Leaving India

by Minal Hajratwala

  [>] an old Gujarati text: Raobahadur Govindabhai Hathibhai Desai, ed., Vadodaraa Raajya-Praantik Sarava Sangraha [Survey of the Baroda State, Baroda District] (Baroda: Lohana Mitra Steam Printing Press, 1921), pp. 25–29.

  [>] invaders from Bombay: Tod, Annals and Antiquities.

  "Scythian mercenaries": A. H. Bingley, Handbook on Rajputs (1899; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1986), p. 111.

  [>] In every wedding: I supplement my own viewing of the Mulraaj ritual with two written descriptions, both contained in booklets self-published by community members: "Our Kshatriya Samskaras, I—Srimant" by my parents, Bhanu and Bhupendra Hajratwala (Pleasanton, Calif., 2007), and "An Indepth Study of Gotarej" by Venilal A. Khatri and Prabhat C. Kapadia (Lautoka, Fiji, 1997). The latter attempts to explain the tradition thus: "In the olden days when wedding processions used to take place, it required the services of soldiers or security people to protect them from bandits etc. This has remained in the psyche of the people...[O]ne could say that the couple's life may have obstacles now and then; thus protection may be required from society or any other worldly cause" (p. 25). 11.5 million: Report of the High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora, 2002. See the note at the beginning of Part I below for an explanation of how I have calculated this and other estimates of the size of the diaspora.

  [>] nostalgia was a diagnosed condition: Joy and Peter Brain, "Nostalgia and Alligator Bite—Morbidity and Mortality Among Indian Migrants to Natal, 1884–1911," South African Medical Journal 65 (January 21, 1984): 98–102.

  PAGE PART ONE: "COOLIES"

  [>] Various methods have been used over the past two centuries to calculate the size of India's diaspora. The numbers I cite on the opening pages for Parts I, II, III, and IV, while not directly comparable to one another, represent the best information available in each time period. The 1900 figures, from a report to the British House of Commons titled Restrictions upon British Indian Subjects in British Colonies and Dependencies, can be considered quite accurate in representing the size of the population of those who left India via the indenture system; they do not count "passenger" Indians, who formed a fairly small group relative to the whole. From 1916 to 1947, after indenture voyages ended, the primary source is the British Empire, which relied on its governors abroad to report or estimate their local figures. The data sets are flawed, as censuses in the colonies were irregular; also, some surveys collected data worldwide, while others counted only British possessions. After 1947, there is a gap in official information until independent India's first comprehensive effort at measuring its diaspora, in 2001. Nongovernmental organizations and scholars attempted to fill the gap. Sources are marked in the notes for each set of numbers given. Readers interested in the figures from which I drew these cumulative numbers may wish to review the complete data at the following website: www.minalhajratwala.com/statistics.

  PAGE 2. CLOTH

  To reconstruct the history of M. Narsey & Co. in this chapter, as well as of the Narseys firm in Chapter 5, I relied on four written sources: (1) For 1900–1945, Kamal Kant Prasad's unpublished dissertation. (2) For official minutes and filings during the 1953–97 period, the Narseys Ltd. file at the government Registrar of Companies, Suva, which I viewed there in November 2001. (3) For a narrative summary of the company's history until 1981, an unpublished scholarly paper written by my cousin Kiran C. Narsey while a student that includes details furnished by his own father (now deceased), who was then the patriarch of the company. (4) For insight into the company's final years, from January 1991 onward, copies of correspondence and meeting minutes kindly provided to me by Jiten M. Narsey. Where these accounts differed in matters of fact, I have relied on the written documents in the order listed above. Interpretation of the facts is, of course, mine.

  [>] "What is Fiji?": The recruiter is quoted in the memoirs of Totaram Sanadhya, My Twenty-one Years, pp. 33–35.

  [>] Casting about for a practical solution: Abolition of slavery was "the first great impetus" for Indian indenture, says an official history included in the 1910 Report of the Committee on Emigration from India to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates: "Indian indentured immigration has rendered invaluable service to those of our Colonies in which, on the emancipation of the negro slaves, the sugar industry was threatened with ruin..." (p. 21). Tinker's A New System of Slavery includes a comprehensive treatment of the economic relationship between slavery and indenture in the empire.

  The Indians signed up for: Lal, Crossing the Kala Pani, pp. 6–7.

  [>] Eventually 1.5 million: Tinker, New System of Slavery.

  [>] Excavated from: Calico Museum of Textiles, Textile Trade.

