Passive Resistance 1946 - A Selection of Documents compiled by E.S. Reddy & Fatima Meer - Racism against Indians

From the book: Passive Resistance 1946 - A Selection of Documents compiled by E.S. Reddy & Fatima Meer

1947

Evictions in Benoni and Non-European Unity

On Wednesday night hundreds of people — Indians, coloureds and Africans — turned up to a meeting at the Star Hall, Benoni, to protest against the fascist action of the Benoni Town Council in evicting Indian and coloured residents from the Benoni town.

Mr. Trichardt, who presided, said what was most needed today action not words. "We are in danger of being driven on to the streets if the Council continues with their action in the teeth of opposition from our people. We have one answer, and that is resistance," he added

Evictions in Benoni and Non-European Unity

On Wednesday night hundreds of people — Indians, coloureds and Africans— turned up to a meeting at the Star Hall, Benoni, to against the fascist action of the Benoni Town Council in Indian and coloured residents from the Benoni town.

Mr. Trichardt, who presided, said what was most needed today was action not words. "We are in danger of being driven on to the streets if the Council continues with their action in the teeth of opposition from our people. We have one answer, and that is resistance," he added

Mr. A. Damane said the time had come when the oppressed people should offer resistance to such actions. The statement made by General Smuts must not mislead the coloured people that the coloured people must be treated differently from the other sections of the non-European people.

Smuts meant what he said, the coloured people should not have been served with notices of ejectment .

Mr. G. Singh, Secretary of the Benoni Branch Congress said.

"I meet to discuss our problems peacefully — we have the police force for some reason unknown. The Asiatic area of Benoni is a slum since its inception, but nothing is done.

The following resolution was passed unanimously: This mass meeting of Indians, coloureds and Africans, held under the auspices of the Action Committee of the APO and the TIC (Benoni Branches) on Wednesday, 5 February 1947, vehemently protests against the fascists and the herrenvolk action of the Benoni Town Council in evicting Indian and coloured residents from the town, and also reaffirm its determination to resist racial arrogance.

Dr Jansen asks for Repeal of Tenure Act

Johannesburg, Wednesday: Dr E.G. Jansen, the Nationals candidate in the coming Parliamentary by-election at Wolmaranstrand pays particular attention to the Indian problem in his election manifesto published in Die Transvaler. The manifesto calls for:

1. The repeal of the Indian Asiatic Land Tenure and Representation Act passed by Parliament in 1946 and the passing of legislation which will separate Europeans and Indians more effectively.

2. No franchise for Indians.

3. An inquiry into all possible means such as repatriation to decrease the fast growing Indian population, even if it does mean spending a large sum of money.

•   A drastic revision of the quotas of commodities supply Indian traders and an increase of quotas to the European traders.

5. Effective propaganda in other countries to combat "the harmful propaganda against South Africa" .

6. Withdrawal from the United Nations "if they continue to meddle in our domestic affairs" .

7. The appointment of a Combined Select Committee of the Senate and the House of Assembly to draft a scheme for South Africa's whole coloured problem, based on the principles of separation and the separate development of the different races.

Indians boycotted with a vengeance

A reign of terror is going hand-in-hand with the boycott of traders in the small farming towns of the Western Transvaal, writes the Sunday Times special correspondent from Groot Marico.

An attempt was made to waylay a European farmer outside this town after he had voted against the boycott at a public meeting at Zwartruggens; other Europeans opposed to the boycott have been ostracised by their neighbours; threats of violence have been made against the Natives who have patronised Indian traders, and clothing and other goods that they have bought from Indians have been taken from them by Europeans, and they have been "fined" according to the size of their purchases. An Indian storekeeper showed me, (writes the Times correspondent) at least 20 suitcases packed with goods, piled high in one of his storerooms. They belong to Natives who Bought from him surreptitiously and who had asked him to keep their purchases in his custody until they returned to their kraals or found work elsewhere. Last Saturday Mr. J.E.H. Reader, a 56-year-old farmer who lives about 14 miles outside Groot Marico, attended a boycott meeting at Zwartruggens. He was one of eight men who voted against the boycott. About 500 men, women and children were present. On his way home in his jeep, accompanied by his 19-year-old son, Frank, a tenant on his farm, and an ex-member of the R.A.F., he saw a lorry drawn almost in the middle of the road and a car next to it. As he drove past he saw three men who had left the meeting shortly before he did. They whistled and waved to him to stop, but he drove on.

