Non-Racialism in South Africa by David Everatt

Non-Racialism in South Africa by David Everatt

Author:David Everatt [Everatt, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780415834988
Google: oI75kQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 17624480
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-07-17T00:00:00+00:00


Forging an Indian South African identity

On 27 April 1994 South Africa was officially reinvented as a democratic and non-racial ‘rainbow nation’.6 This inaugurated a new era of hope and expectation for millions of South Africans. For the first time since the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, all South Africans, irrespective of race, were empowered to vote, participate in the affairs of the state and receive equal access to the state’s resources. The ‘rainbow nation’ vision of South Africa is embodied in the preamble to the Constitution: ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity’ (Republic of South Africa, 1996a).

The formal attainment of democracy did not, however, mark the endpoint of political struggle. Instead it shifted the terrain of struggle onto the eradication of social and economic inequalities and, accordingly, contestations over the meanings of identity and citizenship. The commitment to democracy, as underpinned by the constitution, requires that all individuals claim authority, rights and responsibilities as South African citizens, without vesting such claims in any form of social exclusivity, such as ethnic antagonism or cultural supremacy. This raises the vexed question of how formerly excluded groups can be recognised without perpetuating apartheid categorisations and inequalities.

It is within the slippage of this contested space that Indian South Africans (uncomfortably) reside. Indian South Africans occupy a middle place in a dichotomous black–white racial model which conceptualises race relations in South Africa largely across a black–white axis and leaves little room for any shades of grey. During the anti-apartheid struggle, the specificity of the Indian South African identity, as with other identities, was submerged under the singular non-racial one forged by the commonality of the freedom struggle. However, this inevitably had to change when the post-apartheid dispensation was put in place. Different identities, hitherto submerged behind the exigencies of the anti-apartheid struggle, began to emerge and compete vigorously for recognition in the new democratic space. The issue of the rights and recognition of minorities posed a significant challenge to the prevailing national narratives of homogeneity, social cohesion and nation-building. Seventeen years into the post-apartheid era, South Africa continues to search for answers to vexed questions around the espousal of identity and the subsequent acceptance of difference while attempting to forge a common non-racial South African identity.

Having grown up in KwaZulu-Natal,7 this author was always aware that only a marginal amount of academic attention was invested in understanding the identities of Indian South Africans. It is only fairly recently, post-1994, that a substantial body of literature has emerged in search of an understanding of the construction and meaning of identity for Indian South Africans (Vahed and Desai, 2010; Ramsamy, 2007; Lemon, 2008; Dhupelia-Mesthrie, 2000; Ebrahim-Vally, 2001; Desai, 1996; Freund, 1995). This recent growth in literature may be partly due to the processes of critical reflection prompted by the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indian indentured labour in 1860 and, hence, increased levels of interest in a ‘search for “roots”’(Vahed and Desai, 2010, p. 4).



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