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83-586: The Natal Indian Congress ( NIC ) was a political organisation established in 1894 to fight discrimination against Indians in the Natal Colony , and later the Natal Province , of South Africa. Founded by Mahatma Gandhi , it later served an important role in opposing apartheid . It was the oldest affiliate of the South African Indian Congress . During its formative years, the constituency of

166-484: A state of emergency was declared and protests paused after a brutal crackdown was launched against protesters, including doctors and bloggers. Nearly 3,000 people have been arrested, and at least five people died due to torture while in police custody. Protests resumed after lifting emergency law on 1 June, and several large rallies were staged by the opposition parties, including a march on 9 March 2012 attended by over 100,000. Smaller-scale protests and clashes outside of

249-829: A critical role in fifty of sixty-seven transitions from authoritarianism . The " Singing revolution " (1989–1991) in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania , led to the three Baltic countries ' restoration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 . Recently, nonviolent resistance has led to the Rose Revolution in Georgia . Research shows that nonviolent campaigns diffuse spatially. Information on nonviolent resistance in one country could significantly affect nonviolent activism in other countries. Many movements which promote philosophies of nonviolence or pacifism have pragmatically adopted

332-488: A decade of dormancy. Mewa Ramgobin later described the organisation as having been "dormant and moribund, a harsher term would be defunct". Ramgobin's wife, Ela Gandhi , the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, later said that for the NIC the 1960s were: really dark years when we felt complete disillusionment. The bannings took place in 1963, the arrests took place within 3 years and there was a deep sort of gloom and unhappiness. There

415-484: A first language or second language. In some small towns in the former Transvaal, Afrikaans is used as a first language by older Indians. Almost all younger people have English as their first language. The compulsory second language taught at school, such as Afrikaans or Zulu , is either spoken or understood. As a result of promotion by cultural organisations and the influence of Indian cinemas, many younger Indians can understand (but not usually speak) Indian languages to

498-572: A legal dispute. Following his arrival in South Africa, Gandhi experienced racial discrimination, and, following the proposal of legislation to restrict Indian voting rights in Natal, he helped organise resistance, leading to the formation of the Natal Indian Congress . This organised resistance led to the unification of disparate groups of South African Indians for the first time. Although the bill

581-407: A limited degree. Recent immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have maintained fluency in their mother tongues. Curried dishes are popular in South Africa among people of all ethnic origins; many dishes came to the country with the thousands of Indian labourers brought to South Africa in the nineteenth century. South African Indian cuisine adapted to local ingredients, and dishes include

664-513: A link between the government and the Indian people. The University of Durban-Westville (now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal ) was built with a Rand-for-Rand contribution from Indian South Africans and the government in the 1970s. Before that, Indian students had to take a ferry to Salisbury Island's abandoned prison, which served as their university. Casual racist expressions were used during

747-638: A variety of curries, rotis, sweetmeats , chutneys , fried snacks such as samosa (called samoosa in South Africa ), and other savoury foods. Bunny chow , an Indian dish from Durban consisting of a hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with curry, was invented by necessity, as Indians were not allowed to eat at their own restaurants. The dish forms part of mainstream South African cuisine and has become quite popular. Even though Indian languages are seldom spoken or understood by younger Indians, English- subtitled Indian films and television programmes remain popular among South African Indians. These are broadcast both by

830-532: Is also estimated that there are around 13,000 Sikhs in South Africa. The majority of South African Muslims are Indian or belong to the multi-ethnic community in the Western Cape. The proportion of Indian South Africans following Hinduism have decreased from 50% in 1996 to 47.27% in 2001. This decreased to 41.3% in 2016, and further decreased to 37.9% in 2022. This is mainly due to the conversion of Hindus to Christianity by missionaries. Like Coloureds, until

913-594: Is dated as the beginning of Indian settlement in Natal, a farmer called ER Rathbone was the first to introduce Indian labour to the colony in 1849. Indentured labourers on sugar plantations were frequently mistreated and lived in unsanitary conditions. A large percentage of indentured labourers returned to India following the expiry of their terms, and some of those who returned alerted authorities in India to abuses taking place in Natal, which led to new safeguards being put in place before further recruiting of indentured labourers