"Soon afterwards," Mr. Reader told me, "my son exclaimed: ‘They're following us. Dad.' I accelerated and for about three we raced along at 60 miles an hour. Then I became annoyed and swung to the left and waved to them to pass me. They drew and then suddenly swung their car in front of me. I stood on my brakes and they grazed the mudguard of my jeep. I immediately swung the car around and drove back to Groot Marico to the police station. While I was sitting in the police station making a statement one of the three men who had attempted to waylay me entered. He also wanted to make a statement. The policeman told him to wait but a few minutes later he stormed into the charge office again assaulted me. He struck at me and in trying to avoid his second blow I fell over backwards in my chair."

"My son then entered the charge office and a fights which raged from the charge office to a back room. My was eventually severely beaten."

Mr. Reader told me that a charge was laid against his assailant but that he later withdrew it.

Natives, particularly, are being intimidated and assaulted. Hundreds of them working outside Zwartruggens are being forced to buy at a European store. The Indian store has been closely watched and watchboys have intercepted Natives returning from the store and taken away their goods.

Two Natives were deprived of a parcel worth £2 10s have been fined from 5s to 12s for buying at the Indian stuff and yet others have been discharged.

The store that they are being compelled to patronise charges higher prices than the Indian store, and hitherto the Natives gladly walked eight miles to buy from the Indian trader. Recently a Native bought an iron pot from the Indian storekeeper that was taken from him when he returned to the location where the European storekeeper is situated. He complained to the European storekeeper that his store did not have a pot to sell him, but not only was his protest disregarded but he was fined 12s.

At the meeting at Zwartruggens on Saturday, the Reverend Michael Scott, of Johannesburg, was refused permission to speak, and a woman who afterwards distributed pamphlets for the Council for Asiatic Rights was insulted and called a "Coolie Mary.

In Zwartruggens I spoke to an Indian storekeeper who had lost 80 percent of his trade as a result of the boycott. His stores, and other Indian stores in the town, were picketed by European youths, and I saw a van equipped with loud speakers patrolling the streets and warning the people against patronising the Indian traders.

European garages are refusing to sell petrol to Indian motorists.

Notices of sales at Indian stores are being torn down and replaced by pamphlets which state: "We warned you against patronising Indians. Your good name as a European is at stake."

In every Western Transvaal town where the boycott is in operation, Europeans are afraid to enter Indian stores. Hitherto supporters of the boycott have merely shunned them, but now they fear physical assault. Indians themselves are wondering whether they will be subjected to assaults, and whether attempts will be made to fire their stores. Everyone has agreed, however, that the Western Transvaal is a tinderbox which is likely to "go up" if supporters of the boycott continue taking into their own hands, concludes the correspondent.

The "old Guard's" view of racism against Indians — A.I. Kajee

Speaking at the Maritzburg Rotary lunch on Thursday, Mr. A. I Kajee, the well-known Indian leader, charged the anti-Indians of Natal for reducing the status of General Smuts as a world figure at the UN.

At the UN," said Mr. Kajee, "I witnessed a sorry spectacle when one of the world's greatest figures. General Smuts passed out of the rostrum in complete silence. This author of the Preamble was left Isolated and as a South African, I myself felt the humiliation. I then thought that it was Natal that had brought this great man to that position. We must now have the courage to retrieve the position."

"I have no respect and no use for the Indian who mixes up the Indian cause with the Communist cause and who plays upon the emotions of the masses to throw up Indian against Indian and Indian 'European. We have to bring back our particular problem to South Africa and to see whether, in the light of the verdict of the UN in the spirit of the UN-Charter, we cannot resolve this problem in realistic terms."

