Gandhi's Legacy In South Africa |
By
J. N. Uppal
Gandhi’s work in South
Africa has all along been viewed in the context of his efforts to stem the
tide of radical discrimination suffered by the immigrants from India. He
had, no doubt, concentrated all his energies on the limited task of
protecting the interests of his own countrymen. However, the high visibility of the
Passive Resistance Campaign organized by him and his associates could not
but attract the attention of the Black intelligentsia. Conceivably, this was
one of the factors that ultimately brought about the birth of the South
African Native National Congress (Later renamed the African National
Congress) in January 1912 to unite all the Blacks across tribal divisions to
defend the rights of the native population.
Initially
the activities of the ANC were confined to petitions and deputations,
comparable to what the Indian community had been doing up to 1905 under
Gandhi’s guidance. But between 1906 and 1913, the Indians resorted to active
defiance of the oppressive white regime by way of passive resistance that
soon got elevated to its more sanctified form, Satyagraha. The climax was
reached in October 1913 when the coalfield laborers in the neighborhood of
New Castle put their tools down and went on a strike. The most dramatic part
of this action was the strikers' trek from New Castle to Charlestown to
court imprisonment by making unauthorized entry into the Transvaal for
an onward match to Johannesburg to reach Tolstoy Farm, if they were
allowed to do so. This campaign ultimately led to the negotiated settlement
arrived at between Gandhi and General Smuts in 1914 and the passage of the
Indian Relief Act which was euphemistically described as the Magna Carta of
the Indian settlers in South Africa.
The first
mass action undertaken by the ANC was the noteworthy resistance put up
against Pass Laws, somewhat similar to the movement launched by Gandhi in
1907 against the Asiatic Registration Act in the Transvaal. Thousands of men
and women threw away their passes and courted arrest. Many were sentenced to
imprisonment with hard labour. Those who were fined refused to pay and choose to
go to jail. Many were roughed up and injured by mounted policemen and also
attacked by white vigilantes.
As for the
Indian community, subsequent to Gandhi’s departure form South Africa, the
spirit of the 1914 accord remained unworn during the war year. But after the
return to peace, there was another wave of anti-Indian agitation in the
Transvaal. The Pretoria administration promptly went in for a new law in
1919 that severely limited the rights of Indians in that province to acquire
landed property and set up new enterprises. It was this new onslaught that
led to the founding of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), which
brought together the leaders of the provincial bodies and raised a loud
protest against the legislation in question. The whites, on the other hand,
considered this law too mild and wanted the Government to combat the ‘Indian menace’
more effectively. The Asiatic Inquiry Commission (1920), appointed by the
Government in view of the growing tension on both sides, recommended a plan
of repatriation (apparently voluntary) and reaffirmed the principle of
segregation. Thanks to Gandhi’s increasing influence in his own country, the
interventions on behalf of the Government of India were more prompt and
vigorous, but these were of no avail. General Smuts who, after Louis Botha’s
demise, succeeded him as Prime Minister, had turned his back upon the policy
he was guided by in 1914. He had now a lurking fear that equal rights for
Indians would lead to the demand for similar rights by the native population
and that would make it difficult to sustain white domination.
In June,
1924, the Nationalist Party led by General J.B.M Hertzog in alliance with
the Labour Party defeated the more moderate South African Party (SAP) headed
by Smuts and came to power. By the time this change took place, the
prevailing social environment had brought the ruling white’s prejudice
against Asians as well as Blacks to a very high pitch. The growing class of
whites before about the non-whites competing for the available jobs,
particularly so because many of the employers found it more economical to
employ the later. The Colour Bar Act (1926) practically reserved certain
sectors of the mining industry semi-skilled jobs to have a proficiency
certificate which the Asians and the Blacks would not be easily granted. The
white colonists exercising unbridled political power had come to look at the
Asian settlers as well as the African Blacks in unambiguously adversarial
light and kept them at bay. Even at this stage, the Asians and the Blacks
had not realized the need of getting together to resist the white tyranny.
The
economic strangulation and social alienation were proceeding side by side by
side. The Natal Indians were bitter against the regime because of a new
which took away their municipal franchise. Soon, thereafter, the Union
Government came up with the Areas Reservation, Immigration and Registration
Bill Besides introducing more impediments and Registration Bill. Besides
introducing more impediments in the way of immigration and enjoying fresh
registration of Asians all over South Africa, the proposed bill subjected
them to Government of India led to a Round Table Conference between
Representatives of the two governments. Its outcome was the Cape Town
Agreement of 1927. In return for the Government of India giving its support
to an arrangement for assisted voluntary repatriation or re-Government
agreed not to go ahead with the bill. The assumption was if the Indian
population could be reduced; there would not be much room left for any
further trouble. The Indian community also accepted this arrangement mainly
because the agreement included and assurance for taking all possible steps
to provide educational and other facilities to the Indians who were left
behind. Soon, however, this uplift clause proved to be nothing more than a
mirage.
