Reflecting on search for a better life
THE answers to this eternal human pursuit of a better life requires reflection tomorrow, November 16, a day which signifies the arrival of indentured Indians to this country 157 years ago.
The dubious nature of recruitment is well researched by indenture scholars that beg the question as to how voluntary was this search for a better life when leaving India?
It is clear, as already pointed out by Surendra Bhana and Hugh Tinker’s New System of Slavery, that recruitment to foreign plantations in the colonies of the British Empire was a painful and deceitful process. The wicked practice of the “arkatis” (local village agents) by which they preyed and pounced on fractured family units to kidnap rural villagers, is well highlighted.
A Tamil movie called Paradesi (Vagabond), made in 2013, best simulates the dubious practice of indentured recruitment.
The movie also posits the dilemma of being stuck in this hopeless vortex of vicious misery in which the search for a better life will forever remain elusive.
Hopefully, this vicious misery is not the case here in South Africa, a country that is fed on the much-romanticised slogan of the ruling party, “A Better Life for All”.
Who exactly has reaped the benefits of this better life is a question we are now grappling with in this young, yet robust, democracy we call home.
Notwithstanding the concerns raised on voluntary indenture, it must be understood that our ancestry still strove to find that better life post-indenture, albeit in harsh conditions. This was made even more difficult with legislative laws that sought to exterminate the “Alien Menace”, as evidenced at the turn of the 19th century.
Their challenges were inordinate as already pointed out through scholastic endeavours by Joy Brain, Bridglal Pachai, Mabel Palmer, Kalpana Hiralal and more so by Goolam Vahed and Ashwin Desai in their detailed study, Inside Indenture.
One of the most telling studies on sufferance is an essay by Surendra Bhana that explores the psycho-historical circumstances surrounding suicide among indentured Indians between 1875 to 1911.
The high incidence of suicide clearly evidenced the horrendous abuse by plantation owners against the indentured, who never exited that vortex of misery to find a better life.
Equally more concerning was a letter penned (1945) by a fellow citizen of the new world (in Durban) expressing her shock at the callous nature of her fellow citizens in ridiculing Indian suicides.
Further proof of the evasive search for a better life is highlighted in the largely unknown Lobito Bay scandal. In 1907, due to the harsh economic climate and the £3 tax, 2 000 Indians from Natal signed up to work on the Benguela Railway at Lobito Bay, Angola.
Life in Angola was horrendous. with as many as 500 people dying in working and living conditions that were sub-human.
Maureen Swan’s book on Gandhi, The South African Experience provides insightful observation on the social stratification in the years 1880 to 1913 of various classes within the Indian Community living in South Africa.
What is perturbing to me is how little has changed from 1913 to 2017, with the exception of an increased working class.
It is worth commenting on the nuances of the three class divisions that give answers to my question as to who has achieved in this search for a better life.
THE COMMERCIAL ELITE:
Once the indentured Indians contracts had expired by the 1880s, some of the ex-indentured opened trading shops to service the needs of the Indians.
Swan described this class as the original political community.
They were referred to as merchants or traders. She argued this class came here with enough capital to obliterate any hopes of trading prosperity the ex-indentured had hoped for.
They maintained a closeknit network by “keeping it in the family” and “gradually excluded the ex-indentured from the prominent positions in Indian commerce”.
Their entrenched privilege and trading monopoly received legal sanction that resulted in the arrival of Mohandas Gandhi.
The dominance of this class came to the fore in 1885 that showed them owning 60 of the 66 stores owned by all Indians in Durban.
Today, this entrenched privilege and closed network of trading dominance continues to exist. The links to Guptastyled hegemony is strikingly similar.
THE NEW ELITE:
Swan describes this group as those that emerged as the offspring of the indentured or ex-indentured, who saw themselves as “young colonials”.
These were people who broke that vortex of misery to become trained professionals, lawyers, civil servants and accountants.
They were generally economically comfortable and earned substantially more than those who worked in the plantations, railways, hotels or for the municipality.
This class also maintained a working relationship with the commercial elite as an investment in social upgrading to maintain a privileged hierarchical position.
Today, this group has grown, making substantial economic gains in the depressed economy of South Africa.
Minorities of them occupy a high, somewhat Kardashianlike status, with family members being plied with once-off luxury cars and hand-made Gucci bags in celebrating milestone birthdays.
Their ostentatious behaviour fuels the stereotype that Indians are “lahnees”, a parallel observation of the external gaze as held by Thomas Blom Hansen in his book, Melancholia of Freedom.
THE UNDERCLASS:
During the years 1860 to 1911, of the 152 184 people who arrived from India on 384 ships, the underclass made up the majority of the total Indian population in South Africa.
The majority of this class took to market gardening, railway work and service-orientated positions as a means of moderate survival.
The merchant class simply exploited the underclass, charging high rental rates for trading space needed by struggling market gardeners.
The other example was based on a usury relationship between the underclass and the merchant class.
The high interest rates charged to the poor for taking loans to alter their vortex of misery, kept the underclass in a static position.
Historically, their misery culminated in the 1913 mass mobilisation victory against oppressive laws with Gandhi as their leader.
Could it be that the cult image of Gandhi would be less heroic had it not been for this newly conscientised underclass?
Could it be that India’s road to democracy would have been much longer had it not been for this underclass?
These questions give rise to passionate debate, with the role of the underclass never being acknowledged!
THE WORKING CLASS:
The emergence of a fourth class, sandwiched between the underclass and the new elite class, is a new working class of the 20th century.
Statistics South Africa reveal that Indians have made significant inroads into breaking the poverty cycle.
In 2015, fewer people of Indian descent were living below the poverty line.
This success in finding that cherished better life is due to the tenacity of this working class from the 1950s to 2000.
For many families, sustainable income was being provided by clothing, shoe and metal fabrication factories.
Many children from this generation were able to proudly graduate from tertiary institutes due to their parents sacrificing their own happiness to see their children end that vortex of misery.
Today, however, it’s doubtable if this class can sustain its growth in view of the lack of regulations by the government in controlling importation of goods from foreign countries.
All the factories have all but perished amid the gains of globalisation.
This, combined with the economic attractiveness of South Africa to foreign nationals, is showing signs of a rapid decline in opportunities for this working class.
A midday drive around places like Chatsworth, Phoenix, Verulam and oThongathi (Tongaat) reveals a frighteningly growing army of unemployed males between the ages of 20 to 35.
This group have become restless and taken to the scourge of cheap drugs much like the indentured of the 1880s who took to dagga to drown out their pain.
It must be understood there remains a lot of work ahead for all classes in building a proud and prosperous South Africa.
The challenge, however, is how the resourced classes activate their social responsibility to create a better life for all without corruptive and selfish motives.