"A question to be seriously considered is whether we should not give a man of a different colour, who is highly educated and with outstanding qualities of leadership, a chance. Why treat them all on the lowest level?"

"If we are wise and fair, we will study that aspect, and decide whether the man of a different colour and who lives a European lit should not be accorded a position higher than the lowest level his own people."

"Now let me put a question to you. Until 1944, the year of the Pretoria Agreement, what was the main objection to Indians the mind of the Europeans."

"It was an objection to residential proximity, and that also only where individual Europeans took objection because I know there is a large body of Europeans, who, all things being equal, have no objection to Indians as neighbours, whilst on the other hand, as the Broome Commission found, the vast majority of Indians would have no desire to live among Europeans if they had the same choice of site and amenities."

"No sooner, however, did the Indian community, through Natal Indian Congress, show its willingness to meet the susceptible of Europeans in this limited sense regarding residential proximity, than another cry was raised. It was the cry of economic and social segregation — 'We must separate Indians from Europeans in zones' stop Indians buying property; limit his trading; push him back develop on his own lines; or else we shall be swamped and western civilisation doomed. From a minor quarrel about residential proximity, there developed a major quarrel about economic and social restrictions about the preservation of white civilisation, the advance of asia and its attendant perils to South Africa."

"Europeans used to say — and some still do— that Indians make money in South Africa and send it to India. Yet if we make money here and build and buy houses and invest our earnings here we are accused of seeking domination. No wonder the Broome Commission she has wrote: 'The Indians are on the horns of a terrible dilemma."

Europeans used to say-and some still do-that Indians live on the smell of an oil rag and refuse to be westernised. Yet when Indian when Indians achieve a high standard of life, Europeans held up their hands in horror. Europeans used to talk a lot about western civilisation. Now they talk a lot about the defence of 'white' civilisation.

There is a great difference between western civilisation and 'white' civilisation. 'White' civilisation denies entry to an Indian — western civilisation dose not. The 'Uplift' clause of the Cape Town Agreement implied the belief that Indians are capable of conforming to western standards of life."

"You tell us to educate our children, then you refuse these children the logical consequence of education, in citizenship, professions and trades. Your lack of policy is wavering and uncertain, indecisive and vacillating. Anyone with half an eye for the future can see that the Asiatic Act will not do what it is expected to do. You cannot preserve your civilisation by denying it to people you do not like. You cannot safeguard your own economic position by forbidding economic progress to others. You cannot preserve your own citizenship by restricting the citizenship rights of those in your midst."

"Our compatriots are angry with those of us who claim to be crates. In their anger, they do things that are dangerous to the true welfare of Indians as the reactionaries among Europeans are to the welfare of the European community. Many of them are Communists first and Indians second. They have succeeded in diverting a large section of the community from the real issues facing the Indian people."

"The follies in my community have their counterpart among Europeans. Sober men on both sides realise it and prefer to take the harder course of sanity and negotiation. This sanity would point a way to us all."

Mayor's action resented

Because of the deliberate refusal of the Mayor of Maritzburg, Mrs. Russell, to meet the Indian community directly and in time, she has made it impossible for Indian school children to celebrate the 2Ist birthday of Princess Elizabeth on Monday. Coupled with this the miserable municipal offer of £15 for celebrations by 2000 Indian school children. This is not the first time that the Mayor has showed such lack of courtesy towards the Indian people.

Spawning Racial Hatred: Storm-troop stands by for action

Durban's storm troopers are standing by for action under the name of the "Tar and Feather Club." Their object is to maintain tin purity of the European race by the use of violence on European and non-Europeans. All is being done under the guise of dealing with non-European men who associate with European women and vice-versa, and non-European women who associate with European men, vice-versa.

The members of the Club have, according to the Sunday paper which has been carrying this kind of filth ever since it came into existence, written to the Minister of Justice describing the object of the Club and the actions they propose to take "in order to prevent miscegenation between European and non-European." It is learnt that the NIO will take up the matter with General Smuts, for it is obvious that the object of the paper is to fan racial hatred.