Gandhi had
been closely following these developments. He even had a hand in the
appointment of V S Srinivasa Sastri as Government of India’s first
Agent-General under the Cape Town accord. When he arrived in South Africa in
June 1927, C.F Andrews, who had come to share Gandhi’ s concern with
whatever happened in this country, was already there. One important aim was
to inculcate among the Indians in the adopted country and to build up a
spirit of understanding between them and South Africa’s native population.
All in
all, it was a period of drift which continued up to the mid-thirties. The
younger Indians, who were imbued with more strident ideas were not satisfied
with the trade union movement had come in close contact with the Africans
and had been influenced by the non-racist elements among European
activities. The organized the liberal could discuss national issues of
common interest. Their ranks were strengthen in the late 1930s with three
newly trained medicos from Edinburgh University-Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, Dr. G. M.
Naicker and Dr. K. Goonam - who got drawn into active socio-political work
and soon because the backbone of a more radical movement. It was this
injection of new blood that enabled the SAIC to deal with the situation that
had arisen in the country after the formation of the United South African
National Party. General Hertzog handling the Union government now had Smuts
as his second in command. The latter had by then completely yielded to the
forces of reaction and had come to accept the policy of rigorous
segregation.
What was in store for
the Indians became clear in 1939 with the passage of a new law binding
Asians in the Transvaal to their existing premises for residence and
business. Gandhi who even at this time was in touch with the changing
situation in South Africa sent a cable to Smuts: ‘Why is the agreement of
1914 being violated with you as witness? Is there no help for Indians expect
to pass through fire?’ The SAIC had planned another resistance campaign but
decided to hold it off because of the gathering war cloutis.
The outbreak of World
War II again brought about a parting of ways between Herizog and smuts, with
the latter emerging as the helmsman. For the Dominion Party which formed
part of the new coalition government headed by Smuts and had its principal
base in Natal, there was no issue more important than that of preventing
Indian penetration into European areas. Even while the Indian troops were
playing a spectacular role on the battlefields in the Allies’ fight against
fascism, another form of the same evil was taking shape in South Restriction
Act of 1943 was passed, permanently decreeing the pegging this restriction
had been ordered in 1939 as an interim measure was called, not to be quite
amenable to Smuts’ idea of gradual change, had gone ahead with extension of
the Act to the whole of Natal. The Indian population of the province,
getting wary of moderate leadership. Was turning to the militant group of
the upcoming younger leaders who were itching for a fight.
The Indian
problem had nearly reached its boiling point when Smuts was faced with
break-up of his coalition, with both Dominion and Labour parities trying to
exploit the situation to their advantage. Wanting to assuage European as
well as Indian public opinion, he came up with the Asiatic Land Tenure and
Indian public opinion, he came up with the Asiatic Land tenure and Indian
Representation Act (1946). The Indians, on their part, could have welcomed a
truncated franchise at the cost of losing the rights of land purchase and
residence according to their need and convenience. They rejected this offer
of franchise as ‘a miserable half load’. They called it the Ghetto Act.
The SAIC, now led by
Dr. G.M. Naicker in Natal and Dr. Y. Dadoo in the Transvaal, instantly
launched a passive resistance campaign with its prime focus turned upon
Durban. The Satyagrahis, both men and women, pitched their tents in the
prohibited areas. Before the authorities could order any counter measures,
some white miscreants, taking law into their own hands, raided the camps,
pulled down the tents, molested the passive resisters and tried to terrorize
them into submission. The Satyagrahis put up with this hooliganism without
any retaliation. When the Borough police did intervene, they offered
themselves for arrest. At the trial proceedings they would in the Gandhian
style plead guilty refusing to pay fines, they would opt for going to jail.
After serving their sentences, they would get back and rejoin the crusade.
The number of persons who courted imprisonment went up to about 2,000.
At this time, India’s
liberation from British rules was not too far away. Yet Gandhi had so many
thorns in his side: on e of them was the turn of events in South Africa. He
called upon whites throughout the world to remember the path that Jesus
Christ had shown to the world. He even reminded them that if the great
Saviour were to descend on earth and go the South Africa, he would have to
live in a segregated area. The Government of India expressed its displeasure
by recalling the Agent-General besides breaking trade relations with the
Union. The Ghetto Act became an important landmark in South Africa’s
history; brought that country’s racist policy under UN scrutiny. The most
significant fall out of the Ghetto Act was that the passive resistance
launched by the Indians against the Act brought them closer to the South
African Blacks. The ANC, which had so far been committed to constitutional
methods, was now in a state of ferment under the influence of its Youth
League. When the then leaders of the Congress saw the Indian Satyagraha at
work, they realized in what direction it was necessary for them to move.
