... The diverse political affiliations of Indians could have been the subject of interviews with ... more ... The diverse political affiliations of Indians could have been the subject of interviews with Jay Naidoo (Cosatu), Pravin Gordhan (NIC), Mac Maharaj (ANC), B op ... in oppositional politics like Dr Goonam, and JN Singh and those in the House of Delegates, such as M.' Pillay of the ...
... While it was dominated by Gujerati traders it included representatives of petty bourgeois org... more ... While it was dominated by Gujerati traders it included representatives of petty bourgeois organizations like the Transvaal Colonial Born Indian Association and the Tamil Benefit At the time of the ... Unisa Sanlam Library, Pretoria, Carter-Karis Collection Reel 8B. ...
Page 1. South A ficm Historical J 0 ~ mal 2 8 (1993), 177-202 Tinkering and Tampering: A Decade o... more Page 1. South A ficm Historical J 0 ~ mal 2 8 (1993), 177-202 Tinkering and Tampering: A Decade of the Group Areas Act (195@1%0)' UMA SHASHIKANT MESTHRIE University of the Western Cape Central to the apartheid ...
Page 1. South African Historical Journal, 57 (2007), 12-34 The Place of India in South African Hi... more Page 1. South African Historical Journal, 57 (2007), 12-34 The Place of India in South African History: Academic Scholarship, Past, Present and Future* UMA DHUPELIA-MESTHRIE University of the Western Cape In 1971, Robert ...
The article argues that the term passenger Indian has contributed to a divisive understanding of ... more The article argues that the term passenger Indian has contributed to a divisive understanding of migration from the Indian subcontinent to South Africa. It has led to the stereotype of the wealthy Gujarati trader and it excludes much. By focusing on Indian migrants in Cape Town, the argument is made that the term must be redefined to include workers who came from not only Gujarat but also from Maharashtra and the Punjab and that those marginalised by simplified definitions need to be given a place in the historiography. Biographical sketches of workers are provided freeing one from the narrow chronological choices historians have made and include family where possible. Details are provided of what kind of employment Indian immigrants found in Cape Town and the severe effects of the permit system and immigration laws on the free mobility of Indians. The article points to the migrant (and circular) nature of Indian labour in Cape Town with consequences for wives and children in the villages of India and argues that parallels may be made with African migrant labour.
... of Cape Town, 1947); P. Kodanda Rao, The Right Honourable VS Snnima Sastri: A Political Biogr... more ... of Cape Town, 1947); P. Kodanda Rao, The Right Honourable VS Snnima Sastri: A Political Biography, New Delhi, 1963; TN Jagadisan, VS Sn'niwa Sastn', New Iklhi, 1969;Ahmad Shafa'at Khan, The Indianr in South Africa, Allahbad. ...
This article focuses on cultural encounters by Indian South Africans from Durban and Cape Town, u... more This article focuses on cultural encounters by Indian South Africans from Durban and Cape Town, uniquely positioning travel accounts from autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs together with oral histories. A study of individual movements from South Africa to India provides new dimensions to a historiography which has prioritised immigration from India to South Africa and to travel literatures focused on movement from the metropole to the periphery. The narratives are read for what they reveal about identity and the impact of travel. The article argues that there are perceptible differences in masculine and feminine tellings with the latter paying more attention to the domestic and the personal. There is also a difference in the accounts of those who moved by choice and those who were forced into exile. The encounters with India vary from strong identification to isolation and discomfort. Travel sharpened an awareness of being from Africa in India, thereby providing a new definition of self. The narratives are suggestive of how Indians in India respond to the diaspora. Oral histories about dance and music point to how relocation in an Indian group area led to greater cultural activity. These draw Cape Town more closely into twentieth-century Indian Ocean cultural circuits.
Noting the Natal and Witwatersrand-centredness of the historiography of Indian South Africans, an... more Noting the Natal and Witwatersrand-centredness of the historiography of Indian South Africans, and this historiography's neglect of caste amongst Gujarati Hindus where caste mattered, this study focuses on the Gujarati shoemaker caste in Cape Town. Through narratives of those engaged in making, repairing or selling shoes, the article seeks to understand caste as occupation and explores how caste organisation facilitated economic and social mobility beyond the world of shoemaking. By drawing attention to female shoemakers, for whom the South African setting was challenging yet empowering, the article disturbs an androcentric reading of the term shoemaker and points to the family as a crucial economic unit.
