July 26 marks a sombre and pivotal date in the history of the Indian diaspora in South Africa. On this day in 1968, the apartheid government of South Africa enacted a law that rendered a vast community politically invisible, stripping them of their citizenship and plunging them into a state of profound uncertainty.
The Apartheid Government's Divisive Legislation
The instrument of this disenfranchisement was the South African Citizenship Act of 1968. This law was a cornerstone of the apartheid regime's policy of racial segregation and control. Its primary target was the Indian community, which had been living in South Africa for generations. With a single legislative stroke, the Act deprived over 152,000 Indians of their South African citizenship.
These individuals were not new immigrants; they were descendants of indentured labourers and traders who had arrived from British India starting in 1860. Despite having built their lives, homes, and businesses in South Africa for over a century, they were now declared foreigners in their own land. The law was a brutal assertion of the apartheid ideology that sought to deny non-white populations any claim to national belonging or political rights.
A Legacy of Struggle and the Gandhi Connection
The 1968 Act was not the first instance of legal discrimination faced by Indians in South Africa. Their history in the region is deeply intertwined with a long fight for civil rights, a struggle famously shaped by a young lawyer named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1893 and spent 21 years there. His experiences with racial prejudice were transformative. The infamous incident where he was thrown off a train in Pietermaritzburg for refusing to leave a first-class compartment reserved for whites was a catalyst. He began organising the Indian community, founding the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 to fight against discriminatory laws.
One of the earliest major battles was against the Asiatic Registration Act of 1906, commonly known as the Black Act. This law required all Indians to register with the authorities and carry a pass, a humiliating system of control. Gandhi pioneered the method of Satyagraha, or non-violent resistance, in response. He led a mass protest where thousands of Indians publicly burned their registration certificates, defying the law and accepting imprisonment. This early movement set a powerful precedent for the civil disobedience that would later define India's independence struggle.
The Long Road to a Fragile Resolution
The statelessness imposed by the 1968 Citizenship Act created a complex diplomatic and humanitarian crisis. The Indian government, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was compelled to intervene. Protracted negotiations between India and South Africa ensued, focusing on the future of this displaced community.
A significant, though imperfect, resolution was reached in the early 1990s. As apartheid began to crumble, a landmark agreement was signed. This pact allowed the stateless Indians in South Africa a critical choice: they could either apply for restoration of their South African citizenship or opt for Indian citizenship. For many, this was a moment of bittersweet resolution, offering a path to legal identity after decades of limbo.
The culmination of this journey came with the dawn of democracy. Following the first multi-racial elections in 1994 and the election of Nelson Mandela, the new democratic constitution formally extended equal citizenship to all South Africans, regardless of race. This finally nullified the racist foundations of the 1968 Act.
The story of Indians in South Africa is a testament to resilience in the face of systemic injustice. From the early Satyagraha movements led by Gandhi to the collective trauma of mass statelessness, the community endured and persisted. July 26, 1968, remains a stark reminder of how quickly rights can be stripped away, but the subsequent history also highlights the enduring power of diplomatic pressure and the ultimate triumph of inclusive democracy over divisive apartheid.
