The small Indian community of Grahamstown derived its ancestral heritage from families who settled there at the turn of the 20th century and earlier.
The small Indian community of Grahamstown derived its ancestral heritage from families who settled there at the turn of the 20th century and earlier.
Most of the population at the time however, did not descend from indentured laboureres who were brought to Natal in 1860.
In the early 1900s Grahamstown was a typical British colonial frontier town, and its local Indian population of about 50 families migrated into the city from regions of the Old Transvaal during the Anglo-Boer war, as well as coastal cities such as East London and Port Elizabeth.
A number of Indian families from the states of Gujerat and Surat in India also found their way to Grahamstown, and set themselves up as launderers and cobblers who provided a reliable service to the local institutions that are still prevalent today.
Several Tamilian families settled in Grahamstown as a result of devastating cyclonic storms in Mauritius, and found their way there from Maritius via Port Elizabeth.
One such family was that of the late Velloo Reddy, formerly of Kempston Road in Port Elizabeth. He and his siblings were born in Wylde Street in Grahamstown during the very early 1900s prior to the extension of the railway tracks. Much of the livelihood of ex-Mauritian families who lived in the town was derived from market gardening in the fertile valley near Fort England Hospital on the eastern outskirts of the town, as there was a demand for fresh produce from the early military and other institutional establishments in Grahamstown.
The remains of a small Hindu temple in the midst of this fertile valley could be seen until the 60s. There was a strong sense of community among local Indians, who were of diverse culture backgrounds ranging from Gujerati and Tamilian Hindus, to Cape Malays and Indians of Catholic ancestry.
Cohesion in the community was evident from the establishment in 1926 of the Grahamstown British Indian Association, the first President of which was the late VN Pillay (the grandfather of the author) who came to Grahamstown as a young boy of ten in 1910.
His family was one of several migrants who moved away from the skirmishes of the Anglo-Boer war and settled in the Eastern Cape. The Grahamstown British Indian Association came to be the structure through which the rights of the Indian community and the oppressed were asserted.
Despite their chastisement by the government of the day, the local Indian community adopted the stance of Mahatma Gandhi in defiance campaigns until the demise of apartheid several generations later.
The influence of educational institutional traditions of Grahamstown rubbed off onto the local Indian community, and during the 40s and 50s there was a strong emphasis on Western and vernacular education, until the 80s when the Grahamstown Indian community produced the highest number of university graduates per capita in South Africa.
Such achievements were based on the pioneering spirit and tenacity of the early generations who came to Grahamstown with a strong sense of belief and courage in living their mission. Their stature and tolerance for hardship, as well as their immense sense of duty and commitment, has left a lasting legacy of hope for those who remain.
