Indian Research and Publication on South Africa(1)
by E.S. Reddy
India has had a fascination with South Africa, especially
since Gandhiji led the satyagraha of Indian South Africans from 1906 to 1914.
It took great pride in its support to the freedom struggle in that country since
1946, and now looks forward, with great hope, to a special relationship with
South Africa and a rapid development of political, economic, cultural and other
relations.
How have these sentiments and desires been translated into
research and publication to analyse, strengthen and broaden the relations? While
some significant publications have come out in India over the years, there are
enormous gaps in research and the quality of publications leaves much to be
desired.
Part of the reason for this state of affairs was certainly
the apartheid system and India's sanctions which encompassed cultural relations.
Many of the books and articles published in South Africa, even on Gandhiji and
on Indians in South Africa, are not available in India and those published in
India are not available in South Africa. Very few South Africans have conducted
research in the archives and libraries in India and I believe no Indian has
spent time at South African archives. The government, universities and research
institutions in India have been remiss in promoting essential research on South
Africa and our scholars have not been blameless.
I would like, in this article, briefly to recall some Indian
publications on South Africa, point to the gaps and inadequacies, and suggest
some urgent action.
Gandhiji and the Indian Problem in South Africa
Many books, pamphlets and articles on South Africa have
been published in India since 1909 when H.S.L. Polak was sent by Gandhiji to
India to publicise the cause of Indians in South Africa. G.A. Natesan of Madras
published Polak's pamphlets on The Indians in South Africa:
Helots within the Empire (1909) and M.K. Gandhi:
a Sketch of his Life and Work (1910), and reprinted J.J. Doke's MK. Gandhi.
an Indian Patriot in South Africa (1909), within months of its publication
in London.
In the 1920s Gandhiji himself wrote Satyagraha in South
Africa and My Experiments with Truth. The former was not a definitive history
of the struggle and the latter was not strictly an autobiography. They were
both meant to educate his followers on the doctrine of satyagraha. Coming from
the leader of a great movement, they were of historic significance. They were
also an invitation to other scholars to follow up.
In subsequent years, Indian scholars produced some studies
on the emigration of Indians to South Africa, the humiliations and disabilities
they were subjected to and their appeals for justice. For instance: Sir Shafaat
Ahmad Khan, The Indian in South Africa (1946); Iqbal Narain, The
Politics of Racialism: a Study of the Indian Minority in South Africa down to
the Gandhi-Smuts Agreement (1952); and S.B. Mukherji,
Indian Minority in South Africa (1959). Narain and Mukherji were able
to utilise the mass of documentation in Indian archives while Sir Shafaat had
served as High Commissioner in South Africa.
Significant studies of the subject by South African Indian
scholars were also published in India: P.S. Aiyar's Stateless
Indians in South Africa (1942), and P.S. Joshi's Verdict
on South Africa (1945) and The Struggle for Equality
(1951). I make special mention of these books also because none of the recent
studies by Indian South Africans - such as the excellent dissertations by Frene
Ginwala, Essop Pahad and Uma Mesthrie - have been published in India.
On Gandhiji's life in South Africa and the satyagraha he
led, Indian scholarship has been most unsatisfactory. No Indian scholar undertook
research in South Africa, or made a serious study of Indian
Opinion or interviewed the many satyagrahis who had returned to India.
Three of the associates of Gandhiji in South Africa wrote
valuable reminiscences, but they were not available in English for a long time.
Only an abridged version of Prabhudas Gandhi's My Childhood
with Gandhiji was published by Navajivan in 1957. An "adaptation" of
Raojibhai Patel's Gandhiji ni sadhana was published
in 1990, with numerous errors, while his autobiography is not yet available
in English. I have not been able to find Bhawani Dayal's reminiscences of the
satyagraha or his autobiography in English.
Thus, until the publication of Pyarelal's Mahatma
Gandhi: The Early Phase in four volumes (the last edited by Sushila Nayyar),
between 1965 and 1989, Indian scholars have contributed little to the study
of Gandhiji in South Africa and the evolution of satyagraha.
Even now, no Indian scholar seems to have made use of Gandhiji's
correspondence with Kallenbach and Polak which the Indian Government purchased
at an enormous cost.
On the other hand, significant studies on Gandhiji in South
Africa, based on primary sources, have been produced by non-Indian scholars.
