South African Indian Congress
South African Indian Congress | |
---|---|
President | Left-wing |
Religion | Hinduism, Islam |
National affiliation | Congress Alliance (1950s) |
The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) was an umbrella body founded in 1921 to coordinate between political organisations representing
Although the SAIC's members operated with a great deal of autonomy, the SAIC had a particularly important political role in the 1950s, when it represented the NIC and TIC in fostering more cooperative relations with the African National Congress. Pursuant to these efforts, the SAIC co-organised the Defiance Campaign and Congress of the People, and it became a signatory to the Freedom Charter and a member of the Congress Alliance.
Origins
The three affiliates of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) were the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), the Transvaal British Indian Association (later the Transvaal Indian Congress, TIC), and, during the congress's formative years, the Cape British Indian Council (CBIC). Each of the three affiliates preceded SAIC, in the NIC's case by almost three decades. The CBIC had called repeatedly for a national conference of Indian organisations in 1917 and 1918, and such a conference was finally in the last week of January 1919 in Cape Town. The conference was opened with a speech by J. X. Merriman on 26 January.[1] Another national conference was held in 1920 and, at the third in 1921, it was decided formally to establish the SAIC as an umbrella body. Umar Hajee Ahmed Jhaveri was elected inaugural president of the SAIC.[1]
Over the next decade, the SAIC, like its affiliates, was a moderate and even conservative body; dominated by an elite class of South African Indians, its primary methods were petitions, deputations to the authorities, and appeals for help to the government of India, then
Opposition to the Ghetto Act
In 1946, the SAIC, with
Opposition to apartheid
In 1948, the National Party came to power in South Africa on a platform of legislating apartheid; in September that year, Naicker was elected as president of the SAIC.[1] In 1951, the ANC and SAIC jointly planned the 1952 Defiance Campaign, with the SAIC's Yusuf Dadoo and Yusuf Cachalia sitting on the planning council alongside the ANC's James Moroka, Walter Sisulu, and J. B. Marks.[7] On the first day of the campaign on 26 June 1952, the ANC's Walter Sisulu and TIC president Nana Sita led the first group of Johannesburg volunteers to arrest in Boksburg.[7] In 1955, the SAIC, again with the ANC, was involved in organising the Congress of the People, at which it became a signatory of the Freedom Charter and a member of the Congress Alliance.[1][2] Several members of the SAIC and both of its provincial wings were charged in the Treason Trial that followed the Congress of the People.
Dormancy
From 1960, the apartheid government embarked on an unprecedented programme to repress opposition groups in the aftermath of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. Though the SAIC and its affiliates were not banned by the government, many of its leading members faced banning orders. Others were imprisoned for their activities in Umkhonto we Sizwe, an armed opposition group, or went into exile abroad to evade police harassment or join the exiled South African Communist Party. The SAIC and its affiliates fell into dormancy.[1]
The NIC was ultimately revived in 1971
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "South African Indian Congress (SAIC)". South African History Online. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-77614-287-3.
- ^ Bagwandeen, Dowlat (1984). "Smuts and the 'Ghetto Act' of 1946: The Coup de Grace of Anti-Indian Legislation". Journal of Natal and Zulu History. 7: 57–73.
- ISSN 0259-0123.
- ^ ISSN 0259-0123.
- ^ "The Joint Declaration of Cooperation ("Three Doctors' Pact") is signed". South African History Online. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
- ^ ISSN 0259-0123.
- ISSN 1753-2523.
- ^ "Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC)". South African History Online. 30 March 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2023.