  Four millennia ago: Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation.

  the Gypsies trekked north: Angus Fraser, The Gypsies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), notes the similarities between Romany and northern Indian languages, although the provenance of these peoples is, of course, not definitive. He also cites Heinrich Grellman, a German ethnographer and historical linguist writing in 1787, who reached "the tentative conclusion that the closest affinity was with the Surat dialect (i.e. Gujarati)," and theorizes that the Gypsies were members of the Kshatriya or warrior caste who fled defeats in the eighth and twelfth centuries. But he admits that this notion "will hardly endear itself to the more sceptical reader" (pp. 15–22, 196).

  Muslim traders built boats: Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation.

  "The sun never sets": Henry Lytton Bulwer (Lord Dalling) and Evelyn Ashley, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston: With Selections from His Correspondence (London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1874), 3:121. Lord Palmerston was secretary of state for foreign affairs at the time of this speech before the House of Commons on March 1, 1843.

  [>] Founded as a minor port: Janaki, Some Aspects, chap. 3.

  [>] Under Muslim rule: Das Gupta, Indian Merchants, p. 20.

  Each March, four ships: Ogilby, Asia, the First Part, p. 223.

  Muslims from Gujarat traversed: Janaki, Gujarat as the Arabs Knew It.

  Company ships: Historians use various dates for the beginning of the British presence in Surat. The first British East India Company expedition to reach Surat landed in November 1607. In 1609 the British established a small settlement; in 1611 they obtained permission to trade. The company's factors were allowed to establish a warehouse and offices (known as a "factory") in 1613. Fragmentary journals from these voyages are housed at the British Library's India Office and catalogued in the "List of Marine Records of the Late East India Company, Introduction" (1896). Unfortunately, the journal pages that would have referred to the first landing have been lost.

  The Portuguese and the Dutch: A New General Collection, pp. 346–47.

  John Ovington, chaplain: A Voyage to Surat, pp. 130–31.

  the list of items traded at Surat: Janaki, Some Aspects; and Ogilby, Asia, the First Part, p. 215.

  [>] "Portugefes, Arabians, Perfians": Ogilby, Asia, the First Part, p. 211.

  "fwallows all the Gold": Ibid., p. 222.

  In London the craze: Calico Museum of Textiles, Textile Trade.

  Parliamentarians fretted: Janaki, Some Aspects, chap. 3.

  "the clamour reached": Ibid.

  And the city was plagued: Das Gupta, Indian Merchants, p. 7.

  [>] "As a class they are said to be": Surat District Gazetteer, 1877, quoted in R. K. Patil, Gold and Silver Thread Industry of Surat: A Socio-Economic Survey (Surat: Chunilal Gandhi Vidyabhavan Studies No. 6, 1956).

  Few were educated: Choksey, Economic Life, p. 227.

  Navsari was more cosmopolitan: Census of India, 1941.

  As hub of its subdistrict: Baroda Administrative Report 1908–09 and 1909–10.

  In Motiram's time, the region: Census of India, 1931. Map.

  [>] six hundred liquor shops: Baroda Administrative Report 1908–09, p. 21.

  a single high school: Ibid., p. 131.

  The maharaja: Sayaji Rao III, the gaikwad, or ruler, of the princely state of B
aroda from 1874 to 1939, was considered one of the more humane and liberal of the "native rulers," even sympathizing with the Indian nationalist movement. James, Raj, p. 337.

  His annual report: Baroda Administrative Report 1908–09 and 1909–10.

  One weaver could: Doug Peacock, Cotton Times (www.cottontimes.co.uk).

  [>] As late as 1866: Calico Museum of Textiles, Textile Trade.

  three-quarters of the cloth: Choksey, Economic Life, p. 226.

  In 1900, three million acres: These figures are for the Bombay Presidency, which encompassed British Gujarat and more. Ibid.

  The British-controlled portion: Ibid.

  [>] Thousands in the region: Ibid., p. 170.

  Historians used to speak: E. G. Ravenstein first formulated the push-pull principle, though he did not use the term, in a pair of articles published in 1885 and 1889 titled "The Laws of Migration" ( Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 46:167–235 and 52:241–305).

  [>] Then in 1901: Prasad, "The Gujaratis of Fiji," pp. 25–27.

