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Authors: Minal Hajratwala
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arrived in 1887. Soon free Indians were carrying on a thriving trade throughout Natal, and spreading to neighboring colonies as well.
But the whites of South Africa never resigned themselves to this situation. Unlike colonial administrators in Fiji and other indenture colonies, they were not mere sojourners, content to stuff their pockets with profits and go home to Britain. Indeed, the majority were so many generations removed from the Netherlands that South Africa was their only home. They formed a hardscrabble tribe with a distinct language that came to be known as Afrikaans, called themselves Afrikaners, and possessed a mythology and single-mindedness to rival any others in Africa. According to their own Bible, they were a chosen people; a core of their theology was the superiority of the white race to the black and brown. They had fought wars and spent two and a half centuries making sure that Africans did not own their own land. The idea of sharing their God-given territory with mere "coolies" was shocking, offensive, and nearly heretical.
Yet they were caught in a bind. "There is probably not a single person in Natal who does not, if spoken to on the subject deplore the Asiatic invasion," wrote the
Witness,
in 1890, "but ... We want labour, is the cry; the Government will not force the native to work; and so we must take what offers and what is cheap."
So they continued to bring in Indian workers, who continued to exercise their right to stay after their contracts expired; and they continued, reluctantly, to admit passenger Indians. Ganda's uncles soon called over their sons and cousins, establishing themselves in Johannesburg and in Durban, the main city of the colony of Natal.
By 1904, more than a hundred thousand Indians were living in Natal—outpacing, for the first time, the white population. The census taker warned, "To any one knowing the rapidity with which these Eastern Races increase, through early marriages, etc., this question should form matter for serious consideration ... It is appalling to consider what the Indian figures may be in the near future."
"Appalling" was, in the rhetoric of the day, an understatement. Afrikaner politicians and newspapers were railing against what they called the "invasion." Keeping within the letter of the British Empire's requirements, each of the four South African colonies began to apply its own legislative thumbscrews. Natal forced indentured Indians to pay a hefty annual tax at the end of their terms, in the hope that they would either go home or re-indenture. The Transvaal forbade Indians to own land in certain areas, particularly its gold-rich terrain, and tried to close its borders to Indians seeking to move north from Natal. The Cape Colony also restricted immigration and trade, while the Orange Free State barred Indians altogether and expelled the few already present, declaring it did not need indentured workers. Some cities required Indians, as members of an "uncivilised race," to register if they entered the town limits. Others compelled free-roaming Indians to carry "passes" to prove that they were not runaway indenturees, and forced Indian shops and homes into segregated "bazaars" or "locations." Towns barred Indians as well as Africans from using taxis and trams, owning guns, drinking liquor, even walking on certain sidewalks.
Of the dozens of laws aimed at Indians decorating the legal gazettes of the South African colonies, perhaps the most urgently debated and carefully crafted were the ones on immigration. Although Ganda's uncles had entered South Africa freely, by the time he made his own journey in 1905, the net had tightened.
"As the steamers sailed on towards the South," wrote the professor, "the constant talk among the poor passengers was about the restrictions of landing." At the port leading to South Africa's gold country, where Ganda might have hoped to find his uncles, four passengers were denied permission to land. Among them were a barber
But the whites of South Africa never resigned themselves to this situation. Unlike colonial administrators in Fiji and other indenture colonies, they were not mere sojourners, content to stuff their pockets with profits and go home to Britain. Indeed, the majority were so many generations removed from the Netherlands that South Africa was their only home. They formed a hardscrabble tribe with a distinct language that came to be known as Afrikaans, called themselves Afrikaners, and possessed a mythology and single-mindedness to rival any others in Africa. According to their own Bible, they were a chosen people; a core of their theology was the superiority of the white race to the black and brown. They had fought wars and spent two and a half centuries making sure that Africans did not own their own land. The idea of sharing their God-given territory with mere "coolies" was shocking, offensive, and nearly heretical.
Yet they were caught in a bind. "There is probably not a single person in Natal who does not, if spoken to on the subject deplore the Asiatic invasion," wrote the
Witness,
in 1890, "but ... We want labour, is the cry; the Government will not force the native to work; and so we must take what offers and what is cheap."
So they continued to bring in Indian workers, who continued to exercise their right to stay after their contracts expired; and they continued, reluctantly, to admit passenger Indians. Ganda's uncles soon called over their sons and cousins, establishing themselves in Johannesburg and in Durban, the main city of the colony of Natal.
By 1904, more than a hundred thousand Indians were living in Natal—outpacing, for the first time, the white population. The census taker warned, "To any one knowing the rapidity with which these Eastern Races increase, through early marriages, etc., this question should form matter for serious consideration ... It is appalling to consider what the Indian figures may be in the near future."
"Appalling" was, in the rhetoric of the day, an understatement. Afrikaner politicians and newspapers were railing against what they called the "invasion." Keeping within the letter of the British Empire's requirements, each of the four South African colonies began to apply its own legislative thumbscrews. Natal forced indentured Indians to pay a hefty annual tax at the end of their terms, in the hope that they would either go home or re-indenture. The Transvaal forbade Indians to own land in certain areas, particularly its gold-rich terrain, and tried to close its borders to Indians seeking to move north from Natal. The Cape Colony also restricted immigration and trade, while the Orange Free State barred Indians altogether and expelled the few already present, declaring it did not need indentured workers. Some cities required Indians, as members of an "uncivilised race," to register if they entered the town limits. Others compelled free-roaming Indians to carry "passes" to prove that they were not runaway indenturees, and forced Indian shops and homes into segregated "bazaars" or "locations." Towns barred Indians as well as Africans from using taxis and trams, owning guns, drinking liquor, even walking on certain sidewalks.
Of the dozens of laws aimed at Indians decorating the legal gazettes of the South African colonies, perhaps the most urgently debated and carefully crafted were the ones on immigration. Although Ganda's uncles had entered South Africa freely, by the time he made his own journey in 1905, the net had tightened.
"As the steamers sailed on towards the South," wrote the professor, "the constant talk among the poor passengers was about the restrictions of landing." At the port leading to South Africa's gold country, where Ganda might have hoped to find his uncles, four passengers were denied permission to land. Among them were a barber
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