Social movements of the historical Indian Diaspora in South Africa: binding the ‘home’ and ‘homeland’ creatively?

Abstract

India and South Africa are strongly bonded to each other not just as member nations of BRICS1 that confirms their status as prominently upcoming and emerging markets of the contemporary world, but also as associates of a mutually shared and entangled history from colonial times. The migration of the Indian Diaspora to South Africa from 1860 onwards, its eventual struggle for dignity against racial discrimination and participation in the national liberation movement have been a matter of pride to India in the past. But it is little known that the people of Indian origin have also organized themselves for community welfare and more recently organized themselves in Heritage Movements (HMs) to raise issues important for them socially as well as symbolically in the their past and contemporary history. How do they relate to India through them and what do they think of India? While bilateral economic ties between today's South Africa and India dominate the spheres of political imagination, interestingly, we see that over the years, the Indian foreign policy is undergoing a ‘Diaspora moment’ in various aspects. This paper, therefore, attempts to understand the Diaspora more closely under this background of mutual relations and shifts the focus to the collective action of the common Indian South Africans (ISAs) on ground and to their imagination of India and Indianness. We will use examples from social movements (SMs) of the ISAs as an analytical template for seeing the extent to which Diaspora can be used as a conceptual tool in understanding the changing meaning of Indianness in South Africa and conversely what message does it hold for India? Relevant instances of the politics of community self-help and HMs among the Durban/KwaZulu-Natal Indians in South Africa will be analysed and official opinions on Diaspora (etic views) will be juxtaposed with voices of these actors from the field (emic views). Observing the narratives of the SMs of the ISAs closely, we gain an insight into the following facts that can become an important input in sensitizing India's foreign policy with reference to its historic Diaspora in South Africa: firstly, its ongoing need, even in the post-apartheid era, for gaining contextual legitimacy and space in the process of nation building in the new South Africa. Secondly, though the ISAs are proud of their historical ties and cultural legacies with India, their position and identity within the broader political system of South Africa goes beyond their imagined ‘Indianness’. Thirdly, while their role in collective socio-cultural and political engagements make them a credible and vibrant Diaspora of which India can be proud of, nonetheless, the actors in the field emphasize that only when seen as indispensable asset of South Africa can they open up and build their mutual relations with India to newer heights.