Caste distinction in Indian indenture: pride and prejudice

THE report of the Protector of Immigrants for the year 1886 reported that there were 185 marriages registered in the Colony of Natal, with only 13 between Indians who arrived during that year.

- SELVAN NAIDOO

The report highlighted an extraordinary case that was investigated during the year, in which an indentured Indian, “a Hindoo of Ahir caste, who became enamoured with a young girl who is a Mahommedan”.

The relatives of the girl would not consent to a marriage between them, although it seemed as though an illicit connection had long been established. The man pursued the girl for some time without any success. Eventually, he committed suicide by hanging himself, as he had threatened to do, when the girl’s relatives repeatedly declined to allow the marriage.

From the first indentured workers who arrived in South Africa on board the SS Truro on November 16, 1860, to the last manifest of the SS Umlazi in 1911, matters of caste distinction danced in a range of roles on the foreign stage of a new homeland.

Many examples of caste distinctions are made clear through the colonial archive and other sources, like the well-illustrated, A Documentary History of Indian South Africans, edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai, as well as exceptional field research conducted by the seminal studies of Hilda Kuper and Professor Fatima Meer.

In an insightful case of caste prejudice, first cited by Bhana and Pachai, submerged in the colonial archive repository at Pietermaritzburg, is an enthralling case of the community of Umzinto requesting the removal of two constables placed in their division because of their low caste status as pariyans.

In a petition dated May 3, 1909, addressed to the Protector of Indian Immigrants, the community writes: “We, the undersigned Indians, residing in the Alexandra Division, wish to bring the following grievance to notice. There are two Indians here of the Pariah caste named Anjuru and Munsamy, brothers, who are appointed as constables.