From the book: A Documentary History of Indian South Africans edited by Surendra Bhana and Bridglal Pachai
It is common knowledge that Indians came to South Africa in two categories, namely as indentured Indians and as 'free' or 'passenger' Indians. The former came as a result of a triangular pact among three governments; and the latter, mainly traders ever alert to new opportunities abroad, came at their own expense from India, Mauritius, and other places.
After serving their indentures, the first category of Indians were free to remain in South Africa or to return to India. Most chose to stay and thus constituted the forebears of the majority of present-day South Africa's Indians. There is evidence of considerable movement among free Indians both within the country, and between India and South Africa. They too, for the most part, elected to make South Africa their home.
The indentured Indian had a harder time adapting and adjusting to new realities and circumstances. The documents recapture instances of the misery that accompanied indenture. The conditions were harsh and restrictive in many cases, not too far removed from slavery. There are complaints of low wages, long hours, low rations, inadequate attention to social and medical needs, and also of beatings. The system worked heedless of human feelings. Take the case of Narayanan. For months he pined away for his wife and child, searching for them. Nobody had told him that they had been returned to India because of the wife's illness.
Desertions were common, and the incidence of suicides was pathetically high. The disproportion between females and males was as low as 1 to 3, contributing to predictable social consequences.
The documents show, however, much evidence of resourcefulness among the indentured. They were not completely 'dogs without mouths', as one put it. Indian labourers in the employ of the Durban Corporation made out a pretty good case why their wages should be increased. And those like Doorasamy Pillay who stood outside the system came up with extremely good suggestions for its amelioration.
For those who had completed their indentures, the period of adjustment was no less trying. Their own testimonies speak of caste prejudices, interest in maintaining cultural and religious practices, the need for better qualified persons to serve their wants, the problem of remitting money to India for the benefit of dependants, attempts at maintaining contacts with relatives, the search for better employment opportunities, the misfortune of those who failed to make it and had to return, the irksomeness of curfew laws.
The earliest generation of educated Indians demanded better opportunities within a society in which the worth of the individual should play a paramount role. Some asked for exclusive, privileged status. They were to learn painfully that racial discrimination made no distinction between class and creed.
The very diversity of the documents in this section, often written by hired scribes, suggests the complex process of an immigrant people's assimilation into a newly forming, wider society.