Language change, survival, decline: Indian languages in South Africa

Abstract

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Indian languages have existed in large numbers in South Africa, chiefly in the province of Natal, since 1860. Their existence in this country is ultimately a consequence of the abolition of slavery in the European colonies. Colonial planters in many parts of the world looked to migrant labour from Asian countries to fill the gap caused by the understandable reluctance of slaves to remain on the plantations once they were legally free. The British-administered Indian government permitted the recruiting of labourers to a variety of colonial territories. This resulted in a great movement of hundreds of thousands of Indian labourers, first to Mauritius (1834), then British Guyana (1838), Jamaica and Trinidad (1844), and subsequently to various other West Indian islands, Natal, Suriname and Fiji. Although Natal was a new colony that had not employed slave labour, the policy of consigning the indigenous, mainly Zulu-speaking population to ‘reserves’ created a demand for Indian labour on the sugar, tea and coffee plantations (see further Bhana and Brain 1990: 23–4). Just over 150,000 workers came to Natal on indentured contracts between 1860 and 1911. A large majority chose to stay on in South Africa on expiry of their five-or ten-year contracts. The languages spoken by the indentured workers were as follows: From the south of India chiefly Tamil and Telugu and, in small numbers, Malayalam and Kannada. The latter two languages did not have sufficiently large numbers of speakers to survive beyond a generation in South Africa. […]