and published in Durban, South Africa.As the most popular English morning newspaper in the region, The Mercury has 269 000 readers .-Content:...
newspaper favoured the imporation of labour, although other Natal newspapers were against the idea. In general, the importation of labour was not viewed as politically important by colonists when it was proposed, and the importation of Indian labour was driven by lobbying
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
by a relatively small group of sugar planters, and the long-term consequences of Indian immigration (the establishment of a permanent Indian population in Natal) were not taken into account. (by 1904, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal). It should be noted that although 1860 is dated as the beginning of Indian settlement in Natal, a farmer called ER Rathbone was the first to introduce Indian labour to the colony in 1849.
The remaining Indian immigration was from passenger Indians: traders, and others who migrated to South Africa shortly after the indentured labourers, paid for their own fares and travelled as British Subjects. The majority of passenger Indians were Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, from Gujarat (including Memons
Memons in South Africa
Memons in South Africa form a prosperous Muslim subgroup in that country's Indian community, and are largely descended from Memons from Kathiawar who immigrated as traders, early in the 20th century from India...
and Surtis), later joined by Kokanis
Konkani Muslims
Konkani / Kokani Muslims is a Muslim sub-ethnic group of Maharashtrian Muslims living in the Konkan region of India. They speak the Konkani language. A good number of them live in Mumbai...
, and Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
speakers from Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
. These Muslims played an important part in the establishment of Islam
Islam in South Africa
Islam in South Africa pre-dates the colonial period, and consisted of isolated contact with Arab and East Africa traders. Many South African Muslims are described as Coloureds, notably in the Western Cape, including those whose ancestors came as slaves from the Indonesian archipelago...
in the areas where they settled. There was also a significant number of Gujarati Hindus in this group. Passenger Indian traders were often referred to as "Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
traders" because of their dress, and because the majority were Muslims.
Indentured labourers on sugar plantations were frequently mistreated, and lived in unsanitary conditions. However, formerly indentured labourers quickly established themselves as an important general labour force in Natal particularly as industrial and railway workers, with others engaging in market gardening
Market gardening
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre ...
, growing most of the vegetables consumed by the white population. A large percentage of indentured labourers returned to India following the expiry of their terms, and some of those who returned alerted authorities in India to abuses taking place in Natal, which led to new safeguards being put in place before further recruiting of indentured labourers was allowed to take place.
Passenger Indians, who initially operated in Durban, expanded inland, to the South African Republic
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
(Transvaal), establishing communities in settlements on the main road between Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
and Durban. Natal's Indian traders rapidly displaced small white shop owners in trade with other Indians, and with black Africans, causing resentment among white businesses.
Researchers have made efforts to collect and make available shipping lists of Indian immigrants.
Early discrimination
Indians faced discrimination to varying degrees in all the parts of South Africa.Natal
Indians began facing repressive legislation in Natal as well. They were forced to carry passes in 1888.In 1893, Mohandas Gandhi, arrived in South Africa to represent an Indian businessman in a legal dispute. Following his arrival in South Africa, Gandhi experienced racial discrimination, and, following the proposal of legislation to restrict Indian voting rights in Natal, he helped organise resistance, leading to the formation of the Natal Indian Congress
Natal Indian Congress
The Natal Indian Congress was an organization that aimed to fight discrimination against Indians in South Africa. The Natal Indian Congress was started by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, later known as the Mahatma...
. This organised resistance led to the unification of disparate groups of South African Indians for the first time. Although the bill was defeated, it was successfully reintroduced in 1896.
Transvaal
The South African RepublicSouth African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
government first instituted discriminatory legislation against Indians in 1885, which led to protests from the British authorities, as the Indians were British Subjects, and was used as one of the justifications for the Anglo-Boer War.
Indians were banned from working in the mining industry, and areas were set aside for coolie locations in various towns in the Transvaal. Persons of colour could also not walk on sidewalks in the Transvaal.
Following the end of the second Anglo-Boer War, the new British government of the Transvaal Colony continued discriminatory practices against Indians.
Cape Colony
Passenger Indians who moved to the Cape ColonyCape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
, although facing petty discrimination, were generally well treated, could own property, could vote, and could trade freely. The Muslim men in this group married Cape Malay women, and thus integrated into the existing community.
Orange Free State
Indians were prohibited by an 1891 statute from living in the Orange Free StateOrange Free State
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...
, then an independent Boer Republic, and this led to the almost total absence of Indians from the area, a situation that persisted into the apartheid era.
Apartheid
Discriminated against by apartheid legislation, such as the Group Areas ActGroup Areas Act
The Group Areas Act of 1950 was an act of parliament created under the apartheid government of South Africa on 27th April 1950. The act assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid...
