Love spawns generations from India to South Africa and beyond
GOPAUL Iyer and Muthaki Gounder were both born in 1868 in Coimbatore, south India.
Although there is not much historical record of the years preceding their departure to South Africa, it is reasonable to assume that there was a binding love that they shared.
Gopaul attended a cultural festival in 1886 where he laid eyes on Muthaki. She travelled from her village (Cotoor) to visit family in Gopaul’s village.
Muthaki was accompanied by her cousin, Karuppannen Gounder, who was two years younger than her and Gopaul’s friend. He was the agent provocateur and was to remain a link between the couple, who were smitten with each other.
However, there was one snag. Muthaki’s parents promised her hand in marriage to another suitor.
Gopaul and Muthaki must have been devastated. Lo and behold a lifeline came from an unexpected source. The British East India Company presented them with a chance to escape the clutches of traditional life and fulfil their love for each other in the promised land – the sugar cane fields of Natal in South Africa.
Gopaul explored the possibility of boarding a ship destined for South Africa but he was initially disappointed as the response was that persons travelling as a couple needed the consent of their parents if they were under 21. And so began a one-year wait.
It is not known how Muthaki managed to delay her marriage arrangements but whatever she did worked.
Although labour was needed for the sugar cane fields of Natal, the Iyers were considered to belong to the Brahmin caste – educated but not labour material.
Gopaul must have also presented a compelling case for them to be candidates for the voyage and when their dream to spend the rest of their lives together became a reality, it must have been a relief to the young couple.
Muthaki’s cousin Karuppannen was a confidant and the couple colluded with him to keep their plan to escape the clutches of traditional conformity a secret.
They promised to keep in contact with one another and that initial contact helped reconnect the families more than a century later.
Gopaul was aware as to the ways a family (Muthaki’s) could stop such a move and only enlisted the names of himself and Muthaki’s on the ship’s register the night before they departed. He also packed his religious books and scriptures along with his bare essentials for the trip.
In true Romeo and Juliet style, it is said that Muthaki passed her belongings and mementos through the window of her house for Gopaul to collect.
It must have been a painstaking decision, but as the saying goes … love conquers all. With their bare essentials Gopaul and Muthaki boarded the Congella VI, in August, 1890. They were both 22 years old at the time and the journey they were about to undertake would mean that they were never to see their families again. So began their journey into the unknown.
Historical records reveal that the journey by ship was not an easy one. The vessel was loaded to capacity with limited resources, shelter or privacy.
The promised land
After arrival at Port Natal and with the necessary legal requirements fulfilled, the couple then boarded an ox wagon and were transported to a tea plantation in Ifafa, south of Durban.
There was no turning back for Gopaul and Muthaki. They could not return, as they had shamed their families. It was unheard of for a woman to break the matrimonial arrangement her family had committed themselves to.
They were among 152 184 indentured persons who travelled from India to South Africa over a period of 51 years (1869 - 1911) in 384 ship journeys across the Indian Ocean.
The standard practice in the plantations was to labour from dawn to dusk, Sundays included.
The conditions under which the indentured labourers worked were inhuman, and akin to slavery. This was probably the main reason for the high number of suicides among them.
Nevertheless, like Muthaki and Gopaul, most of these indentured Indians remained in South Africa, as they had practically banished themselves from their own country by crossing the seas – the kala pani – and coming to a foreign land.
After the couple’s first period of indenture ended, they moved around to other farms in Natal until they eventually settled on a sugar cane farm in Stanger (now known as KwaDukuza) where they raised six children.
Their oldest son, Muthusamy, was born in 1892. Then followed Rangasamy, Vengetsamy, Lutchmansamy, Lutchmee and Ramanjiloo.
There are many academics and successful businessmen and women who are among the descendants.
However, to bring the Iyer family story into perspective (in a South African context), mention must be made of their grandson, Rex Iyer (a former English lecturer), and the friendship he struck with ANC founding member Albert Luthuli.
Rex used the family home as a safe house for Luthuli when the apartheid security police were looking for him.
They used to spend many hours engaged in plotting the way forward for the liberation organisation.
The conclusion
As a love-struck couple from a village in Coimbatore, Gopaul and Muthaki Iyer had spawned generations numbering hundreds of descendants, some of whom themselves moved on to greener pastures.
There is a large contingent now living in Canada, quite a few living in the UK and America and a number living in New Zealand.
There is even a family that has relocated to Japan. From a humble village, Gopaul and Muthaki Iyer not only realised the promise of love for each other, they contributed towards creating a global family.
But most importantly, they contributed to the rainbow nation that has become the foundation of South Africa.
♦ There are three variations in the spelling of the Iyer surname. Some family members’ surname was spelt Ayer and others as Aiyer.