Thus, around the time when the Indian community led by the SAIC had been
seized by the second wind of Satyagraha, the ANC also had undergone
radicalization. Both the Congresses were now ripe to work in collaboration
with each other. In 1947, Dr. A.B. Xuma, president of the ANC, arrived at an
understanding with Dr. Naicker and Dr. Dadoo that they would together fight
for full civil and economic rights. Their joint declaration of 9th March
1947, known as the Doctors’ Pact, for the first time brought the Blacks and
the Indians in South Africa on a common platform.
The Indian campaign,
even while it attracted a great deal of attention, had failed to yield any
concrete gain. The SAIC leadership, following the Gandhian tradition, chose
not to embarrass Smuts too much at a time when he had to concentrate on his
electoral contest scheduled for 1948 and, therefore, suspended the
Satyagraha programme. It was a good move even in terms of practical
politics, because the non-whites had much to lose if the Smuts’ Party was
thrown out. In any event, the hard nosed Nationalists led by Dr. D.F. Malan
went to polls carrying an unambiguous label of their blatant segregationist
policy viz., Apartheid. They did not hesitate to denounce Smuts as a
‘British today.’ Thanks to their mobilization skills, they were able to gain
an edge over their opponents. With their victory, through by a narrow
margin, began the darkest period of South Africa’s colonial history. Soon
after assuming power, the Nationalists, determined to refashion launched a
legislative blitz aimed at removing all loopholes left by the ANC’s ranks
had been reinforced as a result of three members of the Youth League- Walter
Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela challenge that the non-whites were
faced with, the ANC the SAIC and the CPSA (Communist Party of South Africa)
together decided to observe 26th June 1950 as National Day of Protest. The
callousness with which demonstrations against the Apartheid laws were met
with was to be the normal pattern of repression in the coming years.
Before long the
repressive measures went beyond all limits of tolerance. In June 1952, the
ANC assisted by the SAIC, organized a countrywide Defiance Campaign in the
form of civil disobedience in which Nelson Mandela played a leading role.
There were no elements of violence in this programme. The entire campaign
“was of an almost religious character. The influence of Gandhi’s ideas of
self-sacrifice as a way to political success was very evident….” (Rober
Ross, S Concise History of South Africa, OUP, 1999). Nearly 8000persons went
to jail. One side effect of this campaign was the formation of the Congress
of Democrats (CoD), a radical white group imbued with a new vision of human
rights, irrespective of race, colour or creed. In December 1952, Albert John
Luthuli became ANC’s President General. He sincerely believed and never
tired of emphasizing that the task before the Congress was not that of
throwing out the whites but that of building a multiracial society. Deeply
steeped in the Christian liberal tradition, he was in every sense a true
Gandhian. The Apartheid regime, rather than deal with him in a spirit of
accommodation, banned him for one year from all political activities. Later
in July 1954, he was banned for two more years. Despite these restrictions,
Luthuli continued to guide the younger line of ANS leaders, most of whom
shared his firm belief in non-violence and the need of a multiracial front
against Apartheid. The high water-mark of his vision was reached in 1955
when a Congress of people (CoP) was jointly convened by the ANC, the SAIC,
the CoD and the SACP (South African Colonial People’s Organization00 at
Kliptown, a village near Johannesburg. Attended by about three thousand
elected representatives of different races, including a few Whites, the
Congress adopted the historic Freedom Charter declaring inter-alia that
South Africa belonged to all those who lived in the country.
The events of 1955 had
opened a new chapter in the history of South Africa. The ANC was now
pulsating with a new life. This became evident from what happened at the
mammoth demonstration organized by the ANC Women’s League and the Federation
of South African women in August 1956 to resist the extension of pass laws
to non-white women, vulnerable not only to greater harassment by the police
but sexual assaults as well. The Nationalist Government was now apprehensive
of a rising tide of revolutionary activity. Within a few months its security
system embarked on elaborate punitive action against high-ranking leaders of
the various organizations that had come together. It began with the arrest
of Albert Luthuli and 155 others in December 1956. After prolonged scrutiny,
91 of them were prosecuted for high treason and violation of the suppression
of Communism Act. Cases against 61 of them had to be dropped and 30 others
remained under trial until March 1961 when the court acquitted all of them.
