The rainbow must not lose its colours
IS INDIAN identity in South Africa dispensable?
Is the need to preserve and promote studies of Indian history, character and distinctiveness here so unessential and expendable that it is not on the radar screen, while the rest of the world is so engrossed in the Indian diaspora?
I have deliberately stopped short of asking whether the Indian has become a superfluous commodity. I leave that for the deliberations of a landmark conference that will take place in Durban in November, details of which appear below.
A diaspora refers to the movement of a population from its original homeland. It can also stand for a scattered population with a common origin. Diaspora studies of dispersed ethnic populations are gaining ground as an academic pursuit globally.
Particularly pulsating is the revived academic interest in Indians outside India, who today constitute more than 20 million spread over 100 countries.
Several centres have been established around the world for the study of the Indian diaspora with the research focusing on the historical context, and the heritage of diasporic communities.
South Africa has no centre for the study of the Indian diaspora. Is this because Indian South Africans should lay no claim to belonging to the Indian diaspora?
Belonging to a diaspora entails a consciousness of, or emotional attachment to, commonly claimed origins and cultural attributes.
The number of generations passed, the degree of mother tongue competence and usage, the number of festivals from India that are still celebrated, the popularity of ethnic meals cooked and the style of dress worn must not alone determine whether there must be links to the diaspora.
Political manipulation has caused questions to be posed about Indian South Africans belonging to a diaspora.
The first body blow to any hankering after India as a motherland came after India’s independence in 1947. The Indian government explicitly denied Indians outside India their identity and urged Indian emigrants to identify with their host countries.
The reason is clear: India was battling to come to terms with the aftermath of a bloody partition where hundreds of thousands had left what is now Pakistan to enter present-day India, and the Indian government was keen to erase suspicion that these new migrants might still pay obeisance to Islamabad.
The newly drawn physical boundaries of the Indian state were, therefore, used to define the more nebulous boundaries of national identity.
Those residing within the borders of India were deemed “Indian,” while those outside were deemed “not Indian”.
In addition to being welcomed by Indian residents, this message from the Indian government was welcomed by members of the Indian diaspora who were living in parts of Africa and the Caribbean and were facing a racial backlash against people of Indian origin.
Thus Indians in South Africa and other countries became keen to convince their host country residents and governments that their loyalties lay in their host country and not in India.
Therefore, hand-in-hand with other peace-loving South Africans, Indians played an outstanding role in the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
Although under apartheid they were considered as second to whites in the racial hierarchy, Indians consciously chose to support blacks and coloureds.
During the past five or six decades, but more so since the dawn of democracy in 1994, embodiments of Indianness have been regarded as unimportant and slowly removed from the national psyche.
Unless the social and cultural aspects of the Indian community are seen to be important to the overall well-being of South African society, the Indian community will feel more and more alienated from the rest of the society.
The teaching of Indian languages in schools has long been accorded pariah status. Indians are frequently reminded by ruling party politicians that they should stop regarding India as their motherland.
The 1860 Legacy Foundation was denied government funding to commemorate the 150th anniversary in November 2010 of the arrival of indentured Indians in South Africa in any significant manner.
The Department of Arts and Culture in KwaZulu-Natal awards paltry amounts for the funding of Indian cultural pursuits.
Today’s younger generation of Indians see no usefulness in the languages of their forebears. Hence there is almost no spoken Tamil, Hindi or Telugu.
The sari and salwar have been replaced by Western outfits. The casserole now shares popularity with curry in Indian kitchens.
The removal of anything Indian from the former University of Durban-Westville (UDW) also did not help sustain learning about the Indian.
UDW had vibrant Indian studies programmes that included Indian languages, philosophy and culture.
The departments that housed these subjects were well subscribed and served the interests of the broader Indian community.
However, in 1998-1999 the entire spectrum of Indian studies was closed and the staff of those departments were redeployed to teach English as a second language or retrenched.
