Indians are again at the crossroads of change

SOUTH AFRICA’S Indian community is at the crossroads in a bitter-sweet country that was reinvented into a republic in the 1990s.

Indians arrived by boat as semislaves in Durban 157 years ago. They were ferried from colonial India by the British rulers to toil in the sugar cane plantations for the expatriate sugar barons, documenting a horrendous labour camp system.

The new country was famously hailed as Mandela’s Rainbow Land, following our near-miracle transition from potentially a black-versuswhite race-based civil war to a fledgling democracy.

Throughout this poignant past, from colonialism to apartheid and constitutional democracy, Indians have been central to the legacy of a culturally diverse, politically conscientised and non-racial nation.

On November 16, 1860, the first batch of 342 Indians disembarked from the SS Truro, followed by the Belvedere. Buildings are named after Truro and a sugar farming area is named after the Belvedere. Between 1860 and 1911, hundreds of thousands migrated to South Africa.

In 2020, Indians, who are divided into a half-dozen religious-cultural sub-groups, will celebrate and commemorate 160 years since stepping on to the African soil. Predictably, given past tensions, this unique group of people of Indian origin may be divided on the planning, protocol and funding of this milestone. Leaders tend to jockey for garlands, often currying favour to be recognised by the ruling political leadership, and to be publicised with the political royalty.

It’s a test of time, if government-initiated projects to erect a memorial statue on the shoreline in memory of the 342 Indians, plus the Belvedere’s batch, who spawned the largest population of Indians outside India, will see the light of day.

Will the moneyed people come forward to enrich their own legacy? Will Indians continue to be separated along class and wealth lines? Or are the “free” and “passenger” Indians still reluctant to link their history with that of the trailblazing indentured pioneers? These questions may once again pop up ahead of the milestone of 16 decades.

Despite overall achievements and failures, the population has been stagnant. Family size is planned at three to five nowadays, a far cry from old-fashioned household head-count of a dozen per family, or the trademark close-knit extended family system associated with Indians.

Younger generations are changing, so are their locations and landmarks. They are challenging the parental handbook tips of the known system to financial success: strive for proper schooling, get good grades, study further and secure a high-paying job. Many thirty-somethings are bright entrepreneurs, innovators and movers and shakers who are eyeing the big bucks so they can enjoy palatial lifestyles, drive supercars and rub shoulders with the nouveau riche and political petty bourgeoisie of the millennial age.

However, in Indian country – KwaZulu-Natal, home of the majority of Indian descendants, with over 800 000 residing in this south-eastern seaboard, the majority 3 million-strong Durban – Indians see their history embedded.

Seldom do they speak of the majority of the slaves, among them, Indians, Arabs and Muslims, who were shipped from the Far East to the Cape.

By the 1880s, they were integrated wholly into the white and coloured communities, while Indians here in KZN remained socially and culturally exclusive from the other race groups, partly because of apartheid. From the second half of the 19th century to the 20th century, Indians were shipped to Durban, firstly as indentured labour and then as “free” or “passenger” Indians. The labourers worked for five to 10 years to be freed from their indenture.

The migration from colonial India gave birth to a new generation of a diverse workforce from skilled and unskilled labourers to traders, teachers and business families, among them jewellers, craftsmen, farmers, priests, builders and miners. Throughout this period, from 1860 to 1911, the hallmark of the migrant communities was their spirit of unity and cultural-religious devotion that poured their resourcefulness into building temples, churches and mosques.

They contributed to building government-aided schools and continued to ensure their children received education, making them a centuryand-half later one of the most educated groups.

The combined devotion of Indians to religion, culture, family and community-spiritedness has guaranteed the survival of their vernacular languages: Tamil, Hindi, English, Gujarati, Telugu, Bhojpuri/Awadhi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Their collective steadfastness to Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Baha’i and Judaism, singles them out as one of the most heterogeneous groups in Africa.

