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Indian South Africans
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Indian South African is a term for people who arrived in South Africa from colonial India.
The broader term "Asian" became rather imprecise in a polyglot, immigration-defined nation like South Africa. Sometimes "Indian" included peoples from present-day Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. At other times the aforementioned groups were subsumed in the broader geographical category "Asians," when it included persons originating in present-day Iran (Parsis or Zoroastrians, other Muslims and the small Chinese community).
There remains a cultural, religious and racial overlap for "Asians" and "Indian South Africans" from the most intense period of segregation and apartheid, when "Indian", "Asian", "Coloured", and "Malay" group identities depended on where a person thus defined was permitted to live under the Group Areas Act.
During the most intense period of ideological apartheid from 1948-1994, Indians were called - and often voluntarily accepted - terms for themselves that ranged from "Black" to "Asians" to "Indians." These terms, they felt, were improvements on the negatively-defined identity, "Non-White." Politically conscious and nationalistic Indian-South Africans wanted to show both their heritage and their local roots, and increasingly adopted "African", "Black", "South African" and when necessary, the distinction for foreigners and others, "Indian South Africans."
This account would be incomplete if one did not point out that identities are negotiated all the time, and in apartheid South Africa, this process constituted a politically conscious one for all South Africans, not least of all for those who rejected apartheid.
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Encyclopedia
Indian South African is a term for people who arrived in South Africa from colonial India.
The broader term "Asian" became rather imprecise in a polyglot, immigration-defined nation like South Africa. Sometimes "Indian" included peoples from present-day Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. At other times the aforementioned groups were subsumed in the broader geographical category "Asians," when it included persons originating in present-day Iran (Parsis or Zoroastrians, other Muslims and the small Chinese community).
There remains a cultural, religious and racial overlap for "Asians" and "Indian South Africans" from the most intense period of segregation and apartheid, when "Indian", "Asian", "Coloured", and "Malay" group identities depended on where a person thus defined was permitted to live under the Group Areas Act.
During the most intense period of ideological apartheid from 1948-1994, Indians were called - and often voluntarily accepted - terms for themselves that ranged from "Black" to "Asians" to "Indians." These terms, they felt, were improvements on the negatively-defined identity, "Non-White." Politically conscious and nationalistic Indian-South Africans wanted to show both their heritage and their local roots, and increasingly adopted "African", "Black", "South African" and when necessary, the distinction for foreigners and others, "Indian South Africans."
This account would be incomplete if one did not point out that identities are negotiated all the time, and in apartheid South Africa, this process constituted a politically conscious one for all South Africans, not least of all for those who rejected apartheid. Therefore, most second- and older generations of South Africans emphasize their nationality, not their race, tribe or ethnic identity. Of course, elections have a tendency to heighten ethnic loyalties for rapid political mobilization in competitive parliamentary democracies, which South Africa has become since 1994.
Today one can find Indian South Africans all over the world. 4th and 5th generation Indians are very educated and most are professionals living and working all over the world.
Culture
Religion
Indian South Africans are predominantly Muslim , Hindu and Christian.
Other religions
Small groups of Parsis or Zorasterians, descendants of the Persians who fled to India when Islam entered Persia (modern day Iran); there is also a small Buddhist community.
Languages
English is the first-language of most Indian South Africans, although a minority of them especially the elders still speak some Indian languages such as Hindi,Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Punjabi, and Gujarati as first language. But in overall English is still the first language they use for communication. Indian Languages are often understood by such South African Indians, as indicative of the South African census. Many of Generation X Indians understand their native language, which result in the formation of semi-speakers. There has also been a renaissance in the Tamil language amongst Tamils, where increased language awareness has been created. Hindustani is a koine, spoken amongst all elders.
Also, there were important communities of Pashtuns from British India's Northwest Frontier who settled in South Africa as part of the subcontinental Muslim population. They have been mostly absorbed into the mainstream Indian Muslim community, along with the other ethnicities, most of which speak Urdu. Pashto is no longer spoken by their descendants.
Media and entertainment
Although Indian languages are seldom spoken or understood by younger Indians, English-subtitled Bollywood films and television programmes remain popular among South African Indians. These are broadcast both by the South African Broadcasting Corporation's SABC 2 television channel for a few hours each week (Eastern Mosaic on Sundays), and by the DStv satellite television service, which carries Zee TV, B4U, NDTV and a Hindi language Sony channel, as well as Sun TV and KTV, both Tamil language channels, introduced in 2004. DVD and video versions of Bollywood films are widely available, and large movie theatre chains like Ster-Kinekor increasingly show Bollywood films. Indian culture in South Africa has some similarities to the worldwide Desi subculture, although the term Desi is almost unknown in South Africa.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) also has an Indian-oriented radio service called Lotus FM, launched during the apartheid era. The Sunday Times has a supplement distributed in Indian areas called the Extra and the Sunday Tribune publishes the 'Herald' supplement. A Bollywood section, 'Bollyworld' is publishedby the Daily News on Monday's. These supplements have often been accused of an anti-African racial chauvinism.
History
The first batch of Indians came on board the Truro in 1860. They were followed by others who were also imported as indentured labourers to work on the Sugarcane plantations of Natal. The rest are descended from Indian traders who migrated to South Africa shortly afterwards, many from the Gujarat and Rajasthan area. KwaZuluNatal's largest city, Durban, has the largest Asian population in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa as a whole has one of the largest population of Indian descent. Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi worked from 1893 as a lawyer in South Africa in the then Colony of Natal, and the Transvaal Republic, where the city of Pretoria is located.
Apartheid
Discriminated against by Apartheid legislation like 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, and needed special permission to enter 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 the Indian Representative Act of 1946 were repealed.
In 1961, 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 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 dollar-for-dollar or Rand-for-Rand contribution from Indians and the government in the 1970s, so that Indian students would not have to brave the waters by taking a ferry to Salisbury Island's abandoned prison that served as their university until then.
Indians in South Africa were (and sometimes still are) referred to by the racial epithet coolie by racists. In cricket, for example, a ball which fails to bounce is known as a "coolie creeper".
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 enjoyed limited support. The Indian house was called the House of Delegates. Some aspects of Indian life were regulated by this house, including education. The theory 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 to provide all South Africans with the vote.
Post-apartheid
Some Indians played an important role in the anti-apartheid struggle, and a few rose to positions of power after the 1994 elections in South Africa. In post-apartheid South Africa, it seemed like many Indians, particularly the poor, had begun to support formerly white parties such as the Democratic Alliance and New National Party, as they felt threatened by the policies of the ruling African National Congress. This trend appeared to have been reversed in the 2004 elections, with most historically Indian areas voting for the ANC.
Following the end of apartheid, a new wave of South Asian immigration commenced, paralleling the movement of Africans from the diaspora and neighboring African countries to the new South Africa, some of whom are illegal, or obtain their residency by dubious means.
Indians are considered black for the purposes of Employment Equity, and are thus eligible for affirmative action, although some of them feel discriminated against for "not being black enough".
Notable South Africans of Indian descent
See also
External links
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