Contrary to the common belief that Indians had first gone to South Africa as indentured labourers in 1860, they had in fact already arrived there much earlier, in 1653. Dutch merchants, returning home from their voyages to India and the East Indies, had taken them to the then Dutch Cape Colony and sold them as slaves to the early Dutch settlers. There they were made to work as domestic servants, or to join the African slaves who were already toiling on the newly established farms. Between 1653 and the early 19th century, there were already as many as 1,195 Indians in the Cape, forming 36.40% of the slave population imported into the colony.
Most of these Indian slaves had been shipped from Bengal or the Coromandal coast. They were
unable to preserve their distinct identity in the Cape as ?Indians?. They married slaves from East Asia, other parts of Africa, or from the indigenous Khoikhoi and San inhabitants. Their progeny subsequently became known as Malays. This term was, in time, loosely applied to all the Muslims in the Cape, irrespective of their geographic origin.
On the other hand, the Indian presence in that country owes its origin to the British Parliament
passing the Act of Abolition in 1833, whereupon slavery was banned throughout the British
Empire. The immediate consequence of this was that the African slaves of British settlers in the
Natal Colony decided to desert their former masters en masse. Their erstwhile tormentors began to feel the pinch of having to bend their own backs to manual labour! After considerable efforts to persuade the reluctant British authorities in India to replicate in South Africa the system of indentured labour that was already being implemented in Mauritius, the colonists finally succeeded in their endeavour. Thereupon, a group of Indian ?coolies?, comprising 342 men, women and children arrived at the port city of Durban on board the S. S. Truro on 16 November 1860. They were the first of 384 such arrivals of ?human cargo? containing as many as 152,184 unfortunate persons that were going to be shipped to South Africa over the next 51 years. Of them, 62% were men, 25% women and 13% children. According to a 1985 report of Dr. .rene Ginwala, who is currently Speaker of South Africa?s Parliament, two thirds of these emigrants were Tamil and Telugu speaking Hindus from the then Madras Presidency, a predominance that has persisted in subsequent years, as well as from Mysore and surrounding areas. The rest of the migrants had gone mainly from what are now Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. If the vast majority of the indentured labourers were Hindus, less than 12% were Muslims, while some 2% were Christians. Most of them were illiterate, but they all carried with them memories of their traditions, customs and rituals - which they then strove to preserve as best as they could. They spoke a variety of languages - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu, as well as dialects from Bihar and UP which would later merge to become a sort of local version of Bhojpuri, very different from what is found in Mauritius with its distinctly .rench and Creole influence.
The initial purpose of importing the Indians had been to tend the sugarcane and sisal plantations
of the British settlers. The indentured labourers were bound by contract for 5 years. A carrot was held out to them in the form of a second contract for a further 5 years, with the offer after that of a free return passage to India, or grant of some land. The land grant was eventually dropped in 1891. The standard practice in the plantations was to work the labour from dawn to sunset, Sundays included. After providing them with meagre rations and the barest accommodation in crowded barracks, the planters were insensitive to all their other needs. Their main concern was to economise costs. They saved on rations by reducing them on the slightest pretext. They refused the workers permission to leave their estates, especially to complain to the authorities about their ill treatment. They grudged them even their meagre wages and often found ingenious excuses to minimise them. Arbitrary ?justice? was often meted out to them in the form of fines or whipping. In brief, the conditions under which the indentured labourers worked were inhuman and akin to slavery. This was one of the main reasons for the high number of suicides among them. Nevertheless, the majority of these Indians remained in South Africa, as they had practically banished themselves from their own country by going abroad when crossing the seas (kalapani) was taboo and attracted severe prayaschit.
While their initial recruitment had been for work in the plantations, Indian labour was also later
distributed to the railways, dockyards, coal mines, municipal services and domestic employment.
Even though they were not happy with the racist laws and taxes, only about 23% of Natal Indians had returned to India by 1911, when the much abused indenture system was finally terminated.
Their success had prompted the entry into the colony of ?free passenger Indians?? so called,
because they had paid for their fares as passengers on board a steamship bound for South Africa.
The new immigrants were a community of traders, both Hindu and Muslim, who hailed mainly
from Gujarat. They set up retail shops and started to compete effectively with the much more
expensive stores run by the white settlers In course of time, they constituted around 10% of
Indian immigrants. Much later, teachers, accountants, priests, lawyers and other professionals
arrived, also mostly from Gujarat. These developments lead to much recrimination and jealousy
against the Indians ? all of whom were unceremoniously labelled as ?coolies?. This resulted in
referring to leading members of the community in derogatory terms such as ?coolie merchant?,
?coolie doctor?, ?coolie barrister? and the like.
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