< 6. The Moderates' Eclipse | Conclusion >
CHAPTER IV
The Struggle for Power: The Triumph of the Radicals, 1939-1946
7. Events leading up to Passive Resistance
In February 1945, the third Broome Commission resumed its work. A. I. Kajee and S.R. Naidoo had resigned on 7 December 1944, after Smuts had declared the Pretoria Agreement to be "stone dead" and this time the Indians unanimously boycotted the Commission.
Consequently, the Commission terminated its work and issued and Interim Report, which called for a Round Table Conference of the two government, and suggested that the Indians be offered some form of parliamentary representation. It pointed out, however, that the Indians would strenuously reject the idea of communal franchise.
Smuts ignored the recommendations, and on 15 March introduced the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Bill, which was in two sections. One dealt with the acquisition of land and occupation and transference of property in Natal and the Transvaal. A special board entitled the Asiatic Land Tenure Board was to be set up to deal with this. The other section conferred communal franchise on Indian men. Under the first section, two kinds of areas were created: Controlled and Uncontrolled. In the former, no Asiatic could buy any property without the permission of the Board; nor could he live in such areas unless he had resided there before January 1946. Thus these areas were reserved for European occupation and ownership. In the latter areas, which in any event were predominantly occupied by Asiatics, there were no restrictions. Because of these provisions, the Bill was termed the "Ghetto Bill" and when it became law, the " Ghetto Act ". Palmer felt that dubbing it the "Ghetto Act" was a "complete misnomer and exaggeration". From the Indian point of view, this was not so. They defined a ghetto as a:
"special area in which a persecuted race is shut off by itself, segregated, denied the benefits of sharing in the life of the whole community and utterly degraded".
In the same pamphlet the unjust previsions of the law were exposed: it showed that the Natal Indians were given twenty-two "small ghetto areas", whilst the Europeans had access to the rest of Natal, except for the African reserves. More emphatically, in the old borough of Durban the Indians were given about 350 acres, a density of 700 to the acre, whilst the Europeans owned 2,940 acres plus a reserve of 1,121 acres of Municipal land, giving them a density of 16 to an acre.
The voting qualifications were: Union nationality; aged twenty-one and over (males); standard VI education; and either an income of at least £84 a year or ownership of immovable property valued at not less than £250, over and above any mortgage thereon. It made no reference to the municipal franchise. At the provincial level, the Natal Indians could elect two Indians onto the Provincial Council. For parliament, the Indian voters in Natal and the Transvaal could elect three Europeans to the lower House, and in the upper House two European Senators would represent the Indians, one being elected and one nominated. Three electoral zones were set up, two in Natal and one in the Transvaal. All the Indian representatives would serve for five years and would not be affected by the dissolution of the legislative bodies for a general election.
In many ways, this Act was similar to Hertzog's Native Representation Act of 1936, which removed the Cape Africans from the common voters' roll and gave them a communal franchise. At that time, the ANC had rejected the communal franchise, which, with the Native Trust and Land Act, constituted for the Africans "a crisis comparable to those of the constitution of the Union and of the Natives Land Act (1913)". If the ANC had rejected a communal franchise in 1936, there was little likelihood of the Indians accepting it in 1946, especially since radical ideas had permeated deep into the ranks of the Indian political movements.
Assuming a comparatively militant posture, The Leader called the Bill a "staggering document" and declared:
"The chains are being closed around the Indian. .. socially and economically. The sop of representation merely confuses the real issue - a smoke screen to hide the truly suppressive and deadly nature of the Bill".
By introducing the Bill, Smuts had challenged the determination, skill and ability of the Indian organisations to resist this grave threat to the rights of the Indian people. The radicals responded to the challenge. They organised widespread campaigns in Natal and the Transvaal that culminated in the initiating of Passive resistance on 13 June, and the total dominance of the radicals in the NIC and the SAIC.
Meeting in Cape Town on 24 March, the SAIC executive decided to instruct the NIC and the TIC "to proceed immediately to plan and prepare the details of a concerted and prolonged resistance." However, resistance was to emanate not from the national organisation, but from the NIC and the TIC.