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996-720: Is the most popular figure related to this type of protest; United Nations celebrates Gandhi's birthday, October 2, as the International Day of Non-Violence . Other prominent advocates include Abdul Ghaffar Khan , Henry David Thoreau , Etienne de la Boétie , Charles Stewart Parnell , Te Whiti o Rongomai , Tohu Kākahi , Leo Tolstoy , Alice Paul , Martin Luther King Jr. , Daniel Berrigan , Philip Berrigan , James Bevel , Václav Havel , Andrei Sakharov , Lech Wałęsa , Gene Sharp , Nelson Mandela , Jose Rizal , and many others. From 1966 to 1999, nonviolent civic resistance played

1079-719: The 1984 elections to the Tricameral Parliament. As a result, NIC leaders attracted the interest of apartheid security forces, and four NIC members – Sewpersadh, Ramgobin, Naidoo, and Billy Nair – were among the Durban Six who in 1984 evaded arrest by taking refuge in the British consulate in Durban. All but Nair were subsequently charged with, and then acquitted of, treason in the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial . As in

1162-473: The DStv satellite television service, which carries Zee TV , B4U , NDTV , and a Hindi-language Sony channel. In addition, Tamil –language channels, Sun TV and KTV, were introduced in 2004. DVD, and previously, video versions of Bollywood films are widely available. Large cinema chains like Ster-Kinekor began showing Bollywood films by the early 2000s. Indian culture in South Africa has some similarities to

1245-533: The Group Areas Act , applied in 1950, Indians were forcibly moved into Indian townships , and had their movements restricted. They were not allowed to reside in the Orange Free State Province , and needed special permission to enter or transit through that province. They were also, as a matter of state policy, given an inferior education compared to white South Africans . The Asiatic Land Tenure and

1328-612: The House of Delegates . In January 1983, the NIC responded favourably to the TIC's call for a broad and united popular front against apartheid. When the United Democratic Front (UDF) was established later that year, the NIC was a founding affiliate, and three NIC members served on the inaugural UDF regional executive in Natal. The NIC was subsequently a key figure in the UDF's campaign to boycott

1411-661: The Jeans Revolution in Belarus, the fight of the Cuban dissidents , and internationally the Extinction Rebellion and School Strike for Climate . Although nonviolent movements can maintain broader public legitimacy by refraining from violence, some segments of society may perceive protest movements as being more violent than they really are when they disagree with the social goals of the movement. A great deal of work has addressed

1494-592: The Mysorean Muslim king Hyder Ali to overthrow the king of Cochin, Kalaga Prabhu and his son Chorda Prabhu were arrested by the Dutch and exiled with their families for life to the Cape of Good Hope in 1771. No further record of this individual and his descendants if any exists. Almost all South African Indians are either Hindu , Christian , or Muslim . There are also small groups of Parsis , Sikhs , and Buddhists . It

1577-598: The South African Communist Party (SACP) and went into exile with the party; while others, such as Monty Naicker, Dawood Seedat, J. N. Singh and I. C. Meer, were subject to prolonged banning orders under the Suppression of Communism Act . In addition, the implementation of forced removals of Indians under the Group Areas Act severely disrupted patterns of civic and political mobilisation. The NIC entered

1660-539: The South African Indian Council and Tricameral Parliament . The NIC was a founding affiliate of the United Democratic Front , whose leadership often overlapped with that of the NIC. Although the NIC was represented at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa in 1991, it did not restructure itself as a political party during South Africa's democratic transition . Instead, many leaders and members joined

1743-595: The South African government and Indian authorities had a Round Table conference where it was agreed that the Indian government would create a scheme for the repatriation of Indians, with the South African government agreeing to "uplift" the Indians who remained, monitored by an Indian government Agent. However, fewer Indians than expected were repatriated, and racial tensions continued to simmer between Indians and whites, into

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1826-437: The post-apartheid South Africa . These recent migrants are usually not regarded as being part of the Indian community, although they often live in traditionally Indian areas. Among these post-apartheid immigrants, the controversial Gupta family from India, managed to acquire vast political and economic influence in a short time, under the reign of former President Jacob Zuma . Traders from India may have been active on

1909-464: The sugarcane plantations of Natal Colony , and, in total, approximately 200,000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers over a period of 5 decades, later also as indentured coal miners and railway workers. The indentured labourers tended to speak Tamil , Telugu , Bhojpuri and the Awadhi dialect of Hindi , and the majority were Hindu with Muslim and Christian minorities. Indians were imported as it

