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DIASPORA
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE AN
INDIAN IN
SOUTH AFRICA TODAY?
Indian wedding in South Africa: Can Indians ever be color
blind when it comes to intermarriage with Black Africans?
by: Jacqueline van Staden
After 46 years of
formal segregation,
South Africa’s
apartheid regime
was ended in 1994.
While the formal structures were
dismantled, the past injustices
continue to have an influence
and affect different people in
various ways.
Each piece of writing about
race that comes out of South
Africa is part of a collective
understanding of this challenging,
and often traumatic, topic. It
is valuable to create a space in
“Various instruments of legislation have
enabled South Africans of Indian origin to
be considered as Black people and as African
people, and this has effectively cemented the
position of Indo-South Africans in South
Africa through this mutual respect and
shared identity. But there are still Indian
enclaves and discrimination against other
races and lower classes by the Indian people.
We cannot hope for greater equality in
business, professional sport or in higher
education, as Indian people, if we practice a
form of ethnicism in how we socially integrate
in and among ourselves, as South Africans”.
- Avishkar Govender, Political Science
undergraduate at the University of KwaZulu.
which people may share personal stories and thoughts. This article
takes a look at the Indian community in South Africa, with specific
reference to racism.
Though this process insights into a complex and multi-dimensional
issue are revealed, and provide an interesting look what it is like to be
Indian in South Africa in 2009. It is important to discuss diversity and
learn about other people’s experiences. It enriches us, and teaches us to
appreciate that with our differences we are all human beings.
Indian people were brought by the British from India to South Africa
in the mid-19th century, after the abolishment of slavery. They worked
as indentured labourers in the sugar cane fields of the eastern coastal
area now known as KwaZulu Natal. Indian South Africans form the
largest grouping of people of Indian descent born outside India.
Under apartheid, South Africans were divided into ‘white’ and
‘black’. The latter category included people of African descent, coloured
people (which was people of mixed race) and Indian people. Indian
people were subjected to discrimination on various levels. Someone
like Ashwin Trikamjee remembers it well. Ashwin is an attorney and the
Chairman of the 1860 Legacy Foundation. Born in Durban in 1944 he
attended the Gandhi-Desai High School and later the University of
South Africa. He remembers
the incessant discrimination
under apartheid. “This
happened on a daily basis
in every sphere of life –
like not being allowed to
take lifts in buildings, not
being allowed to use public
toilets, not being allowed in
cinemas and other public
places, treated badly by
government employees ,
standing in different queues
etc ,” lists Ashwin.
People need to share and
remember these experiences,
to help us to acknowledge the
past, and recognise in what
ways it may still influence our
present. This also deepens
our respect for the difficulties
and injustices people had to
experience. We should take
time to reflect; what would
my life have been like if
I was ‘categorised’ into a
different race group in South
Africa? How greatly would
my life have been altered
based on the one variable
of race? Each individual
interviewed for this article
remembers their experience
vividly, some like Sershan
Avishkar Govender
Ashwin Trikamjee
Sershan Naidoo &
Nita Lawton Misra
Prof Naidoo Kovin
Arushan Moodley
Theeyaagaraj Naidoo Elizabeth Sithole
reacted spontaneously to the situations they found themselves in, others
were more careful, considering the potential consequences.
Sershan is Divisional Manager: Beneficiary and Player Relations,
and Media Liaison for the National Lotteries Board. Born in Durban
in 1964, he studied at the Durban University of Technology (formerly
ML Sultan Technikon). “My earliest memory [of racial discrimination]
th
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ANNI V ERSARY
would be trying to understand why
I could not sit on a bench as we
walked down the promenade on
Durban’s beachfront. We lived in
the then grey area of Durban, the
Warwick Avenue triangle, before
being moved to the Indian
township of Chatsworth
in 1970. More recently, I
appeared invisible to a shop
assistant who preferred to
attend to a white shopper
who had arrived after me.
I gave them both a small
lecture on customer service
that caused them both great
embarrassment in front of a
full store.”
Ashwin recalls being
drawn into racially charged
situations, often against
his will, and the reaction
was always militant and
aggressive. “The Indian
Community in South
Africa has a proud record
of having been involved
in the fight against
apartheid in SA. This is
manifested in the Natal
Indian Congress, the
SA Indian Congress and
the United Democratic
Front with many others
being involved in the Pan
Africanist Congress and
the Black Consciousness
Movement,” he points out.
Apartheid was not
just about in your face,
blatant put down of
individuals, possibly the most
effective means of ensuring
its longevity was crushing
talent and initiative, something
Arushen Moodley can testify
to. Arushen is a superbike
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