Hindus in South Africa: Post Apartheid Racism
Violent clashes erupted on July 8 in cities across South Africa after the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma. Looting in South Africa has taken place intermittently for decades as a result of an ongoing crisis of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Incidents of looting have often been synonymous with outbreaks of xenophobic violence where people of Indian origin are targeted systematically.
The majority of Indians in South Africa are descendants of indentured laborers from 1860 to 1919 who came to work in plantations and mining operations owned by European Colonialists. Hindu settlers in South Africa, who are widely branded as ‘Heathens’ by the local Christian institutions suffered discrimination, abuse and persecution during the colonial and apartheid eras. But even after the introduction of democracy in 1994, contrary to expectations, the incidents of xenophobia increased.
Indians often are victims of crass chauvinism of black conscious movements as well as white supremacists. Every year there are shocking reports of threats of violence, racist insults and the inevitable demands to “go back to India”. Some Indian families report that their neighbors and school teachers of their children have been trying to harass them by declaring that “South Africa is a Christian country” during Diwali. Racist slurs have been made during Diwali, not just on Hindu South Africans, but also on the Indian diplomats which rarely gets covered in media due to sensitive situation prevalent in the country. Recently, several temples in Durban were ravaged by criminals looking for items to steal and sell.