, applied in 1950, Indians were forcibly moved into Indian townships
Township (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
, and had their movements restricted. They were not allowed to reside in the Orange Free State Province
Orange Free State Province
Orange Free State Province was one of the four provinces of South Africa from 1910-1994.Its predecessor was the Orange River Colony.In 1994 it was dissolved. Its borders were largely conterminous with those of the modern Free State Province...
, and needed special permission to enter that province. They were also, as a matter of state policy, given an inferior education compared to white South Africans. The Asiatic Land Tenure and the Indian Representative Act of 1946 were repealed.
In 1961, Indians were officially recognised as permanent part of the South African population, the Department of Indian Affairs was established, with a white minister in charge. In 1968, the South African Indian Council came into being, serving as a link between the government and the Indian people.
The University of Durban-Westville
University of Durban-Westville
The University of Durban-Westville was formerly a university situated in Westville, Durban opened 1972. It now forms part of the campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Known as UDW, it was initially established for Indians as during apartheid there were few universities that admitted non-White...
(now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal
University of KwaZulu-Natal
The University of KwaZulu-Natal or UKZN is a university with five campuses all located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.-History:-University of...
) was built with a Rand-for-Rand contribution from Indian South Africans and the government in the 1970s. Before that, Indian students had to take a ferry to Salisbury Island's abandoned prison, which served as their university.
Casual racist expressions were used during the years of apartheid. Indians in South Africa were (and sometimes still are) referred to by the racial epithet coolie
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...
.
In 1983, the Constitution
South African Constitution of 1983
The Constitution of 1983 was South Africa's third constitution. It replaced the republican constitution that had been adopted when South Africa became a republic in 1961 and was in force for ten years before it was superseded by the Interim Constitution on 27 April 1994, which in turn led to the...
was reformed to allow the Coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
and Indian minorities a limited participation in separate and subordinate Houses of a Tricameral Parliament
Tricameral Parliament
The Tricameral Parliament was the name given to the South African parliament and its structure from 1984 to 1994, established by the South African Constitution of 1983...
, a development which enjoyed limited support and very low voter turnoutshttp://www.sahistory.org.za/official-or-original-documents/tricameral-parliament. The Indian house was called the House of Delegates
House of Delegates (South Africa)
The House of Delegates was a body in the Tricameral Parliament of South Africa which existed from 1984-1994. It was reserved for Indian South Africans. The body was elected twice; in 1984 and 1989....
. Some aspects of Indian life were regulated by this house, including education. The theory was that the Indian minority could be allowed limited rights, but the Black majority were to become citizens of independent homelands
Bantustan
A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...
. These separate arrangements were removed by the negotiations which took place from 1990 on to provide all South Africans with the vote.
Post-apartheid politics
Some Indians played an important role in the anti-apartheid struggle. A few occupied positions of power in post-apartheid South Africa. In post-apartheid South Africa, many Indians, particularly the poor, began to support formerly white parties such as the Democratic Alliance and New National Party, as they felt threatened by the policies of the ruling African National CongressAfrican National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
, although this changed in later elections .
Indians who were citizens before 1994, and thus discriminated against by apartheid, are considered black for the purposes of Employment Equity, that is, they are classified as having been disadvantaged under apartheid. They are thus eligible for affirmative action. They are also eligible for Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment is a programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups economic opportunities previously not available to them...
. Despite this, some Indians complain that they are discriminated against for "not being black enough".
Renewed South Asian immigration
Following the end of apartheid, a new wave of South AsiaSouth Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n immigration commenced from both India, and Pakistan, paralleling the movement of Africans from the diaspora and neighboring African countries to the new South Africa. Some of the immigrants were illegal, or obtained their residency by dubious means, while other post-apartheid immigrants from India have managed to acquire vast political and economic influence in a short time.
See also
- Asians in AfricaAsians in AfricaPeople from, or with roots from, Asia live throughout Africa. Some came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as indentured labour or coolies...
- Tamil South AfricansTamil South Africans-External links:**...
- Tamil diasporaTamil diasporaThe Tamil diaspora is a demographic group of Tamil people of Indian or Sri Lankan origin who have settled in other parts of the world. Significant Tamil diaspora populations can be found in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Middle East, Réunion, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Fiji, Guyana,...
- Memons in South AfricaMemons in South AfricaMemons in South Africa form a prosperous Muslim subgroup in that country's Indian community, and are largely descended from Memons from Kathiawar who immigrated as traders, early in the 20th century from India...