Indians are equal partners in SA's destiny

Our future need not be one of fear, invisibility or fragmentation

- PREVIN VEDAN

NOVEMBER 16 marks the anniversary of the arrival of Indians in South Africa. On this date in 1860, the first ship, the SS Truro, arrived in Durban carrying indentured labourers from India. In 2025, the 165th anniversary is being commemorated, and across the country Indian South Africans stand at a decisive moment in our history.

We are a community rooted in struggle yet sustained by dignity, discipline and an unyielding belief in education and self-improvement. We are the descendants of indentured labourers who arrived with nothing but hope, traders who carved out livelihoods in the face of discrimination, and freedom fighters who stood firm for a democratic South Africa. Our story is one of overcoming the odds, but that resilience must never become an excuse for silence.

Today, we confront a new landscape shaped by economic inequality, crime, social fragmentation and a sense of political invisibility.

Yet beneath the frustration, I also see the fire of a people who have refused to surrender, who continue to build, and who ask only for dignity, opportunity and safety. As South African leader Ravi Pillay often says, it is time to "reclaim our space", to speak honestly about our challenges, and to chart a path worthy of our ancestors and our children.

Our community's journey began in hardship. From the 1860s, indentured Indians laboured on Natal's plantations under brutal conditions, while others arrived as traders navigating through discriminatory laws. Their greatest investment was education. Families pooled wages, built schools and insisted that their children study as if their future depended on it, because it did.