Introduction

From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai

'The appeasers', declared the report of the Passive Resistance Council, 'had been prepared to accept a status of permanent inferiority for Indians in this country.’ The 'appeasers' had been prepared moreover to accept 'the best possible compromise, whatever that was,' and were inclined to refrain from doing anything that might 'antagonise' the Government or European feeling.

This was the sentiment of the new leadership that took over Natal Indian Congress, the Transvaal Indian Congress, and the South African Indian Congress after 1945. The new generation was full of contempt for the old approaches to politics, and full of confidence in what it could do nationally and internationally to bring about changes in South Africa. 'Little does puny South Africa realise’, said the Natal Indian Congress president in 1947, ‘the rapidly growing strength of the mighty forces whose anger she is provoking.' The documents in this section on the passive resistance campaign illustrate some of the strident confidence that was evident in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

There are two strands in Indian politics in this period. The first flowed from the new approach adopted by the younger leaders who took over control of existing political organisations. This approach was committed to a policy of uniting Indian political organisations with other black bodies in order to present a common front. The Xuma-Naicker-Dadoo Pact of 1947 foreshadowed major events in the 1950s: the Defiance Campaign of 1952 in which the A.N.C. and the S.A.I.C. jointly undertook a campaign of defiance against unjust laws; and the Congress of the People.in which all black political organisations joined hands to exert maximum political leverage. The 1955 Freedom Charter was a living testimony to the ideals proclaimed by the Congress of the People. There were, of course, difficulties in the alliance, some of which are referred to in the documents we have selected. They arose primarily from the racial tensions which pervaded the whole fabric of South African society, and which were manifested in the Durban riots of 1949. As it happened, the Congress movement was dealt a crippling blow in 1960 when the A.N.C. was banned. 'We are at a turning-point in the history of our country,' declared a Natal Indian Congress report of 1961.

The other strand in Indian political life in this period was a continuation of the old-style politics. Those who called themselves ‘moderate Indians' rejected the 'all or nothing' policy of the Indian Congress and formed new political organisations: the Natal Indian Organisation and the Transvaal Indian Organisation, which affiliated themselves to a national body, the South African Indian Organisation. These bodies were equally vehement in rejecting apartheid and most particularly the Group Areas Act, but they hoped to achieve change through negotiation and consultation. The Government preferred to deal with these bodies and thereby accorded them a semblance of recognition.

The new Indian leadership was thoroughly checkmated by 1960, the year that marked the centenary of the arrival of the first Indians in South Africa. By 1960 Indians had become truly integral and permanent members of South African society, but they enjoyed none of the civil rights accorded to its white citizens.