1992-616: The white minority , which held the vast majority of political power. During the period of apartheid from 1948 to 1994, Indian South Africans were legally classified as being a separate racial group. Some Indian South Africans believed that these terms were improvements on the negatively defined identity of "Non-White", which was their previous status. Politically conscious and nationalistic Indian South Africans wanted to show both their heritage and their local roots in South Africa. Increasingly they self-identified as "African", "South African" and, when necessary, "Indian South Africans". During

2075-418: The " Cape Coloured " and Cape Malay communities. White Afrikaners also may have some Indian slave ancestry, an example of this being former State President F.W. de Klerk , who revealed in his autobiography that one of his ancestors was a female slave called Diana of Bengal . There is no reference to the real names of these Indians and were given "Christian" names for convenience. This all contributed to

2158-464: The 1940s. The Durban riots was an anti-Indian riot predominantly by Zulus targeting Indians in Durban, South Africa in January 1949. The riots resulted in the massacre of mostly poor Indians. In total 142 people died in the riots and another 1,087 people were injured. It also led to the destruction of 58 shops, 247 dwellings and one factory. Discriminated against by apartheid legislation, such as

2241-499: The 1960s, several leading NIC members retained ties to the exiled ANC and SACP – also allies of the UDF – and in the late 1980s, NIC members including Nair and Pravin Gordhan became operatives in the ANC's Operation Vula . The ANC and SACP were unbanned in 1990 in order to facilitate the conduct of negotiations to end apartheid ; the UDF disbanded the following year and was largely absorbed into

2324-666: The ANC's conference in November 1952, James Njongwe, the president of the Natal ANC, told the party that the "greatest achievement of our Defiance Campaign has been the welding of a... singleness of purpose and the development of a common South African outlook between Indians and [black] Africans". The SAIC was a signatory of the Freedom Charter at the 1955 Congress of the People and several NIC leaders, such as Naicker and Billy Nair , were among

2407-408: The ANC, and the NIC again fell into dormancy from around the time of the first post-apartheid elections in 1994. The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) emanated from a proposal by Mahatma Gandhi on 22 May 1894 and was formally established on 22 August 1894. Abdoola Hajee Adam Jhaveri (Dada Abdulla) was the inaugural president and Gandhi was appointed honorary secretary. The organisation's early membership

2490-421: The ANC, though both were represented independently at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa . In March 1993, however, as the 1994 general election approached, the ANC met with the TIC and NIC, and they jointly reversed the early decision, deciding that the NIC and TIC should remain in place in order to mobilise minority support for the ANC ahead of the elections. During the election, held within months of

2573-407: The ANC. During this period, the NIC and its Transvaal counterpart held various meetings with the ANC leadership to discuss their fate. In 1990, Ramgobin, Meer, and Yunus Carrim all told press that they expected the NIC to have a limited lifespan and to disband once it had helped attract an Indian constituency to the ANC. In June that year, the NIC and TIC decided at a joint meeting to disband and join

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2656-477: The Apartheid government which strictly codified the physical and cultural boundaries between "race groups", and encouraged these group identities. As a result of these Apartheid rules, South Africans continue to identify themselves, and informally classify each other as, " blacks ", " whites ", " Coloureds " and "Indians". Despite living in South Africa for more than 150 years, and being an officially recognized part of

2739-440: The Durban area, to refer to themselves. Card games , in particular, the trick-taking card game Thunee (similar to Twenty-eight ) are popular among South African Indians. Radio Hindvani is a community radio station based in Durban and is aimed at the promotion of Hindi culture and language amongst South Africans. The station's frequency reaches Durban and all surrounding areas. Passive Resistance Mahatma Gandhi

2822-658: The Indian Representative Act of 1946 were repealed. The Population Registration Act, 1950 initially defined Indians as being part of the Coloured population. In 1961, Indians were officially recognised as permanent part of the South African population, the Department of Indian Affairs was established, with a white minister in charge. In 1968, the South African Indian Council came into being, serving as

2905-520: The NIC executive, in Moodley's phrase "primarily because we wanted to change the way in which they were thinking". This did not ameliorate severe tensions between the NIC and Black Consciousness organisations, which were publicly evident by the following year, and Cooper resigned from the NIC executive in June 1972. In addition, those concerned with class issues were concerned that the NIC was dominated once more by

2988-486: The NIC in Natal. It began on 13 June 1946 and continued for two years, during which time almost 2,000 related arrests were made. Also during this period, the NIC made unprecedented advances towards inter-racial cooperation, together with the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), where Naicker's counterpart was Yusuf Dadoo . In March 1947, Dadoo and Naicker signed a tripartite cooperation agreement with Alfred Xuma ,