The justification for this was financial rationalisation, ignoring the fact that these departments gave the Indian community much pride and hope that their cultural heritage was well preserved and respected in South Africa.
The impact of the closure of Indian studies at the former UDW not only weakened Indian participation in the newly configured University of KwaZuluNatal, but had a serious impact on the community and its ability to continue Indian cultural studies.
The UDW Indian languages programmes sustained schools’ Indian language programmes by offering training to the teachers of Indian languages.
Since the closure of the UDW Indian studies, the training of teachers in these subjects was affected to the extent that today candidates who seek training in these subjects are unable to find a properly structured programme with properly trained lecturers.
Recently Tamil teachers had to acquire training in Chennai, India, courtesy of the International Movement for Tamil Culture.
Perhaps the more significant loss due to the closure of Indian studies is in the intellectual realm.
It is a well-known fact in the West that Indian culture and philosophy have contributed enormously to the fields of science and technology.
Ancient Indian texts, mostly written in sanskrit, have contributed much to geometry, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, linguistics and philosophical logic.
And these intellectual disciplines have contributed to Western society both during the colonial period and today.
Resurrecting these studies will have a positive impact on not only the Indian community’s sense of identity, but the belief that they can contribute to the South African intellectual discourse.
Hindu and Islamic studies were also affected negatively by the rationalisation process that began at the former UDW.
They were scaled down and integrated into what was initially a School of Religion and Culture, and later, at the time of the merger between the former UDW and University of Natal, they were incorporated into the School of Religion and Theology which then became the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics.
These various stages of rationalisation negatively affected the study of Hinduism and Islam as the posts were drastically reduced.
While Islamic studies has been left with two posts, Hindu studies has one.
It is because of the near obliteration of Indian studies that the idea of establishing a Centre for Indian Diaspora Studies has some merit.
The Indian Diaspora Conference: “Celebrating 155 years of Indians in South Africa” takes place in Durban from November 11 to 14 under the aegis of the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The theme will be “Ethnicity, Race and Citizenship: The Place of Indians in the New South Africa”.
According to the organiser, Professor Emeritus Pratap Kumar Penumala, it is hoped the objective of the conference – to establish a Centre for Indian Diaspora Studies – will come to fruition.
Penumala said the centre would engage in research to develop knowledge of the South African Indian society; would re-establish the scope for pursuing study of Indian languages, culture and the arts; and would create a platform for international scholarly exchange on Indian diaspora studies, which are growing phenomenally in the West.
The centre would also help establish cultural links between countries of the Indian diaspora and foster institutional links with Indian universities on relevant studies relating to the Indian diaspora in South Africa.
As fully fledged citizens with equal rights, Indian South Africans owe no allegiance to India.
The majority of Indians view India only as an ancestral homeland to which there may be an emotional attachment because their forebears hailed from there.
However, there must be no overt or covert means to subjugate South African links to the Indian diaspora to create a common South African identity.
That would be like removing a colour from the rainbow.
Yogin Devan is a media consultant and social commentator. Share your views with him on: yogind@meropa.co.za Post is printed and published by Independent Newspapers KwaZulu-Natal, 18 Osborne Street, Durban, for the proprietors and publishers, Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited, at 18 Osborne Street, Durban. The copyright in the literary and artistic works contained in this newspaper and its supplements, as well as in the published editions and any other content or material (including in any online version), belongs exclusively to Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited unless otherwise stated. The copyright, including the reproduction and adaptation of any content or material contained in this newspaper and its supplements, is expressly reserved to the publisher, Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited, under Section 12(7) of the Copyright Act of 1978. Post has committed itself to the Press Code of Professional Practice, which prescribes that news must be reported in a truthful, accurate, fair and balanced manner. If you feel we don’t live up to the Press Code, please contact The Press Ombudsman in writing at 2nd Floor, 7 St David’s Park, St David’s Place, Parktown, 2193 or PO Box 47221, Parklands 2121, or e-mail pressombudsman@ombudsman. org.za (www.ombudsman.org.za).