During this journey, Indians have not had it easy. Most Indians have struggled to be where they are today in politics, business, academia, education, trade, industry and commerce.

From the dark years of ideological apartheid from 1948 to 1994, and before that colonialism, Indians were racially tagged as “Indians” or “Asians” – and either way they were disparagingly labelled as “non-whites” and lumped with the indigenous people, along with thirdclass coloureds and Chinese.

They were pigeon-holed, restricted to group areas gulags, socially separated and afforded few opportunities to beat the poverty datum line. This resilient bloc rose above the colonial-apartheid handicaps, protested vociferously against the two systems of oppressive laws, enlisted MK Gandhi’s non-violence satyagraha campaigns, joined the internal resistance, supported the liberation movements at home and in exile, and finally by the 1990s had assisted the black resistance and strengthened the strands of the straw that broke the camel’s back.

They ululated and celebrated the dawn of democracy, worked alongside the new rulers of the republic and trundled along in search of the nirvana of the promised land.

Politically, Indians were largely part of the national consciousness. Pockets of Indians, particularly the business elite, had collaborated with the Afrikaner apartheid regime.

From colonialism to democracy, Indians have been central to the legacy of a culturally diverse, politically conscientised, non-racial nation

Founding president Nelson Mandela put the community at ease and peace with itself by constantly highlighting Indian contributions to the liberation struggle. Now, Indians have to co-exist with the African majority and other racial groups, and make the best of the opportunities and challenges ahead, as South Africa slips into further recession, growing joblessness and lack of economic breaks.

Two decades later, Indians haven’t kept up with the pace of politics, social cohesion and economic success. The country itself is at the crossroads of poverty, unemployment and numerous post-apartheid challenges. The social ills are complicated by the complexity of millions of people vying for jobs, corporate business hand-outs, government procurement and tenders.

At the heart of this new struggle for survival and human dignity is the reality check of competing with millions of migrants who have fled from strife-torn pockets of Africa, and the influx of migrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also affects locals striving for a better life.

On the flip side, the politically-connected and the opportunistic business class of entrepreneurs continue to climb on the revolution’s bandwagon for a larger slice of the pie. Many are accused of using political patronage with the political royalty, fraud, corruption and cronyism to stay ahead of the poverty-stricken pack.

There are some dollar millionaires and extraordinary entrepreneurs who rank among the richest Indians.

But as sociologist Fatima Meer often noted, the majority of the 1860 descendants remain stuck in the poor to middle-class trenches. They appear to be increasingly politically and economically marginalised, and socially ostracised from the queues of the elite amid the blurring of the lines of the rainbow that gave millions hope for peace and prosperity.

Religious and cultural groups are keeping the lines open while the Indian voting bloc splits along lines of the ruling party and the emergence of a plethora of political parties on the opposition benches in Parliament.

The democratic elections have heightened ethnic loyalties.

A myriad of socio-religiousfestivities give Indians a splash of colour and culture, and Diwali in particular, celebrated in the mainland and the diasporas, demonstrates the nationalistic fervour, heritage and local roots of a people at the crossroads of a changing and challenging new world.

Our province is also at the crossroads of change, prompting the Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekazulu, commenting at the opening of Parliament this year that in the promotion of social cohesion in a divided society, racial groups depended on each other: “I always say that the history of the Zulu nation would not be complete without the history of the Indian communities, and the history of the English people, Afrikaners and Germans’’.

All, however, is not doom and gloom south of the border. Indians, a resourceful and resilient people, need to reinvent themselves: Embrace a patriotic vision, share your cultural heritage and skills with indigenous compatriots, make small businesses into big ones, kick-start cottage industries, and roll up your sleeves in the true blue fashion of traditional work ethos.

Indians are not a homogenous bloc, so they just have to get on with it. Africa is home, after all.

Padayachee is the media co-ordinator for Africa, of the New York-based Indian Diaspora Council.