For instance: Robert A. Huttenbach's Gandhi in South
Africa (1971); Maureen Swan's Gandhi, the South
African Experience (1985); and James A. Hunt's Gandhi
and the Nonconformists: Encounters in South Africa (1989). The lack of
serious research by Indian scholars explains why Swan's tendentious account
came as a surprise and remains unanswered.
The Liberation Struggle
The situation in South Africa changed from the late 1930s
when a young and radical leadership emerged in the Indian community advocating
unity with the African majority in a struggle to end racist domination.
The Indian community launched a great passive resistance
struggle in 1946 - under the leadership of Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Dr. G.M. Naicker
- and obtained the support of the African National Congress. In 1952, the ANC
and the South African Indian Congress jointly launched the Campaign of Defiance
of Unjust Laws and out of it emerged the multiracial "Congress Alliance" and
later the "United Democratic Front". The Indian community and its leaders played
a key role, far beyond their numbers, in the liberation struggle.
India lent full support to this struggle at great sacrifice,
earning the hostility not only of South Africa but of its allies.
Yet no study of the South African struggle or of India's
contribution was published in India until the late 1980s, except for a short
pamphlet on the defiance campaign in 1952.
With the closing of the Indian High Commission in South
Africa in 1954, and especially after the tightening of Indian sanctions against
South Africa in 1963, there was an interruption in communications between the
two countries.
For two decades, the only Indian publications on South Africa
were pamphlets by the government or organisations, which were almost wholly
concerned with support for the liberation struggle in South Africa. I have in
mind, for instance, the pamphlets of Hari Sharan Chhabra, Anirudha Gupta and
Shanti Sadiq Ali for the Indian National Committee for the Observance of the
International Anti-Apartheid Year (1978-79), and pamphlets by the African National
Congress and the African diplomatic missions.
The authors depended for their sources mainly on publications
of the African National Congress, statements of the government of India, and
press reports by Western news agencies. No effort was made to obtain documentation
from South Africa. The deficiencies in scholarship were made up by strength
of feeling.
In 1982, at the request of the United Nations Centre against
Apartheid, the Ministry of External Affairs published a collection of speeches
and documents under the title India Condemns Apartheid.
The Ministry was perhaps still under the influence of the "state of emergency";
it omitted any reference to Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit and V.K. Krishna Menon,
the most prominent spokespersons of India on this matter in the United Nations.
Authors of other publications, who depended on government purchases or subsidies,
presumably had to toe this line for several years.
From the mid-1980s, with the upsurge of the struggle in
South Africa and the initiatives of Rajiv Gandhi against apartheid, books on
the South African struggle and India's support began to be published in India.
Several books written or edited by me were published from 1986, as were books
by Hari Sharan Chhabra and T.G. Ramamurthi. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued
a well-edited collection of documents on South Africa
and Apartheid in 1987. The government and the Indian Youth Congress published
several pamphlets in 1986-87, and a series of worthwhile papers were presented
to the Namedia Seminar on "Media and the Struggle against Apartheid" (New Delhi,
May 1987).
In the absence of research in South Africa or collaboration
with South African scholars, or even the availability of South African studies,
none of these books and pamphlets published in India during this whole period
dealt with the changes which took place in the status and attitudes of the Indian
community in South Africa.
It was during this period that the South African regime
proceeded with the forced segregation of racial groups and resorted to ever
increasing repression against the anti-apartheid forces. At the same time, it
made active efforts to coopt "moderate" Indians into the apartheid structures.
It set up an Indian Council and later a "House of Delegates", a segregated Indian
Chamber of Parliament.
While the Indian community boycotted the elections to these
institutions, and denounced segregation in other fields, it was forced to make
use of the only available facilities. The community built schools, religious
institutions and other amenities in the segregated Indian areas such as Lenasia
in Johannesburg and Laudium in Pretoria. Indian students enrolled in the University
of Durban-Westville and other segregated institutions.
Many Indians prospered by utilising the economic and educational
opportunities provided under the apartheid regime. But the forced separation
from other racial groups, the repression and the cooption of "collaborators"
had serious effects on the Indian community, and fissures began to develop along
religious and linguistic lines.
Public opinion in India was unaware of these changes and
was not prepared for the desecration of the Phoenix Settlement in 1985 or the
resurgence of insecurity and fear in the Indian community after 1990.