The proceeding meant a great deal of harassment for the ANC leaders and
workers and the long drawn out case attracted extraordinary attention the
world over.
In the meantime, Dr.
Hendrich Verwoerd, who came to power in 1958, was determined to surmount all
impediments to keeping different ethnic groups as separate entities. One of
the measures taken by the government was to lay out a framework for
establishment of separate educational institutions for Africans, Asians and
other colored people. Another legislation passed in 1959 aimed at creating
separate ‘homelands’ for the blacks based on the reserves carved out for
them. The sole aim was to confine every sub-community to its own limited
territory, each one to serving as a reservoir of migratory labour to be
drawn upon by the white areas according to their needs.
With the ANC committed
to its policy of non-violent and multi-racial democratic ideals but having
failed to make any headway in its struggle against Apartheid, the staunch
believers in African nationalism and more militant groups splintered off in
April 1959 to form the Pan African Congress (PAC) led by Robert Subutwe.
Although to start with the new body had no plan for armed rebellion, there
was considerable scope for outbreak of violence in the given situation. From
time to time, trouble would flare up for one reason or the other. There were
riots in the Transvaal Natal as well as in the Cape. Black women irked by
fresh attempts to chain them into the pass system Government had only one
answer to these happenings more and more not uncommon. Everyone got a jolt
when Albert Luthuli, known for his commitment to a policy of conciliation,
received orders confining him to his home in northern Natal for five years.
The very same factors,
which had caused the hardening of white obduracy, had lent new vigor to the
non-whites’ resistance. The ANC was wanting to start a major campaign to
build up pressure for abolition of the much-hated pass system. The PAC, in
its anxiety to steal a march over the tired old veterans, made a pre-emptive
bid to organize countrywide demonstrations against the pass laws. In most
cases, the protest marches to the police stations for courting arrest went
on smoothly, but in some places things got out of land. At Shaipeville, a
Bantu location thirty miles south of Johannesburg, the police contingent,
instead of dealing with the situation coolly, opened fire on the
demonstrations killing 69 and causing injuries to about 180 others including
women and children. This tragic occurrence that took place on 21st March
1960 the very year that was proclaimed Africa Year by the United Nations
outraged the conscience of all right mined people in every part of the
globe. Albert Luthuli calmly gave a call for amends for what had happened
banned the ANC as well as the PAC, declared a state of emergency and put
nearly 2,000 leaders under arrest. The outburst of world-wide condemnation
had no effect on Dr. Verwoerd who remained adamant in his policy of separate
development of different racial groups. Apartheid was for him more than a
political strategum: it almost had the sanctity of religion.
The South African
Government was left against when Albert Luthuli was awarded the 1961 Noble
Peace Prize. The civilized world could not have snubbed it more forcefully
than by bestowing this honour on the untiring upholder of the case of
non-racial democracy. Ironically by this time the ANC and the PAC leaders
had sunk into such deep despair that they could no more hope to keep the
liberation movement alive by sticking to non-violence with Gandhian passion.
The transformation of the Union of South Africa in May 1961 into a republic
outside the Commonwealth had left them absolutely frustrated because it was
precisely on the Apartheid issue that Dr. Verwoerd had broken up with the
leading Commonwealth statesmen. If the white rulers of South Africa were
ready to pay this price to go along the path of Apartheid, could the
non-whites ever expect their non-violent struggle to meet any kind of
success? This black outlook compelled the ANC as well as the PAC to think of
adopting some other means. It was in this background that two new covert
organizations came into existence in 1961-62. Umkhonto sizwe (Spear of the
Nation0, led by Nelson Mendela, largely comprising members of the old
Congress Alliance, resorted to the destruction of selected installations
with studied care to cause no harm to the people. Similarly Poqo, an
offshoot of the PAC, engaged itself in acts of sabotage.
What happened
subsequent to this turning point and up till the final denouement is a long,
complicated story, no part of which could scale down the significance of the
remarkable perseverance with which the likes of Dr. A. B. Yuma, Walter
Sisulu, OliverTombo, Nelson Mandela, Dr. G. M. Naicker, Dr. Y. Dadoo and
above all Albert Luthuli had followed the path of non-violent struggle on
Gandhian lines against the tyrannical perpetrators of an abomnibnable form
of racial fascism for nearly half a century. With the Government determined
to crush with naked force their non-violent struggle, the non-whites were
left with no option but reconsider their future strategy. In case of Albert
Luthuli, the universally acknowledged apostle of Gandhian vision, even
half-hearted acquiescence to the use of violent means as a last resort could
not have come about without wrenching his conscience. Source: Anasakti Darshan, Volume-2 No.1 January-June, 2006 |