Deputy Speaker, it is indeed a privilege to participate in the debate to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of indentured Indian labourers in South Africa. It is an opportunity to honour the memory of unsung heroes and heroines who through blood, sweat and tears contributed to this country we know as home.
The history of how Indian indenture came about is worth repeating. When slavery was abolished, the British needed a new source of labour. The British, being rather creative with words, came up with the term indenture, which in essence meant slavery. Historian and physicist P S Joshi said:
The indentured labour system was introduced by the British as a substitute for "forced labour and slavery". The indentured Coolies were half slaves, bound over body and soul by 101 inhuman regulations.
The Immigration Department in Natal published a notice in regard to coolies intending to immigrate to Natal. The notice promised that they would be taken good care of and have clothing, food and medication. They would be paid 5 a year and be indentured for five years, after which they could return to India at their own expense, or after 10 years they would get a free passage.
Sadly, many of these promises did not materialise and the reality is that they were herded like animals into the holds of ships and food and water were strictly rationed. Upon landing in Port Natal, they found their white masters harsh. They worked long hours, lived in tin houses and were flogged regularly.
The first ship to leave India was the SS Belvedere, which had 342 persons on board. The first ship to land in South Africa was the SS Truro, which had 340 persons on board. The SS Truro had 101 Hindus, 78 Malabars, 61 Christians, 16 Muslims, one Marathi and a few Rajputs.
The reason for my giving you the breakdown is to illustrate that once on board, they all had to live and eat together and depend on each other. Coming from a country where the caste system dominated and dictated status, this in itself was a huge culture shock. Muslims had to eat nonhalaal food and Brahmin Hindus had to mix with the Dalits, the untouchables. So, the first lesson that we can learn from the indentured Indians is that irrespective of class or caste, we are all equal and need each other to survive.
What I find quite interesting is that when passenger Indians started to arrive in South Africa, the caste system, based on the regional identities, became firmly entrenched, so much so that the term Kalkatias was given to the North Indians and the term Madrasis was given to the South Indians. There was this unspoken convention that Kalkatias and Madrasis married those of their own caste and intermarriage between the two was frowned upon.
This convention persisted well into the 1980s and I speak from personal experience. I am Hindi-speaking. My mom is Maraj from the Brahmin caste by birth. My dad was a Sonar, which is a jeweller. My husband is Gujarati- speaking. His mother is a Kshatriya or a warrior, and his father is a Darjee or a tailor.
When we wanted to get married, we knew we were going to face some difficulties and, boy, did we! If you think politics is rough, try getting two families from different ethnic groups to agree to a marriage. Fortunately, my dad was a good negotiator and we had a happy ending.
While caste was not an issue for the indentured Indians, the term "coolie" was, and many took umbrage. Kuli, spelt k-u-l-i in Tamil, refers to payment for menial work for persons from the lowest levels in the labour market and without customary rights.
According to Breman and Darial, on the transformation of "kuli" to "coolie":
The distinct humanity of the indentured individual was, in a single move, appropriated and eliminated the person collapsed into payment.
In India the word is applied to the lowest class, and regarded as a term of approach. Nowadays, the term is seldom used and, if I hear it, I personally don't take offence. In fact, I sent a tray of eats to my colleague on Diwali Day and he sent me an SMS thanking me and saying he had "flattened the driehoek coolie koekies" first. [Laughter.] I burst out laughing, because I knew he meant well.
Nevertheless, despite all the hardships, the indentured Indians endured, and they made their impact on the production of sugar, or "white gold" as it was then referred to. European public opinion had reacted favourably to the value of the coolies and in January 1965, the Natal Mercury wrote:
Coolie Immigration after several years experience is deemed more essential to our prosperity than ever. We certainly could not have boasted that our sugar exports increased four-fold in one year (sic).
Gandhi's memorable ejection from a first-class train is well known and I won't dwell on it, but I would be failing in my duty if I did not focus on his other roles. While in South Africa, he picked up that proposed legislation in Natal in 1894 that would deregister Indians as voters. He gathered 10 000 signatures and forwarded the petition to Lord Ripon, Secretary of State for the Colonies in London, and the law was disallowed.
In August 1894, he got hold of the passenger Indians to found the Natal Indian Congress, which was the first organised challenge to the racist status quo. In 1896, Natal passed the Immigration Restriction Bill and the Dealers' Licence Bill, which effectively denied trading rights to all Indians.
Gandhi's persistence managed to reduce the residential tax for Indians, who chose to remain as free labourers in the colony on expiry of their contract from a punitive 25 to 3.
When he went back to India to fetch his family, he wrote a pamphlet called The Indian Franchise - an Appeal. His intention was to inform the world about the sufferings of Indians in South Africa. The government of Port Natal went berserk and proceeded with legislation to exclude Indians from trading. The Europeans threatened to push every Indian into the sea. In 1913, the Immigrants Regulation Bill classified Indians as prohibited immigrants and they were limited to Natal.
Ghandi published a newspaper called the Indian Opinion. Without this newspaper, the Satyagraha movement would not have been possible. Ghandi's grandson, Satish Dhupelia, says that were Ghandi alive today, he would personally have led the campaign against the Protection of Information Bill, which seeks to curb media freedom.
In 1913 a court judgement ordered that all marriages, except those done according to Christian rites were nullified in South Africa. It reduced the rank of an Indian wife to that of a concubine and the children were deprived of the right to inherit.
This incensed the Indian indentured women and galvanised them into action. Thousands from Natal went to the Transvaal to hold protest meetings. They were arrested, because they had crossed the borders without a permit. Valliammai, a 16-year-old died in detention.
Their sacrifice was not in vain and resulted in the 3 tax being abolished by the Indian Relief Act of 1914 and Hindu and Muslim marriages were also recognised. Today we commemorate their hardships, relive their history, and acknowledge our roots but, at the same time, we claim our space and rights as South Africans.
What lessons can we learn from the indentured Indians? Eighty percent chose to remain in South Africa after their indenture was finished. Despite their atrocious conditions and hardships, the strong spirit of determination to succeed prevailed. They built places of worship and schools which still stand as monuments, a testimony to them, and which benefit all of us today. Ghandi said:
We can learn a lot from our Indian brothers and sisters' invaluable contribution to South Africa.
We have gained comfort from their pain and suffering.
One hundred and fifty years later no South African Indian should have any doubts about their identity. We are South Africans. I am a third generation South African of Indian origin. I live in a country where democracy prevails and I can celebrate my mutual identity with freedom. I am proud of my culture and religion and I'm regarded as an equal citizen. As a South African Indian, I have a duty to preserve and protect our age-old sacred cultural, moral and religious values.
On behalf of the DA, I would like to wish all my Muslim friends Eid Mubarak. We all have a link to that first Indian indentured labourer who came to South Africa or, as he is referred to, Coolie No 1, Devaram, and we walk proudly in their footsteps.
In conclusion, I would like to leave you with a quote from the Bhagavad Gita:
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. [Applause.]