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Membership born in the Interstitial Spaces of the British Empire: The Indian Question in South Africa from 1860 to 1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

MARINA MARTIN
MARINA MARTIN*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for European Legal History: Centre for Indian Studies, University of Witwatersrandmartin@rg.mpg.de
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Abstract

This article revisits the question of Indian South Africans as a means of looking at a small selection of events1 situated within the dynamics between India, Britain and South Africa from 1860 to 1960, which were particularly influential in moulding the status of membership born within these interstitial spaces of the British Empire. Adopting a wider rather than a nationalist perspective, this discussion contributes to the growing global history scholarship looking at the relationship between India, Britain and its dominions.

Keywords

Migration of non-white British subjects within the British empireSouth Africa
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 787 - 802
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2020

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Footnotes

1

This is by no means an exhaustive treatment, and there are a number of other events, such as the Cape Town Agreement, Colonisation scheme and Durban Riots, that deserve scrutiny, which will be addressed in future work. The purpose of this article is to highlight the transitional and precarious nature of Indian South African membership.

References

2 Neilesh Bose also uses the term interstitial space in reference to the history of Indian South Africans. He uses the term to denote “inter-imperial spaces of negotiation” located at the “edges of Empire”. These are complimentary usages, with the main difference being that I see these spaces as crossroads of which inter-imperial dynamics are but one part. See Bose, Neilesh, “New Settler Colonial Histories at the Edges of Empire: ‘Asiatics’, Settlers, and Law in Colonial South Africa”, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 15, 1 (2014), pp. 1–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 This is by no means an exhaustive treatment, and there are a number of other events, such as the Cape Town Agreement, Colonisation scheme and Durban Riots, that deserve scrutiny, which will be addressed in future work. The purpose of this article is to highlight the transitional and precarious nature of Indian South African membership.

4 For a fuller discussion on this, see Brubaker, Rogers, “Migration, Membership, and the Modern Nation-State: Internal and External Dimensions of the Politics of Belonging”, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 41, 1 (May 26, 2010), pp. 61–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 See, for instance, Ngai, M. M., Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America (Princeton, 2004)Google Scholar.

6 Huttenback, R.A., Gandhi in South Africa: British Imperialism and the Indian Question, 1860–1914 (Ithaca, New York, 1971)Google Scholar.

7 Pachai, Bridglal, The International Aspects of the South African Indian Question, 1860–1971 (Cape Town, 1971)Google Scholar.

8 Tinker, H., Separate and Unequal: India and the Indians in the British Commonwealth, 1920–1950 (Brisbane, 1976), p. 10Google Scholar.

9 See, for instance, the ‘South Asian Migration in Global History Workshop’, University of Gandhi, produced a PhD thesis that marshalled an impressive amount of material on the history of Indian diplomatic interventions in South Africa. Mesthrie's work sought to evaluate the impact of Indian intervention by tracing the history of Indian diplomatic representatives to South Africa, known over the course of 1927–1946 as agents, agent-generals and finally High Commissioners.

More recent waves of scholarship (within the last decade) have demonstrated a burgeoning interest in the history of South Asian migration from a more global perspective. Building on Tinker's approach towards appraising ‘Indian overseas’ across the British Empire, scholars have Victoria, October 2017, hosted by Neilesh Bose.

10 Bose, “New Settler Colonial Histories at the Edges of Empire”. See conclusion.

11 Jon Soske, “‘Wash Me Black Again’: African Nationalism, the Indian Diaspora, and Kwa-Zulu Natal, 1944–1960” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 2009).

12 Bose, “New Settler Colonial Histories at the Edges of Empire”. See section on ‘Exogenous Others in the British Empire’.

13 Swan, Maureen, Gandhi: The South African Experience (Johannesburg, 1985)Google Scholar; Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa.

14 Ibid.; Swanson, Maynard W., “‘The Asiatic Menace’: Creating Segregation in Durban, 1870–1900”, The International Journal of African Historical Studies 16, 3 (1983), pp. 401–421CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jain, Prakash C. (Prakash Chand), Racial Discrimination against Overseas Indians: A Class Analysis (New Delhi, 1990)Google Scholar.

15 “Treatment of Indians in the Union of South Africa” (F.2(19)-UNO (i) 47, (NAI), 1947), p. 6.

16 “Treatment of Indians in the Union of South Africa”.

17 Bois, Duncan Du, “The ‘coolie Curse’: The Evolution of White Colonial Attitudes towards the Indian Question, 1860–1900”, Historia 57 (2012), p. 33Google Scholar.

18 Ibid.

19 Tinker, Hugh, A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920 (London, 1974)Google Scholar.

20 The 1891 Immigration Act banned all land grants to all former indentured labourers.

21 See, for instance, the first Broome Commission of 1940, and successive commissions in later years, which sought to investigate the perceived ‘invasion’ of Indians into the towns. See also the ‘Pegging Act’ of 1943, which sought to restrict ownership of fixed property to segregated areas.

22 Welsh, D. J., The Roots of Segregation: Native Policy in Colonial Natal, 1845–1910 (Oxford, 1971), p. 12Google Scholar.

23 Du Bois, “The ‘coolie Curse’”.

24 Robert James Mann, “The Colony of Natal: An Account of the Characteristics and Capabilities of the British Dependency” (London: Jarrold and Sons, NCP 8/5/4/1859, (PMB), 1859), p. 44. See Chapters 3 and 10 for a fuller illustration of colonial attitudes towards native South Africans.

25 “Natal Gazette” (NCP 6/1/1/16, LC no.3 (PMB) June 6, 1965).

26 “Report of the Indian Immigration Commission” (NCP 8/3/82 (PMB), 1909).

27 Peberdy, S., Selecting Immigrants: National Identity and South Africa's Immigration Policies, 1910–2008 (Johannesburg, 2009). Chapter 3Google Scholar.

28 See, for instance: Metcalf, Thomas R., Forging the Raj: Essays on British India in the Heyday of Empire (Oxford, 2005)Google Scholar.

29 The Agent, known successively as the Agent-General, and High Commissioner, was a diplomatic representative appointed to represent Indian interests. Sastri served as the Agent to South Africa from June 1927 till January 1929.

30 V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, “‘Dominion Status for India’, Speech Delivered at the Plenary Session of the Second Round Table Conference, London, November 30” (Private Papers, Sastri, V.S Srinivasa, Vol II, Speeches and Writings by Him No. 14, (NMML), 1931).

31 V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, “‘Dominion Status VS. Independence’, in the Indian Review, July”, (Private Papers, Sastri, V. S. Srinivasa, Vol II, Speeches and Writings by Him No. 23, (NMML), 1940).

32 Veracini, Lorenzo, Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Basingstokeand New York, 2010), p. 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 “Debates in the House of Assembly, Cape of Good Hope” (CCP 2/3/1/14 (CT), 1893); “Debates in the House of Assembly, Cape of Good Hope” (CCP 1/3/2/11 (CT), 1894).

34 “Report of the Select Committee on Asiatic Grievances, Cape of Good Hope” (CCP 1/2/2/1/77, A16-1908 (CT), 1908).

35 Switzer, L., South Africa's Alternative Press: Voices of Protest and Resistance, 1880–1960, Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication (Cambridge, 1997), p. 102Google Scholar.

36 Hofmeyr, Isabel, Gandhi's Printing Press, Experiments in Slow Reading (Boston, 2013), p. 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Switzer, South Africa's Alternative Press, p. 113.

38 We must allow for the distinct possibility that one copy of Indian Opinion could have passed through many hands.

39 Dufoix, Stéphane, Diasporas (Los Angeles, 2008), pp. 45–46Google Scholar.

40 Pachai, The International Aspects of the South African Indian Question, 1860–1971, p. 78.

41 “Treatment of Indians in the Union of South Africa”.

42 “United Nations: Instructions for Indian Delegation to London and San Francisco Conferences on World Organisation and Report of the Indian Delegates” (IOR L/E/9/1378 (BL), 1946).

43 “South African Citizenship Act 1949” (F.24-1/49/CT, Cape Town Papers, MEA, 1949).

44 Ibid. 11 October 1949.

45 The Star 30/07/1947 ‘Nationality Choice for Indians’, “Nationality and Citizenship Clauses of Indian Republican Constitution” (F. 29/1/49/CT, Cape Town Papers, MEA, (NAI), 1949).

46 Tribune 18/9/1949 ‘Indians Told to Accept South African Nationality’.

47 Ibid.