3071-496: The NIC largely comprised educated Indian merchants who sought to oppose discriminatory legislation through petitioning. In the mid-1940s, the organisation became increasing confrontational under the leadership of Monty Naicker , who led the NIC through a renowned campaign of passive resistance against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act from 1946 to 1948. After the introduction of formal apartheid in 1948,

3154-594: The NIC participated in the Defiance Campaign , the beginning of a long, though not untroubled, alliance with the African National Congress (ANC). In the 1960s, members of the NIC and other Congress Alliance organisations faced increased state repression, and the organisation entered a decade of dormancy. It was revived in October 1971 and continued its activism against apartheid, notably through boycotts of

3237-619: The NIC was severely criticised among activists from the former quarter, who protested outside the Bolton Hall meeting; they argued that the revival of a political organisation based on narrow Indian identity would undermine inter-ethnic black solidarity (defined in Steve Biko 's philosophy as solidarity among all non-white oppressed groups, not only black Africans). Two prominent Black Consciousness activists of Indian descent, Saths Cooper and Strini Moodley , opposed NIC's revival but initially joined

3320-643: The NIC's centenary, many of the NIC's leaders (including Ela Gandhi, Gordhan, Ramgobin, Carrim, and Nair) were elected to represent the ANC in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures . The NIC ultimately never formally disbanded but "simply faded into the folds of history", with the vast majority of its leadership and committed membership henceforth represented by the ANC. Indian South Africans Second languages Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British India during

3403-517: The NIC. Others associated with Naicker's coup were Doctor Goonam , I. C. Meer , George Ponnen, and H. A. Naidoo. Under this more confrontational leadership, but still in line with Gandhi's programme of satyagraha , the SAIC led a major campaign of passive resistance to the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act , which it disparaged as the Ghetto Act; the campaign was naturally spearheaded by

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3486-541: The South African Indian Council. Following years of debate, the organisation resolved in June 1975 that it was strongly opposed to the SAIC and to participation therein. It formed the Anti-South African Indian Council Committee in November 1977, chaired by Monty Naicker. The NIC extended its anti-participation stance to the new Tricameral Parliament , established under the 1983 constitution , which included an Indian-only parliamentary house called

3569-784: The Transvaal. Persons of colour could also not walk on sidewalks in the Transvaal. Following the end of the Second Boer War, the new colonial administration of the Transvaal Colony continued to maintain the same discriminatory practices against Indians. Passenger Indians who moved to the Cape Colony , although facing petty discrimination, were generally well treated, could own property, could vote, and could trade freely. Many Muslim men in this group married Cape Malay women, and their children were later often classified as Cape Malay as part of

3652-473: The apartheid government would succeed in co-opting dissent and elevating conservative Indians to dominate political discourse in the community. According to Mewa Ramgobin, he and several friends discussed this concern in June 1971, leading to the call for a community meeting on the matter later that month. At the meeting, held at Durban 's Bolton Hall on 25 June, attendees agreed to revive the NIC and established an ad hoc committee, chaired by Ramgobin, to carry out

3735-406: The capital have continued to occur almost daily. More than 80 people had died since the start of the uprising. Nonviolent resistance is often but wrongly taken as synonymous with civil disobedience . Each of these terms—nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience—has different connotations and commitments. Berel Lang argues against the conflation of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience on

3818-496: The convention. Instead, George Sewpersadh served as NIC president, though he in turn was banned from 1973 to 1978, during which time M. J. Naidoo held the presidency. Naidoo served again as president in the 1980s, until he was ousted in 1988. The organisation's relaunch coincided with the so-called Durban moment , the dual ascendancy of the Black Consciousness movement and fledgling trade union movement . The relaunch of

3901-459: The council. In 1983, the Constitution was reformed to allow the Coloured and Indian minorities a limited participation in separate and subordinate Houses of a Tricameral Parliament , a development which saw limited support and very low voter turnouts. The Indian house was called the House of Delegates . Some aspects of Indian life were regulated by this house, including education. The theory

3984-518: The defendants in the resulting Treason Trial . After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre , the apartheid government embarked upon a major campaign to repress political opposition, banning the ANC and effecting mass arrests around the country. Though the NIC was not itself banned, its members were severely restricted: some, such as Billy Nair and Ebrahim Ebrahim , were imprisoned due to their dual membership of Umkhonto we Sizwe ; others, such as M. P. Naicker, H. A. Naidoo and George Ponnen, were dual members of