Transition to Democracy in South Africa
After the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, it became possible
for Indians to travel to South Africa and all restrictions on people-to-people
contacts were abolished in 1993. Many journalists and writers visited South
Africa and some books have appeared - e.g. Hari Sharan Chhabra's South
Africa, One Year after Mandela's Release (1991) and New
South Africa, Problems of Democratic Transition (1994); S.C. Saxena's
Walking the Last Mile (1992); and J.R. Hiremath's
Summering in South Africa (1993).
T.G. Ramamurthi was not able to visit South Africa but his
Non-violence and Nationalism: A Study of Gandhian Mass
Resistance in South Africa (1993) and Apartheid
and Indian South Africans (1995) are based on extensive research in Indian
archives, as well as American and British libraries which have far more information
on Indian South Africans since 1954 than Indian institutions.
Three collections of papers deserve notice: Gandhi
and South Africa edited by Shanti Sadiq Ali and India
and South Africa, a Fresh Start edited by Ankush B. Savant, both published
in 1994, from papers submitted to seminars subsidised by the government; and
South Africa, Retrospect and Prospect (1996),
edited by Uma Shankar Jha. They are, as may be expected, of uneven quality.
The second, in particular, has numerous errors, and some of the contributors
reflect a cynicism alien to India's traditional friendship with the people of
South Africa. Unless the editors and publishers are much more diligent in rejecting
sloppy papers and avoiding factual errors and printing mistakes, the reputation
of Indian publications would be disastrous.
Because of the high printing costs in other countries, some
South African scholars have arranged to have their books "published" in India.
Promilla & Co., of New Delhi, for instance, has published Indentured
Indian Emigrants to Natal, 1860-1912 and Essays
on Indentured Indians in Natal by Prof. Surendra Bhana of South Africa;
Gandhi's Editor: the Letters of M.H. Nazar, 1902-1903
by Bhana and Prof. James Hunt of the United States; and The
Indentured Indian in Natal (1860-1917) by Dr. C.G. Henning of South Africa.
These books are important scholarly contributions but have not received the
attention they deserve in India.
Gaps in Research
As indicated earlier, there are serious gaps in Indian research
on South Africa.
Relations between India and South Africa did not begin with
Gandhiji's arrival in Natal a century ago or even the arrival of the indentured
labourers in 1860. They have a long history.
Researches on slavery in South Africa have shown that ever
since the Dutch established a settlement at the Cape in 1652, Indians were taken
there and sold into slavery. This trade continued until late in the 18th century.
Millions of Afrikaners and Coloured people in South Africa have Indian ancestors.
This slave trade deserves study by Indian scholars and is likely to unearth
information on the sale of Indians in other parts of the world.
The numerous contacts between the two countries when they
were both under British colonial rule have not been looked into by any scholars.
The participation of 7,000 Indians in the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa - many
of them settled in South Africa - and the reception of almost ten thousand Boer
prisoners of war in India are an example. I understand that Mr. Ramamurthi is
working on a monograph on India and the Anglo-Boer War.
The creative writing of Indian South Africans is hardly
known in India. Nor is the evolution of language, caste and social customs among
Indians in South Africa.
But most important is a study of the possibilities for co-operation
between the two countries in the future.The two governments have signed agreements
for multifaceted co-operation and there are tremendous prospects for co-operation
and collaboration not only in trade and investment but in many other fields.
Above all, the heritage of the national movements of the two countries enables
them jointly to make an immense contribution toward a democratic and progressive
international order. The fulfilment of these possibilities requires extensive
contribution by scholars and scholarly institutions.
Some Suggestions
I would hope that the government, scholarly institutions
and individual scholars would give urgent attention to several matters in order
to encourage research to promote closer relations between India and South Africa
and joint action at regional and international levels.
They should ensure that Indian publications are distributed
in South Africa and South African publications in India. In this connection,
I am glad that Professor Vijay Gupta of JNU is producing a bibliography of publications
in both countries on Indian-South African relations.
Arrangements should be made for South African scholars to
visit all the Indian archives which have documentation on South African history
and vice versa.
There should be co-operation between scholarly institutions
and scholars in the two countries on research and publication.
The Indian government should provide adequate travel grants
for scholars to visit South Africa, negotiate facilities at South African institutions
and provide assistance for publication of results of research. Similar programmes
by South Africa should be encouraged. The two countries should agree on an exchange
of professors and plan conferences of scholars in different fields.
It would seem to me that these matters deserve to be taken
up in the India-South Africa Joint Commission in the near future.
Notes: