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Making a Community: Indians in Cape Town, Circa 1900-1980'S

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Making a Community: Indians in Cape Town, Circa 1900-1980'S MAKING A COMMUNITY: INDIANS IN CAPE TOWN, CIRCA 1900-1980s Zohra Dawood University of Cape Town A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of Cape Town, in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Cape Town, February 1993. The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town ABSTRACT The contention underlying this dissertation is that ethnic identity and notions of community in South Africa are the result of several intertwined processes, which include historic interventions by the state to create 'groups' and 'nations' as building blocks for apartheid structures. These processes also encompass initiatives by those oppressed to constitute 'oppositional' communi ties. Both sets of activities have occurred in specific historical and material circumstances. By focusing specifically on a 'group' descended largely from merchant forebears, this study of Cape Indians examines the significance over time of the class, caste and religious cleavages within a constructed 'community'. Moreover, this dissertation discusses the effects of political currents on Indians in the Western Cape whose relatively more privileged position in relation to Indians in Natal and the Transvaal has been instrumental in isolating them from most of the events in the other provinces. It is hoped that this dissertation will contribute not only to the history of the Western Cape but, in a broader sense, also to the history of Indians in South Africa. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to thank all my informants for sharing their time and experiences to make this dissertation possible. I wish to record a debt of gratitude to Bill Nasson for his patient supervision and cheerful disposition, .even in the face of unavoidable delays; to Ian Phimister for valuable advice and for supervising the final stages of this dissertation. I am furthermore indebted to Pramod Vassen for his loving encouragement and help in the interviewing and translation process. The Human Sciences Research Council provided financial assistance towards the completion of this dissertation. The conclusions reached in this document, however, are those of the author and are not to be regarded as a reflection of those of the Council. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated with deep love and gratitude to the memory of my parents, whose experience as first­ generation immigrants aroused my interest in this area of historical research. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction. 2. Chapter one: Immigration to the Cape p.4-30 - Historical Background to Indian Settlement in South Africa - Indian Settlement in the Cape - Legal Context of Immigration - Political Context of Immigration 3. Chapter Two: Indian Economic Life in the Western Cape p.31-82 - Legal Context of Indian Commercial Activity - Indian Hawkers in the Western Cape - The Indian Worker in the Western Cape - Intermediary Minorities - Shopkeeping: Work and Ideology 4. Chapter 3: The Effects of Housing Segregation and the Group Areas Act on Indian Settlement in the Urban Cape Peninsula circa 1900- 1980 p.83-128 - Pre-Group Areas Act - Indian Property Ownership - Post-Group Areas Act - Cape Indians and the Group Areas Act - Appendix A: The Group Areas Act, Post 1970 - Indians in District Six - The Effects of the Group Areas Act on Indian Commerce - Consequences of the Group Areas Act for t.he Marginalised Trader - Appendix B: The Oriental Plaza s. Chapter Four: Community Identity: The Case of Indians in the Western Cape p.l29-160 6. Concluding Perspectives.p.l61-16~ 7. Bibliography. p.l63-l7J.. 1 INTRODUCTION The temporal parameters of this study have been largely dictated by the limited and uneven range of primary and secondary sources available. This factor has also led to a study which is at once both thematic and chronological. Chapter One of this dissertation is an attempt to situate the Indian presence in South Africa in a succinct historical context. However, the body of the chapter specifically examines immigration to the Western Cape where, prior to 1902, few official restrictions existed to specifically inhibit free Indian immigration. Furthermore, no racial breakdown of immigrant statistics was made, nor were new arrivals to the Colony differentiated from residents returning from a sojourn in their country of birth. (Among Indians it was common practice to return to India for periods of up to three years to fulfil obligations there.) The absence of reliable statistical registers for the early years of settlement makes the task of approximating Indian arrival and settlement in the Colony very difficult. This problem has led to heavy reliance on newspaper reports as well as on a report on the findings of a committee appointed by the Cape authorities in 1908 to investigate the grievances of Asiatics in the Colony. In addition, careful use has been made of the limited secondary material, and in particular of the works of Bradlow, on early Indian settlement in the Cape. Although census data was a major source of information, they could not be relied upon exclusively as Indians had been enumerated as Asians up to 1950. This category included Chinese and some Malays as well; therefore, cautious use had to be made of this source of information. The reports of the Medical Officer of Health of Cape Town as well as those of the City Engineer have provided many a valuable insight into 2 the settlement patterns of early immigrants. A heavy reliance on oral testimony has also helped to provide missing information on the lives of the early immigrants. As most interviews were taped, the testimonies of informants have been quoted verbatim. Of the 60 or more interviews conducted over a period of two years, about two-thirds were with male informants. This was a result of the customary reluctance of women to grant interviews. Many women considered their histories to be irrelevant. A frequent reply to requests for interviews from women was, 'Ask my husband (or son); he knows more'. Patriarchal institutions and values still run very deep among most Indians. The second problem encountered in the interviewing process was also related to patriarchy. Older male informants, numbering about eight in total, refused to grant an interview to a woman; consequently, a male had to be employed to conduct the relevant interviews with these informants, who were early settlers in the country. Some interviews had to be conducted in the Gujarati language. In this instance, most of the testimony has been referred to indirectly as it is not possible to translate directly without the essence of the conversation being lost. The historiographical debate surrounding the use of oral testimony has been noted and this source of information has been verified by documentary sources wherever possible. Admittedly, a weakness of oral testimony is the selective manner in which memories operate, but this is the result of particular individuals' experiences. Written sources are also not free of bias. Research for Chapter Two, which deals with the economic life of Indians in the Western Cape, was partly hampered by the unavailability of a valuable source of information. For the duration of the research undertaken, the Standard Bank Archives in Johannesburg were closed to the public due to their being relocated. This factor accounts for weaknesses relating to credit networks and the liquidity of small businesses. Attempts to elicit information pertaining to the 3 financial aspects of businesses from oral informants proved difficult as most respondents were deliberately vague. Chapter Three, which examines housing in the Western Cape, relies heavily on primary data kept in the archives of the Cape Town city Council, but most of this information is relevant for the post-Group Areas Act period. Where available at all, information for the period prior to the Act is very uneven. This is due, in part, to the fact that housing came under focus in times of crisis only; for example I during and after the outbreak of the Plague in 1901, or during slum investigations in the 1930s', as well as in the aftermath of the proclamation of the Group Areas Act. Chapter Four explores notions of community and the ways in which Cape Indians responded to events as a 'community'. It also examines the nature of the leadership in this province, which proved to be a key factor in shaping the consciousness of Indians here. Finally, it was considered necessary to divert slightly in the conclusion to the dissertation. This was done by way of briefly analyzing the experiences of Indians in East Africa. The reason for this is that the reaction of Indians to the process of Africanisation in this region could be compared to the perceptions of Indians in South Africa to a post­ apartheid South Africa. 4 CHAPTER ONE IMMIGRATION TO THE CAPE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO INDIAN SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA Indian immigration to South Africa has its historical roots in a generalised crisis in the Natal sugar industry. In the mid-nineteenth century, that crisis precipitated the movement of thousands of people from the Asian to the African continent. According to North-Coombes, 1 problems facing the industry included capital scarcity and technological backwardness, but most crucial was the scarcity of a dependent labour force. The first wave of Indian immigrants in 1860 was composed of indentured labourers who were reputedly passive, reliable and cheap to employ. It is alleged that they willingly accepted exploitative wages as well as conditions and terms wholly favourable to the sugar farmers.
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