4067-573: The eastern coast of South Africa for centuries, including before the Dutch settlement of the Cape Colony in 1652. A significant proportion of slaves imported into the Cape were from parts of India (which included present-day Bangladesh), Indonesia and Sri Lanka. While South African scholars mistakenly assumed these slaves were bought in "slave markets", many of the slaves were victims of kidnapping. Many slaves had no identity as Indians and were subsumed into

4150-449: The end of Apartheid, Indian children largely attended segregated Indian government schools, which were administered nationally, and wrote separate matriculation examinations. These arrangements ended by 1997. Until 1991, state government schools taught in English, choosing one of five Indian languages, namely Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu to be taken as non-examination subjects. But,

4233-988: The establishment of Islam in the areas where they settled. Indian traders were sometimes referred to as " Arab traders" because of their dress, and because large numbers of them were Muslim. Passenger Indians, who initially operated in Durban, expanded inland, to the South African Republic (Transvaal), establishing communities in settlements on the main road between Johannesburg and Durban. Natal's Indian traders rapidly displaced small white shop owners in trade with other Indians, and with black Africans, causing resentment among white businesses. Researchers have made efforts to collect and make available shipping lists of Indian immigrants. Indians faced discrimination to varying degrees in all parts of South Africa. Indians faced repressive legislation in Natal. They were forced to carry passes in 1888. In 1893, M. K. Gandhi arrived in South Africa to represent an Indian businessman in

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4316-668: The factors that lead to violent mobilization, but less attention has been paid to understanding why disputes become violent or nonviolent, comparing these two as strategic choices relative to conventional politics. In 2010, A "White Intifada" took hold in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Activities included weekly peaceful protests by Palestinian activists accompanied by Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and Israeli academics and students against settlers and security forces. The EU, through its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has criticised Israel for convicting an organiser of

4399-697: The first language of the majority. Because these children were separated by apartheid from white English-speakers, their English developed in very different ways from South African English . In recent decades, the dialect has come much closer to the standard language through the model taught in schools. The result is a variety of English which mixes features of Indian , South African , Standard British , and other influences. A diminishing minority of Indian South Africans, notably those in older generations, are fluent in their ancestral Indian languages such as Tamil , Gujarati , Marathi , Bengali , Odia , Bhojpuri , Malayalam , Urdu , Hindi , Telugu and others as

4482-420: The form of petitions or press statements. It was nothing more than a flag-carrying organisation to say, "you know, we are here." However, from the late 1970s, the direction and public profile of the NIC was strongly influenced by a younger generation of Indian community activists, including Pravin Gordhan , Yunus Mohamed , Zak Yacoob , Charm and Maggie Govender , and Roy Padayachie . These activists were among

4565-415: The grounds that the necessary conditions for an act instancing civil disobedience are: (1) that the act violates the law, (2) that the act is performed intentionally, and (3) that the actor anticipates and willingly accepts punitive measures made on the part of the state against him in retaliation for the act. Since acts of nonviolent political resistance need not satisfy any of these criteria, Lang argues that

4648-486: The idea. In general, the importation of labour was not viewed as politically important by colonists when it was proposed, and the importation of Indian labour was driven by lobbying by a relatively small group of sugar planters, and the long-term consequences of Indian immigration (the establishment of a permanent Indian population in Natal) were not taken into account (by 1904, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal). Although 1860

4731-621: The ideology of socialism and racial liberation, who advocated a more radical and militant politics, set off against the prevailing "accommodationist" politics of the NIC. When the NIA merged into the NIC in 1943, this bloc formed a pressure group, the Anti-Segregation Council, led by Monty Naicker . At the NIC's annual elective conference on 21 October 1945, this faction succeeded in ousting the NIC's moderate leadership (then under A. I. Kajee and P. R. Pather) and installed Naicker as president of

4814-581: The languages were dropped from state-run schools. The national council for eastern languages has requested the government teach these five languages. The provincial government agreed to allow these languages to be taught in KwaZulu-Natal. These languages can be chosen as a third language up to the final year of school. English is the first language of most Indian South Africans. From the 1950s on, English came to be taught to Indian children in schools, leading to language shift taking place, with English becoming