On Saturday, 30 March, the NIC called a special provincial conference to discuss the Bill and to plan a resistance campaign. At the conference over 200 delegates unanimously decided to launch a "concerted Passive Resistance struggle" against the Bill. To implement the decision effectively, a volunteer corps was formed and the NIC executive was empowered to appoint a Passive Resistance Council, consisting of twenty-five members. Dadoo opened the conference, setting the tone with a slashing attack on the Bill and a militant call to action. Dr. Naicker, the president, made an equally bitter and resolute speech. After the speeches, conference adopted a "manifesto of resistance". In this manifesto they appealed to South African Indians, Indians in India, and all "democratic peoples" in South Africa and abroad to oppose the Bill. The manifesto was a call to action for South African Indians:
"Workers, businessmen professionals and farmers, only your united action can save us! Either we perish as whole, or we resist as a whole. There is no turning back. The time has come for suffering and sacrifice. It is your duty to give the uttermost, physically, financially and morally. Any Indian, man or woman, who serves on the Advisory Board, accepts the communal franchise, or obstruct the struggle in any way whatsoever, will be guilty of an act of despicable treachery against his family, the community and the principles of democracy. Fellow Indians, forward to united action! Down with the Ghetto Bill!"
On the following day, the NIC organised a mass procession to demonstrate their abhorrence of the Bill. 6,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Durban, shouting, "to Hell with the Ghetto Bill!". It was also a demonstration of unity in opposition, since all three stratas, the workers, businessmen and professionals, were represented. A mass meeting was held before the procession started, and, once again, speaker after speaker condemned the Bill and reiterated his determination to prosecute vigorously the resistance struggle. Speakers from the ANC and the APO were also present. H.I.E. Dhlomo, an African poet, declared:
Justice is not Indian, and neither is freedom Indian. We want all people to be free. The young people in the ANC support the struggle of the Indians.
L.A. Smith of the APO said:
"It is essential for all Indians, Africans and Coloureds to realise that they are all men like Europeans. It is necessary that we collaborate in our struggle. Your motto should now be 'not one step back'".
Indian students in Natal responded eagerly to the call for resistance. At a meeting on 7 April, the students of the Durban Indian Girls' High School, Sastri College and the Natal University College condemned the Bill as a "fascist" measure. In a resolution they pledged their support to the NIC.
Similarly, in the Transvaal the radicals flexed their muscles. Dadoo, assisted by two university students (J.N. Singh and I.C. Meer ), undertook a vigorous tour of the Transvaal to whip up support for the resistance struggle. Within a fortnight they held fifteen meetings in areas as widely dispersed as Krugersdorp, Alexandria, Pretoria, Heidelburg, Middleburg and Standerton. Reporting on this, The Leader said that, throughout the speaking tour, Dadoo and the others were "heartily and enthusiastically received". This tour culminated in a huge mass meeting in Johannesburg, held on 17 March. 5 000 men, women and children came from all corners of the Transvaal to voice their opposition to the Bill. It was a major success for the radicals, and reverberated with slogans such as "Down with the Ghetto Bill", "Down with Smuts", "Long Live Resistance" and "Down with Compromise".
From the support given to the radicals throughout the Transvaal, it was clear that the sentiments they expressed reflected accurately the mood of the people. Consequently, the radicals not only strengthened their own position in the TIC, but also got the TIC to set up a Passive Resistance Council. At the same time, the Transvaal Indian Volunteer Corps was formed. This was composed mainly of young men and women and gave full support to the Passive Resistance Council.
Following the SAIC conference in February 1946, the SAIC deputation left for India to solicit support for their cause.
The deputation, led by Sorabjee Rustomjee, was warmly received by the major political organisations in India, such as the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League and the Indian Liberal Federation. They held numerous meetings at which the Bill was denounced and full support pledged to the resistance struggle. Furthermore, the SAIC deputation to the Viceroy was presided over by the Aga Khan and was accompanied by prominent individuals such a Sarojini Naidu, Sarat Chandra Bose and Sir Homi Modi. Sorabjee's deputation was also invited to attend a session of the All-Indian Congress Committee. Whilst there, they met a committee consisting of the leadership of the Indian National Congress. Amongst the members were Gandhi, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Pandit Nehru, Asaf Ali, and Archarya Kiripalani.
