www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 14th December2013
UK
Indians and Mandela: A Unique bond
Indians were taken by the Britishraj as indentured labor to many countries. Fiji, South Africa and Guyana had the largest number of such ‘slave labors ’. Indians aspire for equality and freedom even in those nasty days. Not only MK Gandhi predominantly struggled for Indian rights in South Africa, but the Africans also got the message after the establishment of the Natal Indian Congress and the South African National Congress, the African National Congress (ANC) was also formed. What began as separate groups eventually became ANC – the route took place through the Communist Party and other affiliations. Nelson Mandela (Madiba) and Indians in South Africa had a unique bond of co-operation and mutual respect. Nelson Mandela’s famous inauguration speech on 19th May 1994 at Cape Town began, “today we are entering a new era for our country and its people. Today we celebrate not the victory of a party but a victory for all the people of South Africa.” Mandela’s collaboration with other races including men and women of Indian origin in opposing apartheid laws and the practices was evident from his arrival in Johannesburg from Qunu, Eastern Cape Province. Eminent men and women of Indian origin including Ahmed Kathrada, Ismail and Amina Cachalia, Monty Naicker, Yusuf Dadoo, and Ismail and Fathima Meer had close ties with Nelson Mandela and the Struggle for Freedom in South Africa. Ahmed Kathrada Ismail Meer and Mac Maharaj were imprisoned with Nelson Mandela. When Mandela was released from his long incarceration, his first civilian home was of an Indian political activist, Dullah Omar. It was Omar’s house where Madiba was able to compose himself. When Nelson Mandela became the President of South Africa, he included six Indians in his cabinet. Ismail Mahomed was appointed Chief of Justice in 1994 and Frene Ginwals as Speaker of Parliament. Some other prominent people of Indian origin connected with Mandela are Laloo (Isu) Chiba who was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment. Billy Nair, charged with sabotage in 1963. Indres Naidoo was also imprisoned for a decade. MD Naidoo, brother-in-law of Mac Maharaj who became the organizer of the South African Indian Congress, was arrested and imprisoned on Robben Island for five years. During Madela’s prison time, Ismail Ayob, a barrister and Winnie Mandela’s lawyer during the 1970s became a conduit for message between Mandela and the African National Congress in Zambia. Political activists Amaij Cajee, Azzia Pahad, Essop Pahad and member of SACP Dipak Patel were among other Indians associated with Madiba. There are few other names like Ivan Pillay, Vella Pillay, Anesh Shanker, Mo Shaik, Sachbir Shaik, Yunus Shaik, Debi Singh, Zak Yakoob, Mohamed Valli Moosa, Pravin Gordhan etc who became close connects of Nelson Mandela. Later on Sonny Venkatrathnam also joined Mandela and other prisoners at Robben Island prison. Venkatrathnm’s story and the book which he and his wife have taken to many places even to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare, where Venkatrathnam sat in the Bard’s “hard chair” and read from his “Bible” and shared his story after an invitation from Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Recently the British Museum asked Sonny if it could borrow the book from July 19 to November 25, 2012 for
As I See It
No one is born hating another person because of his skin, or his background or his religion. People learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
- Nelson Mandela
its Shakespeare exhibition as part of its contribution to the London Cultural Olympiad of 2012. Venkatrathnam said: “Somehow Shakespeare always seemed to have something to say to us… He is a universal philosopher: there’s message for anyone and anybody.” These prisoners, Nelson Mandela and others were under isolation wing of the prison. Such prisoners were not given literature or books to read. For Mandela, the collected works of William Shakespeare was very precious. The jail authorities seized the book. Sonny Venkatrathnam’s wife Theresa smuggled a copy of the collected works of William Shakespeare through a lawyer, Navi Pillay who is now the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This book had front and back pasted with some greeting cards depicting the Hindu deities and this book was presented through the warden as a ‘Hindu Bible”, though in reality it was very different. According to Venkatrathnam by calling it his ‘Bible’ the warders not touch it. And so the Robben Island “Bible” was born. The book was read by many of the inmates and when he was due to be released Venkatrathnam sent it to his comrades and friends in prison and asked them to sign the passages which they found most meaningful. Inmates would read sections of Shakespeare, date and sign the snippets that had meaning for them. Nelson Mandela, Mac Maharaj, Raymond Mhlaba, Billy Nair, Govan Mbeki, Mobbs Gqurana, JB Vasani, Frank Anthony and Andrew Masondo are among those who signed the book. There are 32 signatories in total.
