In the immediate pre-Union years there was considerable friction in both Natal and the Transvaal between the Indian inhabitants and the governments of those colonies. These South African Indians were originally workers who had been brought to Natal after 1860 to serve a five-year term of indenture or contract.
Indian resistance to discriminatory laws, as personifi ed by Mohandas Gandhi, dates back to the turn of the 19th century. Gandhi and other Indian leaders formed the Natal Indian Congress and launched a newspaper, Indian Opinion, to fi ght racial laws and demand better treatment of their people. They adopted forms of non-violent passive resistance to the racial laws. Gandhi and his associates often got into trouble with these laws, for example when they embarked on pass-burning demonstrations. Here Gandhi is addressing a crowd of supporters in Durban in 1914.
More than 152 000 Indians had come to Natal as indentured labourers by 1911 when the importation of Indian workers ceased. About half, most Hindu, stayed on in Natal after their contracts had expired. But half of those who decided to stay were nevertheless forced into second or third contracts of indenture in Natal. Ex-indentured labourers had to pay an annual tax of £3. If the labourers entered into another contract of indenture, payment of the £3 tax was suspended. The children of ex-indentured workers came to be known as ‘the colonial-born’ and from this grouping the Colonial Born Indian Association was formed in 1911.
From 1875 another category of Indians, Gujerati-speaking Muslim merchants, started arriving in South Africa. They were known as ‘passengers’ because they had paid their own passages from India to establish trading concerns in Natal or the Transvaal. These men, some of whom arrived in South Africa with substantial capital, came to be the most prominent Indian traders and also dominated the political associations, the Natal Indian Congress (founded in 1894) and the British Indian Association (founded in 1903). In theory, membership of the Natal Indian Congress was open to all, but the annual dues of £3 restricted its membership. The politically aware and active section of the Indian community was small and consisted mainly of a relatively privileged group.
The Union census of 1911 showed that Hindus were by far the largest religious group among South African Indians. Of the more than 150 000 Indians in South Africa at that date, more than 115 000 were Hindus compared to just under 21 000 Muslims. M.K. (Mohandas) , whose family belonged to the merchant class, formed the British Indian Association. In 1903 the newspaper Indian Opinion, which became the organ of Indian merchants in Natal and the Transvaal, was first published. determined the policy and often wrote the editorials.
Before worldwide fame: lawyer and activist Mohandas Gandhi (seated in the middle) with a few of his colleagues.
Prior to Union all four colonies passed legislation that discriminated against Indians. Some of these laws remained in force after May 1910; others were amended by Union legislation. Indians were restricted in moving from one province to another, and were almost entirely excluded from living in the Orange Free State. No plural wives of South African Indians were admitted to any of the four provinces, and restrictions were imposed on domiciled Indians bringing their wives and minor children to South Africa. Indians were segregated in so-called bazaars in urban areas. Attempts by Indians to obtain business licenses were often blocked.
Gandhi developed and refined the political strategy of non-violent resistance known as satyagraha, or the power of truth. It involved a non-violent refusal to comply with an unjust law. In this he combined both the superior force of morality as well as the ability of a highly skilled tactician to shame adversaries. Satyagraha drew heavily on Indian philosophy and asceticism, which was part of the Jain tradition in which had been raised.
The tactic of satyagraha was intensified from September 1913 to protest the question of the legality of Indian traditional marriages and soon broadened to include other concerns as well. Indians, including women, for the first time crossed the Natal-Transvaal and Natal-Orange Free State borders. In October a strike started among Indian labourers on the northern Natal collieries, which was supported by between 4 000 and 5 000 workers within two weeks.
Workers demanded the repeal of the £3 tax, but also had other economic and social grievances. Towards the end of October led 200 strikers out of Newcastle towards the Transvaal border. Early in November the strike spread, apparently spontaneously, to the Natal coastal sugar plantations. Mass arrests of Indians, including, were made.
The Union government appointed a commission to inquire into the strike. and others who had been imprisoned were released and negotiations between Smuts and started soon afterwards. The Smuts-Gandhi deliberations led to the Indian Relief Act being passed by the Union parliament in July 1914. The £3 tax was abolished and validity of Hindu and Muslim marriages was recognised., who left South Africa in the same month that the Relief Act was passed, claimed that it was the Magna Carta of Indian liberty in South Africa.
While certain gains had been made, Indians in the Union could still not own land in the two former republics and were not even allowed to live in the Orange Free State. Nor did the Act remove existing restrictions on Indian trading. Above all, Indians were still deprived of a voice in the election of members of Parliament. Union thus formally affirmed the insecure place they occupied in South Africa.
For coloured people too the unification of the four colonies was cause for trepidation. On behalf of the APO, Abdurahman issued a pamphlet calling 31 May 1910 a day of ‘humiliation and prayer’ for the coloured people. The Union ‘deliberately curtailed their political privileges’, and ‘slammed the door to political freedom’ to all those who were not white in the northern provinces.
