My name is Jo-Anne Holroyd (formerly Jeevarathnam) and I’m South African. I’m also Indian. But I’m South African first and I’m in tears at all the South African Indians who seem to think they owe their undying allegience to India.
Let’s think about this logically.
In 1860, the batch of INDENTURED labourers from India arrived. Indians who were too poor or didn’t have enough in India to make it. In a word - THE SLUMDOG’s. They left the shacks of Mumbai and Calcutta and made the long journey on the Truro to land in South Africa and work on the sugar cane fields. Granted NOT all Indians that came to South Africa came as indentured labourers in the same way that not all Australians are descended from British criminals. Some like Mahatma Ghandi came on contract to South Africa. The biggest difference between Ghandi and the indentured Indians was the Ghandi could actually afford to go back to India and he did in 1915. The indentured workers could not.
In 1860, the batch of INDENTURED labourers from India arrived. Indians who were too poor or didn’t have enough in India to make it. In a word - THE SLUMDOG’s. They left the shacks of Mumbai and Calcutta and made the long journey on the Truro to land in South Africa and work on the sugar cane fields. Granted NOT all Indians that came to South Africa came as indentured labourers in the same way that not all Australians are descended from British criminals. Some like Mahatma Ghandi came on contract to South Africa. The biggest difference between Ghandi and the indentured Indians was the Ghandi could actually afford to go back to India and he did in 1915. The indentured workers could not.
So I really don’t understand this undying fascination and stalwart attempt to stay loyal to the MOTHERLAND.
THE MOTHERLAND KICKED YOU OUT
Here in South Africa though, thanks to one redeeming quality, the Indians were no longer at the bottom of the pile. Thanks to our straight hair, we were on top on the bottom of the pile. When I was younger I was told that the Indians were brought to South Africa because the original darker skinned occupants were too lazy to work in the sugar cane fields. Well ... as I grew up and went on to become a History major, I realised that they weren’t too lazy to work in the sugar cane fields. The sods were busy DYING in the mines.
So in fact the Indians who came from India actually got it pretty good. A good clean start and then once we became a democracy we even got a bit more with that whole BEE deal. So the next time you decide to parade at Kingsmeand Cricket stadium in your Sahara shirt at a match that does not even feature India, remember that you should have been a slumdog.
THE MOTHERLAND KICKED YOU OUT
Here in South Africa though, thanks to one redeeming quality, the Indians were no longer at the bottom of the pile. Thanks to our straight hair, we were on top on the bottom of the pile. When I was younger I was told that the Indians were brought to South Africa because the original darker skinned occupants were too lazy to work in the sugar cane fields. Well ... as I grew up and went on to become a History major, I realised that they weren’t too lazy to work in the sugar cane fields. The sods were busy DYING in the mines.
So in fact the Indians who came from India actually got it pretty good. A good clean start and then once we became a democracy we even got a bit more with that whole BEE deal. So the next time you decide to parade at Kingsmeand Cricket stadium in your Sahara shirt at a match that does not even feature India, remember that you should have been a slumdog.
Not the millionaire kind.