4897-428: The late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban , making it one of the largest ethnically Indian-populated cities outside of India . As a consequence of the policies of apartheid , Indian (synonymous with Asian) is regarded as a race group in South Africa. During the colonial era, Indians were accorded the same subordinate status in South African society as Blacks were by

4980-654: The leaders of civic organisations like the Chatsworth Housing Action Committee, the Phoenix Working Committee, and the Durban Housing Committee, and their affiliation to the NIC increased mass support for the organisation and increased its involvement in service delivery issues. A central question for the NIC during the first half of the 1970s was what stance it should adopt on Indian participation in apartheid structures, including

5063-789: The loss of identity similar to the Mozambicans and other slaves who were brought to the Cape. Indian slaves who were Muslim became part of the Cape Malay community after they were freed, initially adopting the Malay language , and then Afrikaans. An early Indian to settle in South Africa was Kalaga Prabhu, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin merchant from Cochin . He was the foremost among the Konkani merchants in Cochin (modern day Kochi in Kerala). As punishment for conspiring with

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5146-589: The methods of nonviolent action as an effective way to achieve social or political goals. They employ nonviolent resistance tactics such as: information warfare , picketing , marches , vigils , leafletting, samizdat , magnitizdat , satyagraha , protest art , protest music and poetry, community education and consciousness raising , lobbying , tax resistance , civil disobedience , boycotts or sanctions , legal/diplomatic wrestling, Underground Railroads , principled refusal of awards/honors, and general strikes . Current nonviolent resistance movements include:

5229-461: The middle classes, and Ela Gandhi later conceded that the newly revived NIC had failed to attract mass support. Farouk Meer, brother of Fatima and an active participant in the relaunch, later described: When we were revived in 1971, we were nothing more than a protest voice, raising issues from time to time. We were certainly not mass-based. We met on a regular basis, we chartered various issues that needed to be taken up, and took up those largely in

5312-411: The most intense period of segregation and apartheid, "Indian", "Coloured" and " Malay " group identities controlled numerous aspects of daily life, including where a classified person was permitted to live and study. The "Indian" racial identity was created by both internal political movements that sought to consolidate support amongst the different Indian ethnicities in the face of discrimination; and

5395-479: The other provinces in the early 1920s, when an umbrella body, the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), was established. In the 1930s, dissatisfaction among young professionals and trade unionists led to the emergence of a rival and more progressive political organisation, the Natal Indian Association (NIA). Within the NIA was a loosely constituted "Nationalist Bloc", influenced directly or indirectly by

5478-408: The peaceful movement and said that she was deeply concerned about the arrest of Abdullah Abu Rahmeh. There have been two fatalities among protesters and an American peace activist suffered brain damage after being hit by a tear gas canister. On 14 March, Saudi -led GCC forces were requested by the government and entered the country, which the opposition called an "occupation". The following day,

5561-580: The population since 1961, Indians are still sometimes viewed as a foreign presence in the country, and find themselves having to justify their belonging to South Africa as a homeland. The modern South African Indian community is largely descended from Indians who arrived in South Africa from 1860 onwards. The first 342 of these came on board the Truro from Madras , followed by the Belvedere from Calcutta . They were transported as indentured labourers to work on

5644-489: The president of the African National Congress (ANC); nicknamed the "Doctors' Pact" (because all three signatories were doctors), the document promised "the fullest co-operation between the African and Indian peoples". Early inter-racial cooperation was, however, fitful, and there remained racial tensions and even occasional violence between blacks and Indians in Natal. However, the NIC did participate in early joint action against

5727-431: The purposes of Employment Equity ; that is, they are classified as having been disadvantaged under apartheid. They are thus eligible for "affirmative action" and Black Economic Empowerment allocations. Following the end of apartheid, a new wave of South Asian immigration commenced from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, paralleling the movement of Africans from the diaspora and neighbouring African countries to

5810-482: The ruling African National Congress . Amichand Rajbansi 's Minority Front (formerly the National People's Party ) retained some support in its strongholds. However, after Rajbansi's death in 2011, the party failed to win any seats in the national assembly following the 2014 general election. Indians who were citizens before 1994, and thus discriminated against by the apartheid system, are considered black for

5893-478: The system of apartheid introduced by the National Party government elected in 1948. Through the SAIC, and alongside the ANC and Coloured Franchise Action Council, the NIC participated in the 1952 Defiance Campaign , which is generally thought to have been inspired by the earlier campaign against the Ghetto Act. The NIC's offices were raided alongside those of the ANC, and NIC leaders submitted for arrest. At