... The diverse political affiliations of Indians could have been the subject of interviews with ... more ... The diverse political affiliations of Indians could have been the subject of interviews with Jay Naidoo (Cosatu), Pravin Gordhan (NIC), Mac Maharaj (ANC), B op ... in oppositional politics like Dr Goonam, and JN Singh and those in the House of Delegates, such as M.' Pillay of the ...
... While it was dominated by Gujerati traders it included representatives of petty bourgeois org... more ... While it was dominated by Gujerati traders it included representatives of petty bourgeois organizations like the Transvaal Colonial Born Indian Association and the Tamil Benefit At the time of the ... Unisa Sanlam Library, Pretoria, Carter-Karis Collection Reel 8B. ...
Page 1. South A ficm Historical J 0 ~ mal 2 8 (1993), 177-202 Tinkering and Tampering: A Decade o... more Page 1. South A ficm Historical J 0 ~ mal 2 8 (1993), 177-202 Tinkering and Tampering: A Decade of the Group Areas Act (195@1%0)' UMA SHASHIKANT MESTHRIE University of the Western Cape Central to the apartheid ...
Page 1. South African Historical Journal, 57 (2007), 12-34 The Place of India in South African Hi... more Page 1. South African Historical Journal, 57 (2007), 12-34 The Place of India in South African History: Academic Scholarship, Past, Present and Future* UMA DHUPELIA-MESTHRIE University of the Western Cape In 1971, Robert ...
The article argues that the term passenger Indian has contributed to a divisive understanding of ... more The article argues that the term passenger Indian has contributed to a divisive understanding of migration from the Indian subcontinent to South Africa. It has led to the stereotype of the wealthy Gujarati trader and it excludes much. By focusing on Indian migrants in Cape Town, the argument is made that the term must be redefined to include workers who came from not only Gujarat but also from Maharashtra and the Punjab and that those marginalised by simplified definitions need to be given a place in the historiography. Biographical sketches of workers are provided freeing one from the narrow chronological choices historians have made and include family where possible. Details are provided of what kind of employment Indian immigrants found in Cape Town and the severe effects of the permit system and immigration laws on the free mobility of Indians. The article points to the migrant (and circular) nature of Indian labour in Cape Town with consequences for wives and children in the villages of India and argues that parallels may be made with African migrant labour.
... of Cape Town, 1947); P. Kodanda Rao, The Right Honourable VS Snnima Sastri: A Political Biogr... more ... of Cape Town, 1947); P. Kodanda Rao, The Right Honourable VS Snnima Sastri: A Political Biography, New Delhi, 1963; TN Jagadisan, VS Sn'niwa Sastn', New Iklhi, 1969;Ahmad Shafa'at Khan, The Indianr in South Africa, Allahbad. ...
This article focuses on cultural encounters by Indian South Africans from Durban and Cape Town, u... more This article focuses on cultural encounters by Indian South Africans from Durban and Cape Town, uniquely positioning travel accounts from autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs together with oral histories. A study of individual movements from South Africa to India provides new dimensions to a historiography which has prioritised immigration from India to South Africa and to travel literatures focused on movement from the metropole to the periphery. The narratives are read for what they reveal about identity and the impact of travel. The article argues that there are perceptible differences in masculine and feminine tellings with the latter paying more attention to the domestic and the personal. There is also a difference in the accounts of those who moved by choice and those who were forced into exile. The encounters with India vary from strong identification to isolation and discomfort. Travel sharpened an awareness of being from Africa in India, thereby providing a new definition of self. The narratives are suggestive of how Indians in India respond to the diaspora. Oral histories about dance and music point to how relocation in an Indian group area led to greater cultural activity. These draw Cape Town more closely into twentieth-century Indian Ocean cultural circuits.
Noting the Natal and Witwatersrand-centredness of the historiography of Indian South Africans, an... more Noting the Natal and Witwatersrand-centredness of the historiography of Indian South Africans, and this historiography's neglect of caste amongst Gujarati Hindus where caste mattered, this study focuses on the Gujarati shoemaker caste in Cape Town. Through narratives of those engaged in making, repairing or selling shoes, the article seeks to understand caste as occupation and explores how caste organisation facilitated economic and social mobility beyond the world of shoemaking. By drawing attention to female shoemakers, for whom the South African setting was challenging yet empowering, the article disturbs an androcentric reading of the term shoemaker and points to the family as a crucial economic unit.
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