After the Rainbow, Dark Clouds?

While its Constitution commits South Africa to a non-racial ethos and there has been no violent explosions between Indians and Africans, tensions in terms of public utterances and a growth of a narrow African nationalism are on the increase. This chapter, which serves as a conclusion, explores these tensions and what the future holds for Afro-Indian relations, and the place of Indians in South Africa.

The ‘Tyranny of Numbers’

Affirmative action is the most contested policy in post-apartheid South Africa, with most Indians getting the sense that they are the ‘twice-discriminated’, first by the white minority government and now by an African majority government. This chapter examines the different dimensions of the debate, and especially who will be hardest hit amongst Indians, and why this policy requires some re-jigging.

The Hopscotch of Life

In this chapter, we delve into the lives of working class women, many of whom obtained jobs in the clothing and textile industry from the 1960s, and whose incomes were crucial for upward mobility. It reveals how they negotiate life in an environment of extended families and patriarchal relations and how paid work offered them freedoms from the strictures of home life. Of particular relevance is showing how post 1990 the opening of the economy to cheap imports affected the lives of working class women and in turn, what consequences this had for Indian family life.

Modi Meets Mohandas

This chapter examines the complex relationship between diaspora and citizenship. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi famously developed his tactic of satyagraha on South African soil, cementing a deep relationship with India. Against this background, this chapter examines new diasporic connections between Indian South Africans and India, buoyed by the Indian government’s introduction of a number of measures such as a new ministry, an annual official diaspora convention in India, and the offer of special status for members of the Indian diaspora, but fell short of granting dual citizenship, arguably over concerns about security. This chapter provides a detailed examination of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to South Africa in 2016. This politically and strategically important visit of 2016 generated intense debates over the relationship between India and its diaspora, India and South Africa, Indians and Africans, and Hindus and Muslims.

Hashim Amla

Apartheid policy ensured that very few resources were thrown into ‘non-white’ sport. Cricket, a popular sport among Indians, was hampered by terrible playing fields and lack of sponsorship. However as the post-apartheid period unfolded black players became more competitive, with Hashim Amla emerging as one of the most accomplished batsmen. Through the telling of his story this chapter examines issues of sport and transformation.

Waiting for Change

Through the story of the life histories of Indian waiters who dominated the trade historically, we show how, historically, working class waiters used their closeness to whites to solicit jobs for their children, develop sporting interests, and even secure state housing. This chapter, through developing oral histories, provides fascinating insights into how waiters made a life both inside and outside the industry and how the de-racializing of the trade by the hiring of cheaper black labour meant that they could not hand down jobs to their children and broader family. Today, Indian waiters are a rare phenomenon but some keep old networks going, supporting each other in times of need.

Capital Accumulation in New Times

This chapter examines new trading opportunities created in the post-apartheid period and how the old merchant class have responded to these new times. It includes an important discussion of the impact of recent South Asian migrants and the rise of African organisations and commentators that seek to circumscribe Indian economic opportunity.

Classrooms of Mobility

This chapter argues that while the ‘Indian trader’ is ubiquitous in Africa, it was not due to the trading class but that the most significant change in the class patterns and mobility of Indians has been due to the rise of the professional class. Sparked in the 1960s with the expansion of educational opportunities, by the first half of the 1970s Indian men and women were earning degrees in considerable numbers. This chapter discusses the economic impact of this development, especially in the context of the perception that affirmative action measures in the post-apartheid period are strangling this class’s opportunities, both at educational institutions and in the workplace.

Place, Memory, and Nostalgia

Indians have suffered multiple forms of loss. During the apartheid period, tens of thousands were forcibly removed and located to townships on the outer edge of cities. In recent times these ‘lost’ places are being remembered through the writing of community histories and get-togethers and resurrection of old networks through the use of the internet. This chapter attempts to understand this phenomenon in the context of the emerging literature on nostalgia and remembering.

Hindus and Muslims

The overwhelming majority of Indians who arrived in South Africa were Hindus. There was also a fair smattering of Muslims, especially with the arrival of merchants from the 1870s. This chapter dissects the continuities and changes wrought on these religions especially by global developments and how local religious figures have sought to mediate these developments.