India-South Africa Connection
Nelson Mandela has publicly proclaimed one of his great inspirations was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. A brilliant lawyer, excellent orator and one with tremendous study of history, Nelson Mandela was well acquainted with Mahatma Gandhi, it not in person but through his writings and a leading example. M.K. Gandhi also entered into Politics and the public arena in South Africa. It was an incident when attorney M.K Gandhi was thrown out of a train at Pietermaritzburg Railway Station for traveling first class (which was then meant for whites alone on June 7, 1893) began his long struggle for justice and equality. When Nelson Mandela moved to
Johannesburg, he came in close contacts with Indians. By that time M.K. Gandhi had left South Africa and had reached India permanently on 9th January 1915 with international fame and his unique weapon of non-violence and peaceful protest for achieving independence from colonial powers well recognized and respected. Gandhiji’s 25 years in South Africa had been a unique phase in the struggle for emancipation of subjugated or oppressed nation’s history. At a glittering event in New Delhi when Mandela was given Bharat Ratna award in 1990. He said at that time, “You Indians gave us attorney M.K Gandhi and we gave you back a Mahatma”. Surely that is true, but Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Barack Obama all have acknowledge enormous debt of gratitude to Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophies. What happened at Pietermaritzburg Railway Station, 80 km from Durban on June 7, 1993 ultimately ensured that a black man became the occupier of the white house in Washington. There are various ways to describe Nelson Mandela. To me, he is an ideal example of a human being with utmost sense of Humanity, Humility, Humor and Honor. It is very difficult to forgive. Sometimes you can forget, but to forgive decades old operation, injustice and brutality requires superhuman strength. Nelson Mandela had it in bountiful. A president of South Africa, once described the situation in that country, “too ghastly to contemplate”, the racial division enshrined in the constitution and the rigid enforcement by force of law made life intolerable for the blacks, Indians as well as of mixed races and even somewhites. Nelson Mandela had not only suffered but he remained for a
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long time in the forefront to create a rainbow nation where justice and equality became his hallmark. Perhaps he had suffered a lot more than MK Gandhi. Blacks of Africa and South Africa in particular had suffered for a very long time as the victims of misguided racial supremacy. My own acquaintance with Nelson Mandela began in 1962 in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika. I was working as a minor civil servant and studying for my law qualifications as an external student of the University of London and the Lincoln’s Inn Fields campus. Mr. Mandela had visited Dar e Salaam and almost at the same time one Punjabi gentleman with his White South African (Jewish) wife had taken refuge in Dar e Salaam. One Mr. Jashbhai Patel, who had actively supported Tanganyika African National Union, introduced me to the problems of the people of South Africa. Subsequently when I settled in the UK, I was involved with Anti-Apartheid Movement which was led by Bishop Trevor Huddleston whose wife was a Tanganyika-born African woman from Tabora region. Fenner Brokeway (subsequently a Lord) also was very active for the cause of the South African liberation and especially freedom for Nelson Mandela, who was undergoing rigorous imprisonment, breaking stones, on the Robben Island prison. After 1991 I had privileged to briefly meet Mr. Mandela twice. Once before he became the President and second time after he had become the President of the Republic of South Africa. I read in the British media that Mandela, a former militant who was keen to gain independence for his country through violence, had changed in his 27 years of imprisonment, so much so that he had become an ardent devotee of a peaceful struggle and an inclusive South Africa. Perhaps this is true to a certain extent, but more important is to recognize that the people at the centre of power in South Africa who imprisoned him for such a long period also went through a process of better understanding of what Nelson Mandela is and what is his ideology. This was possible only because the British tradition of justice, fair play and the essence of civility were to a certain extent prevailing within the administration of the apartheid government. An oppressor does not always remain so brutal and inhuman on a victim who reciprocates with more honorable and humane response. Nelson Mandela is no longer with us, but his message will now resonate more and more throughout the world, and it’s bound to create a more tolerant and positive environment everywhere. This is not just a hope but it is my sincere belief.
- CB