Here we go, once again!
THIS happens with such regularity that it must be boring; but boring or not, it requires correction and a reminder of the truth behind the perceived reality of “Indian success”.
On June 1, I wrote a column in POST called “Time to change the narrative… and the Indian whipping boy” dealing with the same issue.
Yes, it is a truth that a few Indians benefited from apartheid. It is also true that there were many others, besides these few, who also saw the opportunity to make good in the era.
Have we forgotten the Matanzimas, the Mangopes, and a legion of others in the Bantustans and the “independent homelands”?
These were the products of a corrupt system of patronage that gave apartheid a seeming respectability. They came from the ranks of the “sellouts” who opposed the liberation of South Africa, opposed the progressive trade unions, opposed the unity of those engaged in the struggle, and in some cases, even participated in the elimination of activists.
We dare not forget that the majority of the people opposed the puppets and the collaborators. The people stood shoulder-toshoulder for a democratic South Africa. Indian South Africans were very much a part of that great struggle and were represented in every facet of it.
It is a history that must never be forgotten or replaced with a revisionist one that falsifies and sanitises.
The perceived Indian success must be contextualised within a knowledge of this versatile and upwardly mobile community. There are a number of core values that have made this possible:
An unshakable belief in the value of education. Parents and families have, and will, sacrifice much to ensure that children are educated.
Family cohesion, which is fundamental to success.
Sheer hard work and a desire to succeed.
Frugality and the need to save.
A belief in spirtual values.
This mix, in whatever proportion, has created a community whose success has bred admiration, and with it, some envy.
One must also be aware that not all Indians are a part of this success story. There are those thousands of working-class Indians who hold menial jobs and reside in the former Indian townships of Chatsworth, Phoenix, Lenasia and Pageview.
A quick glance at history will further help to dispel myths:
In the early 1800s Indian slaves (there were over 16 300 in the Cape Colony) led the first slave revolt in the Malmesbury district. This was savagely repressed and eight leaders were tortured to death by having red hot metal tongs gouge out their flesh!
Gandhi began the first Indian national organisations of resistance in the 1890s: passive resistance was a means for mass peoples’ action, effectively used in the 1940s, and it became an ANC weapon.
Indians were central to the Defiance Campaign of 1952, the establishment of the SA Congress of Trade Unions, the drafting of the Freedom Charter, the 1956 Women’s March to Pretoria, the formation of MK, and the formation of the Black Consciousness Movement, the UDF and the MDM.
Under the Group Areas Act, thousands of Indian homes and businesses were seized in Riverside, Mayville, Greyville, Westville and in the Transvaal.
Proportionately, there were more Indians in the liberation of SA than any other (minority) population group.
Divide and rule was an apartheid tactic to foment division.
Let us move on to nation building, learning from the past and forging a new future.
PR Dullay is an academic, author and human rights activist.
Respond to: exilewriting@gmail.com