Indians in South Africa: Lets Bridge the Identity Crisis

Indians in South Africa: Let’s Bridge the Identity Crisis

Indian South Africans or South Africans of Indian origin? Indians first or South Africans second? MARLAN PADAYACHEE tosses the coin on this perennial identity crisis issue facing the one-million strong Indians in South Africa and glances at two sides of the coin as this colourful community prepares to celebrate 150 years in Africa in 2010.

BY THIS TIME next year, South Africa’s unique Indian community may set off a plethora of projects to celebrate 150 years of co-existence in Africa, a far cry from the country many still fondly refer to as the Motherland or Thai Nadu.

While older generations remain emotional and sentimental about traditional and historical ties with Mother India, the younger generation looks to established democracies for job opportunities and a modern lifestyle without the colonial-apartheid baggage.

On the flipside, just how will the hybrid of indentured labourers and traders fuse this celebration into a continental psyche, heralding the first kick off of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa that is bound to throw Africa into euphoric explosion of football frenzy?

When the British Raj ruled India, agriculturally skilled locals were shipped to the colonies of Trinidad & Tobago, Mauritius and South Africa to turn sugar cane plantations into new local economies for the imperial rulers.

Peasants, faced with poverty in the sub-continent, were lured to Africa as indentured labour via the colonial expansion and worked on the railways, mines, agriculture and domestic service.

Ever since the SS Truro dropped anchor in Durban Bay on 16 November 1860, shiploads of semi-skilled slaves, professional people and merchants were ferried to South Africa, with the economic migration subsiding at the beginning of the 20th century.

While the semi-slaves transformed the green fields into gold for their masters, the traders, craftsmen and fortune-seekers gave Indians the economic face on this side of the Indian Ocean Rim.

However, one visionary, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, changed the complexion of how Indians, both the underclass and the businessmen, would map out their survival strategy within the context of racism, oppression and social, economic and political impediments and the wholesale discrimination of indigenous African people.

In a 20-million strong Indian Diaspora, what makes this community stand out?

The “uniqueness” tag was earned through the stoical nature of the migrants and their work ethos, resilience in the face of adversity and the collective contribution to getting rid of their colonial-apartheid leg irons for a dream of a democratic state alongside their African compatriots.

Nowhere in the world had Indians sacrificed so much for so many people to enjoy freedom, social justice and human rights. That’s what makes this clan with a common culture cut above the rest in the global community.

On the other side of the coin, the grass is not greener for majority of the working class Indians.

While the community has become a formidable minority bloc, enjoying more social cohesion, inter-race integration, economic advantages and equal political status and voting rights, and they continue to play an influential role in business and politics, the majority of the descendants of the slaves have been left behind by the remarkable transition from apartheid to democracy.

The political transition has led to Indians marginalising themselves from the mainstream of the economically empowered black bloc, a sharp contrast to the days of Indian resistance against apartheid.

Precisely, this largely working class sector, estimated at almost 800 000 in KwaZulu-Natal, the birthplace of Indians, has to be brought up to speed to celebrate 150 years of Indians in 2010 South Africa.

Politically, the Indian vote, important as it may be in the national ballot, is split between India’s traditional allies, the African National Congress, and a coterie of opposition parties, including one by dissidents from the ruling elite. But then again, Indians, conservative by nature, tend to blow hot and cold or put place bets in the political roulettes.
Almost a century and a half later, it is arguable whether Indians have assimilated into the national heartbeat of the rainbow republic.

There is about 1, 3 million Asians in South Africa, almost two per cent of a population of 46 million, mostly of Indian origin.

People who arrived since the 1860s from colonial India are termed Indian South African. Even before the birth of the Global People of Indian Origin (Gopio), reference was made to South African of Indian origin.

Through its involvement in the political resistance emerged new terms like Indian African or African Indian.

Given the sentimental journey, emotional blood lines and poignant history of trial and tribulation culminating in the triumphal spirit of humanity, the identity crisis poses a post-apartheid challenge to the community. This may persist for a long time to come.

However, descriptions, terminology, classification and racial profiling apart, what’s important now is that the Diaspora cousins are finding each other through platforms like the trading partnership between Durban and Delhi, the India-Brazil-South Africa pact, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Gopio and other initiatives.

Maybe, an era of looming celebration calls for us to move beyond an identity crisis. After all, we now live in a global village with universal challenges of hopes and deferred dreams.

Significantly, Chennai is the home of this global gathering, where almost 150 years ago, the first batch of intrepid indentured labourers, mainly Tamil and Telugu-speaking Indians from the Madras Presidency, had pushed back the frontier into Africa.

Today, their legacy lives in the hearts and minds of a community that can count as enterprising and industrious ethnic group under the African sun, where non-racialism, social and economic co-existence and peace and solidarity shines on the horizon of hope.

It’s time to put our best foot forward ahead of 2010.


The writer, Marlan Padayachee, a British Council Fellow and recipient of the USIS International Visitor’s Award, is a seasoned journalist, former anti-apartheid activist, political commentator and media communications strategist, who covered President Nelson Mandela’s historic State visit to India in 1995, and he continues to keep a close interest on Indian issues. He is the Managing Editor of GreenGold Africa Communications in South Africa: greengold@telkomsa.net +00 27 31 266 5599.