Sir Srinivasa Sastri: 'Empire's silver-tongued orator' in SA

VALANGAIMAN Sankaranarayana Srinivasa (VSS) Sastri arrived in South Africa in 1927 as India's first agent general.

- PROFESSOR ASHWIN DESAI PROFESSOR GOOLAM VAHED

A FAREWELL hosted by the Transvaal Indian Congress when Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri ended his term as Agent General, January, 1929. | Supplied

(Supplied)

His term in office was trespassed with heightened anti-Indian sentiment. He rose to these challenges with erudition and engagement, forsaking dogma for diplomacy.

Despite this, his South African sojourn has largely been written out of history, largely limited to his role in establishing Sastri College.

But as we researched for our book, Belonging: A History of Indian South Africans, reading Sastri's speeches, following his interactions with the white ruling class, and his strategic use of imperial connections, Sastri's stature grew.

Crucially, we contend that Sastri's ways of negotiating in a hostile terrain provides seminal lessons for contemporary challenges.

Sastri was a well-known figure in the British Empire's global circuits long before his arrival in South Africa in 1927.

This brought him into conflict with South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts. Both men, originating from the margins of Empire, were formidable in their own right.

Much to Smuts's chagrin, Sastri out-manoeuvred him at the 1921 Imperial Conference when he got the prime ministers of the Dominions (self-governing colonies) to "declare that in the interests of the British Commonwealth it was desirable that the rights of Indians should be recognised. The same resolution recorded South Africa's dissent".

Sastri did not have Smuts's deep association with the Empire, nor his command of the arsenal of state power, but he had India, the jewel in the British Crown.

India gave the Empire an aura of grandeur and omnipotence, but was also its Achilles heel.

For by claiming equality as the Empire's fellow subjects, Indian delegates could demand equal rights for Indians across the global expanse. Sastri exploited this skilfully.