EDITOR’S VIEW
1860 anniversary: a time for reflection
THIS week marks the 158th anniversary of the arrival of the first indentured labourers here from India.
It is a historic occasion despite some historians pointing out that the earliest record of Indians in South Africa actually dates back to the 1650s – when Dutch explorer Jan van Riebeeck brought some of them to the Cape as slaves.
Be that as it may, for the large majority of Indian South Africans, November 16, 1860, still represents the day when over 300 humble labourers arrived on our shores, lured by the promise of a better life in a new land.
It took little time before they realised the truth – it was the beginning of hell on Earth. For the majority of the new arrivals, it meant the beginning of years of drudgery and abject poverty, some of them taking their own lives to escape the hardship and misery of indenture.
As the labourers were later to discover, indenture was nothing more than a soulless and binding contract between the colonial farmers and their employees – a euphemism for slavery that had been officially abolished in 1833.
It is important that all South Africans – whatever their race, colour or political affiliation – reflect on these early experiences and history, lest we forget.
The early settlers managed to survive under oppressive conditions, but with the arrival of a growing number of free Indians and an influx of many passenger Indians in later years, a hostile anti-Indian political climate began to develop, coupled with a slew of anti-Indian laws to control their free movement.
If you fast forward to the present day, you will find a vibrant community of over 1.2 million people who consider themselves fully-fledged South Africans, and they play a crucial role in the country’s development and sociopolitical transformation.
After the advent of democracy some 24 years ago, many have assumed influential positions in commerce and industry, institutions of learning and the government.
Despite the trials and tribulations of their 158-year history, this is a community that is determined to play its rightful role in building South Africa’s relatively new democracy.
And this all stems largely from their innate resistance to injustice and discrimination, their rich cultural and religious heritage, and the importance they have always placed on education.
The anniversary should be commemorated with respectful and sombre dignity, with empathy for the struggle that the Indian ancestors were subjected to, and hope for a better future for all their South African compatriots.