The reaction of the government of India was also swift. Smuts had refused to concede to the Indian Government's request for a Round Table Conference, or a deputation from India similar to the Paddison Deputation of 1925. To add insult to injury, Smuts had made it clear to Sir Evelyn Baring, High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, that he did not contemplate further negotiations with the Indian Government until the Bill had become law.
On 25 March, the Indian Government terminated the trade agreement arrived at by the two governments in 1938, and on 2 May informed the Union Government of its intention to recall its High Commissioner. After his departure from South Africa, the Indian Government retained its secretariat and had official contact with the South African Government only on routine matters. After the Act was passed, the Government of India arraigned the Union before the United Nations. This was the beginning of a stormy period for South Africa at the United Nations.
Fortified by these expressions of external support, the Passive Resistance Councils prepared to launch their struggle. In ajoint statement, the NIC and the TIC said that, in order to conduct the campaign effectively, they had decided to set up a Joint-Council, which would meet regularly and "give general direction to the entire campaign of resistance". They also called upon the Indians to observe a day of Hartal as soon as the Act was passed. Thereafter resistance would begin.
On 2 June the Bill became law and 13 June was declared "Resistance Day". In an appeal, the NIC called upon all offices, shops and factories, and upon all students, to observe Hartal in order to demonstrate their abhorrence and rejection of the "Ghetto Act". The response was enormous. The Leader wrote:
"Thursday, June 13 - that day will go down in the annals of the Indian people of this country as a national day of mourning. .. Durban was dead on Thursday. The Indian quarter bore an atmosphere of quietness associated with Sundays".
Dadoo, writing about the first five months of the struggle, observed:
"The Indians throughout the country observed complete Hartal. This was the first clear demonstration of the Indian community's determination to carry its opposition to the inhuman Ghetto Act further than mere words".
Resistance had begun. For the first time since Gandhi's departure, Indian political movements had organised a mass resistance campaign against an unjust law. This tested the ability, skills, resilience and determination of the leadership and the people to sustain a campaign through which they came in direct and open conflict with the authorities.
"Resistance Day" culminated in a mass meeting of over 15,000 people, held in Red Square, Durban. After the meeting a procession followed Dr. Naicker to the comer of Gale Street and Umbilo Road, where the resistors pitched five tents on a priece of vacant municipal land in defiance of the "Ghetto Act". The resisters included four women from Johannesburg who had earlier contravened the law by entering Natal without a permit. They were Miss Zeynab Asvat, Miss Zohra Bhayat, Mrs. Amina Pahad and Mrs Zubeida Patel.
The campaign received a boost from an unexpected source: European hooligans made mindless, and vicious attacks on the resisters, and on other Indians, they were pulled down and burned; women were molested, passing cars were stoned and some stationary ones set on fire. During these attacks, an Indian plain-clothes policeman, Krishen Samy Pillay, was killed. His death caused a wave of resentment throughout the Indian community, and he was accorded a martyrs funeral, one of the largest ever seen in Durban.
Both the Natal Mercury, which said the assaults "by a few thoughtless citizens" were "a matter of real regret", and the Natal Witness, which characterised it as "rowdyism and violence", ignored the fatal attack on Pillay and its effect on the resistance campaign.
J.W. Meldrum, secretary to the High Commissioner who had remained in charge of the office, considerably played down the effect of these unprovoked attacks and the campaign throughout 1946. In his monthly reports, he gave the impression that the campaign was weak and ineffectual. Even at the end of the year, when it had become obvious that the passive resistance struggle had received the overt and passive support of the majority of the Indians, he still only grudgingly admitted its success. Meldrum was unable to comprehend the opposition of the Indians to the "Ghetto Act" and their changed environment, so he did not realise that the radical militant approach was in tune with the mood and the feelings of the people.
In the six month period from June to December 1946, 1,546 people (254 women) were arrested, 215 for the second time. Those arrested included six Europeans, six Coloureds and fifteen Africans. From the list of resisters given by Dadoo, it is clear that they came from a multiplicity ofjobs. The largest contingents were factory and municipal workers, waiters and housewives.