Indian Unemployment on Increase

Durban, Friday: Indian unemployment in Durban has almost doubled in the past five months. At the beginning of December, 825 unemployed Indians were registered with the Department of Labour. Today that figure has grown to nearly 1 600-1 506 men and 49 women -compared with 182 unemployed European males and 304 unemployed coloured males.

Segregation in Varsity Education

A note of defiance reminiscent of General Smuts at bay rang through his voice as Dr E. G. Malherbe, principal of the Natal University College, threw down the gauntlet to the Indian community at the opening of the 14th Conference of the Natal Indian Teachers' Society on Monday when he declared that if the Indians asked for anything more than a non-European constituent college of the Natal University they would lose the whole scheme. The NUC would simply put up the shutters. "I am saying this quite candidly to you." He did not, he said; agree with the complete segregation of non-European students, but the NUC proposal of a separate non-European college was the best way out under the circumstances. Dr Malherbe said that through the intervention of General Smuts 70 to 80 acres of land at Wentworth had been obtained for the project and, soliciting the financial support of the Indian community, declared flatly: "You must not think that because you pay fees you pay for your university education. You pay less than one-third of what it costs to educate you. So far Europeans had financed Indian university education."

Today it costs the NUC £180 000 a year to provide university Nation. Of this, £60 000 came in students' fees, £60 000 from the government and £60 000 from public donations, almost entirely European. "How much of this last, I ask you, come from the Indian?" He added that he was not going to ask Europeans to finance non-European education any more.

NIC objects to separate Non-European University College

"Due consideration will be given" to the objections raised the Congress when the Natal University College applied for its Charter constituting it the University of Natal. This is the reply which the Minister of Education, Mr. J.H. Hofmeyr, gave to members of the Natal Indian Congress who called on him last week in connection with the proposal for a separate non-European University College "The Natal Indian Congress sees in the proposal of setting up a separate, non-European University College in Durban, the grave danger of making permanent a measure which was originally purely temporary and makeshift. It was the feeling and intention of all concerned the University authorities, the non-European public and the students, that these classes were only the first steps in the direction of opening the doors of the Natal University College to non-European students, and were accepted on this basis."

Memo presented by A.I. Kajee and P.R. Pather to the UN on discrimination against Indians

In a memorandum submitted to the United Nations on the treatment Indians in the Union, the SAIC asserts that the Indian Land Tenure Act is being used "as a weapon of oppression and as a means for the denial of the economic and social progress of the Indian community. There are 285 260 Indians in South Africa, distributed as follows:

Natal, 232 317; Transvaal, 37 758; Cape, 15 174; Orange Free State,

11." The community has continued its opposition to the Asiatic Act on the grounds that:

"It is racially discriminatory and therefore violates the Cape Town Agreement and the principles of the United Nations Charter; it is an attack upon the rights and freedom of an unrepresented minority; it seriously limits the land rights and the free economic and social development of the Indian community, and it seeks to impose a form of franchise which is inequitable, ineffective and racial in character." The memo states that the local authorities have excised areas scheduled for Indians and added them to the restricted areas reserved for the delusive ownership and occupation by Europeans.

"European members of Parliament have organised a boycott of Indian traders since the United Nations passed its resolution on 9 December 1946; European financial institutions, on which Indians were largely dependant, have stopped granting them loans; and commercial banking, entirely in European hands, provides facilities to Indians on a very restricted basis, and unemployment among Indians is rising."

"The Durban Municipality had in the year 1936 in its employment 2, 526 Indians, and this year the number has now been reduced to 2,412, whereas the number of Europeans employed has risen from 2,773 to 4275 for the same period. The European pay roll is £1,034,612 against that of Indians at £276,403. How deep-rooted the prejudice of the Europeans and local authorities against Indians in this regard can be imagined from the fate that befell the proposal of the Administrator of Natal to give Indians municipal franchise on a separate roll, allotting them one or two seats on the Natal Town Boards and City Councils.

It was rejected by a referendum of Natal Europeans by 15,066 to 1,639."