5976-462: The task. Within a month, 29 NIC branches had been established across the province, and the organisation was officially relaunched at a convention at the Phoenix Settlement on 2 October 1971, Gandhi's birthday. Albert Luthuli 's widow, Nokukhanya Luthuli, opened the convention. Two weeks before the convention, presumptive NIC president Ramgobin had been banned, meaning that he could not attend

6059-502: The two categories of action cannot be identified with one another. Furthermore, civil disobedience is a form of political action which necessarily aims at reform, rather than revolution. Its efforts are typically directed at the disputing of particular laws or groups of laws while conceding the authority of the government responsible for them. In contrast, political acts of nonviolent resistance can have revolutionary ends. According to Lang, civil disobedience need not be nonviolent, although

6142-502: The wider group classified as Coloureds . Indians were prohibited by an 1891 statute from living in the Orange Free State , then an independent Boer Republic , and this led to the almost total absence of Indians from the area, a situation that persisted into the apartheid era. Efforts to encourage Indians to repatriate to India included financial incentives, as well as discriminatory treatment. In December 1926, and January 1927,

6225-469: The worldwide Desi subculture, however, South African Indians developed a distinctive musical and literary culture of their own, which was to some extent eclipsed by the global Bollywood/Desi culture in the 1990s and 2000s. There is also an increasing amount of interest in Turkish popular culture, by Muslims in particular. The slang term charou (various spellings) is often used by Indians, particularly in

6308-527: The years of apartheid. Indians in South Africa were (and sometimes still are) referred to by the racial epithet ' coolie '. In 1968, the South African Indian Council (not to be confused with the anti-apartheid South African Indian Congress which had the same initials) was created by the government, and in 1974, the council was reconstituted to allow for 50% of its members to be elected by Indians. The Council did not enjoy much support, for example, in 1981, only 6% of eligible voters participated in elections for

6391-506: Was a lot of fear in the community... There was this whole scare for communism and it was very orchestrated from the government. People were afraid because they [government]... could detain you without reason, ban you without reason. People didn't know what was legal and what was illegal and that fear of being banned or being arrested was there because of the uncertainty. The establishment of the South African Indian Council led to concerns among progressive Indians, especially NIC stalwarts, that

6474-460: Was allowed to take place. Former indentured labourers who didn't return to India quickly established themselves as an important general labour force in Natal particularly as industrial and railway workers, with others engaging in market gardening , growing most of the vegetables consumed by the white population. Indians also became fishermen , and worked as clerks; in the postal service; and as court interpreters. The remaining Indian immigration

6557-561: Was defeated, it was successfully reintroduced in 1896. The South African Republic government first instituted discriminatory legislation against Indians in 1885, which led to protests from the British government , as the Indians were British subjects, and was used as one of the casus belli for the Second Boer War . Indians were banned from working in the mining industry, and areas were set aside for coolie locations in various towns in

6640-433: Was found by colonial authorities that local black Africans were economically self-sufficient, and thus unwilling to subject themselves to employment by colonial farmers, while other colonial authorities believed that the "hunting and warrior" African culture of the time was incompatible with a sudden shift to employed labour. The Mercury newspaper favoured the importation of labour, although other Natal newspapers were against

6723-476: Was from passenger Indians , comprising traders and others who migrated to South Africa shortly after the indentured labourers, paid for their own fares and travelled as British subjects . These immigrant Indians who became traders were from varying religious backgrounds, namely Hindu and Muslims but largely from Gujarat (including Memons and Surtis ), later joined by Konkanis , and Urdu speakers from Uttar Pradesh . The Muslims played an important part in

6806-482: Was restricted to the educated class of South African Indian traders who could afford the £ 3 membership fee, and its primary early concern was to protect the economic and politician position of Indian merchants and property-owners, generally through petitions and other extra-parliamentary protests. Critics also said that the NIC under Gandhi's leadership was highly adverse to cooperation with other racial groups , though it affiliated with similar Indian organisations in

6889-541: Was that the Indian minority could be allowed limited rights, but the Black majority were to become citizens of independent homelands . These separate arrangements were removed by the negotiations which took place from 1990 on to provide all South Africans with the vote. Many Indians played an important role in the anti-apartheid struggle and some occupied positions of power in post-apartheid South Africa. In post-apartheid South Africa , Indians have maintained prominent positions in

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