INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA - An Article by a South African Indian Vasu.

Its really amazing to see how our Indian community has spread all over the world. In the process of bringing all of them together here is a different try by our Lollu Express. Here is one article about "INDIANS in SOUTH AFRICA" by VASU who is a SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN and who came forward to write an article for Lollu Express!

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS and IF YOU ARE INTERESTED TO KNOW ABOUT INDIANS IN SA PLEASE MAIL MR. VASU at

vasud@adsme.co.za

! Your Questions and VASU's Comments will be posted in LE so that its Available to all of us!

ARTICLE FROM VASU:

I don't know what how much you or your readers know about South Africa and about the Indians living here, but here goes. There are more than 1 million Indians in South Africa, the majority are South Indians, Tamils & Telegu. We don't get much film magazines or tamil film gossip. We do however have 2 Radio stations and a dedicated TV slot on Sundays for about 2 hours with, an Indian magazine program. On cable, an Tamil & Hindi movie alternates each week. Hindi movies & songs somehow get more air time and enjoy more popularity, because the Tamil people don't get involved or participate in these programs. However because a small number of Tamil people raise objections with the number of Hindi songs being played. they are forced to maintain the equal ratio. Imagine if the South Indians really get involved and requests for popular songs and films. But thats how I feel about the Tamils here, their infastructure in term of maintaining our culture and religious customs is good, but the propagating of the Tamil language is not so good.

We grew up with songs from the sixties, like Deiva Magan, Palam Pazhamum, etc. we saw every film of Sivaji. MGR, Muthuraman, Gemini, and onto the late 70s; Rajini, Kamalesan. With the advent of the video, we bought almost every video copy of the films of these great actors. I still listen to these songs, and every song evokes a memory of my childhood, an incident, an event, some happy and some sad. I love Tamil with a passion. I am a 3rd generation South African Indian, my grandfather and father were born in South Africa, and my father says that we originally came from Thanjavur, is there anybody out there that shares my surname?. I can undersatnd Tamil, read a bit, talk very little, but I'm making efforts to speak much more, because we don't speak Tamil, in our day to day life, we lost out on speaking it fluently. I would love to communicate with Tamils from around the world so if you wanna be my friend, I'll be your most loyal friend in the Southern Hemisphere. If you would like to know more about me, the Indians in South Africa, and South Africa in general, please e-mail me at vasud@adsme.co.za

I read Prabhu's movie everyday and I really enjoy it, in fact I really feel down when I don't receive any mail from him, I really enjoy the wit and humour, and strangely enough some of the descriptions he attaches to some of the actors/actresses are so apt, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you wrote the review. Prabhu, could you please do some reviews of the films from the 60's, 70's and 80's.BEST WISHES and PLEASE DO MAIL MEVASU DEVAR

Prabhu,

when it comes to writing I am no where but I'll give it my best shot ok!.Indians arrived in the Union of South Africa (USA back then), in the year 1860, the first batch on board the Truro and Belvedere, to work on the sugar-cane plantations in Natal, now known as Kwa-Zulu Natal (thats the province I live in). They docked in Durban harbour, and the city of Durban now has the largest concentration of Indians in SA. Durban is famous as a holiday resort, and is the busiest sea-port in Africa.

Indians make up the largest population of Durban. The father of Indian Independence MK Gandhi, started his passive resistance idealogy and political life here in Durban. He established his base in the township of Phoenix (thats where I live). Durban, in a poll recently voted Gandhi here most prominent citizen of the century.

The lives of the early Indians settlers was strewn with hardship and struggle. They were badly paid, and exploited by their employers. They were denied the vote, denied ownership of land, and denied education. The government started the separate development scheme, (the beginings of apartheid), where Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Indians lived in separate areas, and were not allowed to live, work or visit each others areas. They Indians quickly started their own schools and excelled, and now they have the highest literary rate and hold very high positions in commercial and government institutions.

Thats all for now, I shall continue tomorrow, please e-mail me with your comments and if there are any specific questionsBEST WISHESVASU

I think it would be wiser if you and your readers ask specific questions regarding SA, and I'll be able to elaborate on them in detail. With regards to your questions, The Indian culture is alive and thriving in South Africa. You must remember that we were isolated from the outside world for the majority of our existance in SA. We had no links whatsoever with India, and we were not exposed to any sort of religious, cultural, diplomatic and sporting links. Given that we were still able to maintain our culture and identity, I think we have done quite well. Its all very well for people to critisize SA Indians for leading a western lifestyle, and forgetting our cultural and religious heritage.

Durban has many many temples, the largest Hare Krishna temple in the Southern Hemisphere, the largest mosque in the Southern hemisphere, and Phoenix which is a township in Durban has the largest affiliation of SAI BABA devotees in the world. There is the South African Tamil Federation, which has many affialiated Tamil organizations throughout the country, they promote the Tamil language, music and culture, organise Tamil religious and cultural festivals, Tamil music eistedfords etc. The other linguistic groups have similar structures, eg. the Andhra Maha Sabha, the Hindi Maha Sabha etc.

So I can't see how we have seem to lost the way. I would however admit that our lifestyle is a bit western in that the language that we speak most often is English, our dress code is western, but the majority of the Hindu women still wear saris, and the Muslim women also wear their traditional dress. However the majority of Indian people I know are still Indian at heart, they still love their curry and rice and enjoy Indian music anddance. AIDS is incredibly high in Africa, but among Indians it is very rare, I myself have still to meet an Indian with aids. South Africa is not a third world country you know, so the awareness of aids is very much a priority by the Department of Health. We have hospitals and medicare to compete with the best in the world, did'nt you know that the first successful heart transplant was done in SA.

Indians have done tremendously well in SA in a relatively short period of time, there are many many Indian owned stores and big businesses in South Africa, and many more in high government positions. With regards to sport, the most popular amongst Indians is soccer and cricket. Indian arm-chair supporters are obsessed with English soccer notably Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. I myself am a Manchester United fanatic for the past 20 years. Soccer is the most popular sport in South Africa, followed by Rugby and Cricket. Recently there was a tragedy in the Indian township of Chatsworth were 13 Indian children were killed in a niteclub, during a matinee to mark the beginning of the school holidays, many as young as 10/11 years old. This shocked the SA public and in paticular the Indian community.Please can people mail me I have'nt had a single person mail me, doesn't anybody out there wanna be my friend.

Regards,
VASU,
DURABAN,
SOUTH AFRICA.