In the Transvaal, the Passive Resister, which was the official organ of the passive resistance movement, was issued. This managed a considerable part of the national and international propaganda. In addition, the Transvaal Council had mobilised hundreds of resistors and raised thousands of pounds. Once the passive resistance struggle had begun, the moderate faction was on the retreat, and soon the radicals emerged as the dominant group in the political life of the Transvaal Indians. This point was emphasised at a mass election meeting on 20 October. Over 12,000 people from all parts of the Province unanimously adopted the candidate list submitted by the radicals under the banner of the Democratic Congress Action Committee. Finally the radicals gained complete control of the TIC, thereby creating the necessary pre-conditions and firm ideological basis for co-operation with the ANC. This came to fruition in the Dadoo-Xuma-Naicker Pact of March 1947, when they undertook to work together for full franchise rights and equality with Europeans.
On assuming power, the radicals immediately changed the structure of the TIC. At its first committee meeting, they decided to decentralise some of the work by appointing sub-committees to deal with problems such as education, social services, hospitalisation and finance. At the meeting the committee also passed a number of resolutions. The main ones expressed opposition to the incorporation of South-West Africa into the Union; called for a boycott of the forthcoming royal visit and expressed a motion of no confidence in the sitting officials of the SAIC.
Despite the opposition of Ismail, the SAIC president, Passive Resistance Councils were set up in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley and East London, and these did useful work in mobilising moral and material support. By November, three batches of resisters, numbering twenty-seven, had gone from the Cape to Durban to defy the "Ghetto Act". Up to November, some £17,000 were spent, a large part of which want to the dependants of the resisters. According to Dadoo, the financial support given to the struggle by both Indian businessmen and workers was "highly satisfactory".
The Passive Resistance Council opened a canteen to serve meals to the released resistors who were unemployed, and held training classes to raise the political consciousness and to instil a sense of discipline into the resisters. It also set up efficient organisational machinery. Dadoo described this the following way:
"The supreme body, which analyses each new situation and formulates policy and vital principles, is the Joint Council, composed of representatives of the Natal and Transvaal Resistance Councils. Numerous departments have been created, each entrusted with the management of a particular task. The success of these departments has been entirely due to those men and women who have come forward voluntarily to render unstinted service in the interests of their people and for the cause of freedom andjustice".
By 1946, over 2,000 resistors had gone to prison. When the campaign was called off, the radicals had also won control of the SAIC. This, and the Dadoo-Xuma-Naicker Pact of 1947, heralded the growing co-operation of the SAIC and the ANC. These were to form the core of the Congress Alliance, which dominated the political scene in South Africa in the fifties.
1946 was also a crucial year for the ANC. In August 1946, some 50,000 African mine workers striked for higher wages and better working conditions under the leadership of the African Mine Workers Union. The government reacted ferociously. Workers were forced back to work, beaten with clubs and rifles, and shot at when they gathered outside the compounds or marched in procession. Nine Africans were reported dead and 1,248 injured in the clashes where all the violence came from the police". These brutal reprisals, combined with the government's refusal to consult the Natives' Representative Council, inexorably led the Africans towards a rejection of this council and a more militant non co-operative policy. Moreover, the ANC Youth League, led by Anton Lembede, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, had already at thisjuncture asserted themselves in the upper echelons of the ANC.
The end of the period under review saw the dominance of radical ideas and militant forms of mass political action as the main basis and focus of the Indian political movements. The NIC and the TIC were no longer run from the houses or business premises of the leaders. Congress offices were opened, a small viable full-time staff employed, and proper records and files of Congress records and data were kept. The leaders were not, as Palmer described them, "extremely naive" and "doctrinaire in their approach".
They were radicals fixed with a burning desire to articulate in a forthright, militant manner the grievances and aspirations of the Indian people. They realised from the beginning the fundamental importance of building a closer alliance with the other national liberatory movements. It was only in this way that the non-Europeans could hope to seriously challenge the regime in South Africa. This alliance became even more imperative after 1948, when the Nationalist Party won the elections (which they have not lost since) and systematically set about introducing increasingly harsh legislation against the non-whites. Moreover, the radicals had demonstrated a great deal of skill and flexibility of approach in their struggle for power.