  In 1908: Ibid., p. 27. The date of Motiram's arrival may be disputed. Prasad's account, based on passport applications, says Motiram was the second Khatri to arrive in Fiji, first traveling in 1909, and that he visited India in 1916. By this timeline, the first Khatri in Fiji would have been Narotam Karsandas; I am indebted to his descendant Ranjit Solanki, my cousin's husband, who kindly pointed me to a brief reference that eventually led me to Prasad's dissertation. Kiran Narsey's family history, however, says Motiram Narsey arrived in 1907, then returned home for a visit in 1909 after two years. These are not necessarily contradictory, as passports became mandatory only in 1907: Motiram could have traveled early that year without a passport, then visited India in 1909 and returned to Fiji with his first passport. However, Prasad also attributes his date to a July 1974 interview with the late Jayanti Badshah, who was Motiram's sister's son and a Narseys partner.

  [>] "anxiously thrust away": Anonymous, "Calcutta, the City of Palaces," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February 1867, p. 299.

  Ships Jaden with: Parts of modern Malaysia were then known as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay Colonies; modern Guyana was then British Guiana. What we know as South Africa consisted of four separate entities; of these, only the Colony of Natal imported indentured workers from India, although many of these workers made their way to the Transvaal colony. Report of the Committee on Indian Emigration, 1910.

  a typical cargo: From 1907 to 1913, two to three indenture ships arrived in Fiji per year, each carrying 758 to 1,131 people. Report of the Deputation, 1922, "Appendix 1: Immigration and Repatriation, Numerical List of Ships."

  A contemporary contract: Fiji Royal Gazette, 1910.

  eleven to eighteen weeks: Lal, Crossing the Kala Pani, p. 9.

  suicide or meningitis: Report of the Committee, 1910, p. 162.

  [>] Steaming in toward Fiji: Mrs. J. J. McHugh, "Recollections of Early Suva," in Transactions and Proceedings of the Fiji Society, pp. 210–14.

  But the ship veered: Colman Wall, "Historical Notes on Suva," Domodomo: A Scholarly Journal of the Fiji Museum, 1996, p. 28.

  From there they could: Ibid.

  [>] In the harbor: Postcard of Suva Harbour, 1895.

  "When we arrived in Fiji": This quote, attributed to a 1911 arrival, is from Ali, Plantation to Politics, p. 6.

  Of the three thousand: Prasad, "The Gujaratis of Fiji," p. 30.

  [>] This "tragic episode": "The Conquest of the Fijians," in What Then Must We Do?, translated by Aylmer Maude (1886; reprint Devon, UK: Green Books, 1991).

  ended in 1874: Ali, Plantation to Politics, p. 3.

  It was an early British governor: Lal, "Labouring Men," p. 27.

  [>] Fresh from postings: T. A. Donnelly, M. Quanchi, G.J.A. Kerr, Fiji in the Pacific: A History and Geography of Fiji, fourth edition (Milton, Australia: Jacaranda, 1994), p. 48.

  In 1879, the first: Ali, Plantation to Politics, p. 14.

  [>] An English guidebook: Schütz, Suva: A History and Guide.

  Indians made up nearly a third: McNeill and Lal, Report to the Government of India.

  exports had tripled: Testimony of Fiji magistrate Robert Malcolm Booth, April 26, 1909, contained in Report of the Committee on Emigration, Part 2, Minutes of Evidence, 1910, p. 62.

  The year that Motiram arrived: Schütz, Suva: A History and Guide, p. 25.

  "served in truly oriental style": Ibid., p. 29.

  Suva boasted: Mrs. J. J. McHugh, "Recollections of Early Suva," in Transactions and Proceedings of the Fiji Society, pp. 210–14.

  Walter Horne & Co. Ltd.: Fiji Times and Herald, Feb. 13, 1919, p. 5.

  [>] A hitching post: Prasad, "The Gujaratis of Fiji," p. 187.

  A few yards away: Sir Henry Scott, "The Development of Suva," in Transactions and Proceedings of the Fiji Society, pp. 15–20.

  [>] "Conditions were bad": Choksey, Economic Life.

  "The Narsey business": Prasad, "The Gujaratis of Fiji," p. 189.

  [>] In the Fiji census: McNeill and Lal, Report to the Government of India, p. 260.

  [>] In the Fiji Times and Herald: January 3, 1919, p. 2.

  In 1918, a ship: This occurred in what was then called Western Samoa, now simply Samoa, not to be confused with the nearby American Samoa. Michael Field, "NZ Apologises for Colonial Blunders," Agence France-Presse, June 3, 2002.

  PAGE 3. BREAD

  For the status of Indians in South Africa and the Gujarati Indians' response, I drew primarily on the government documents listed in the bibliography; issues of Indian Opinion, the newspaper published by Gandhi's movement in South Africa; Gandhi's memoir Satyagraha in South Africa; and contemporaneous histories including Joshi's The Tyranny of Colour (1942) and Naicker's A Historical Synopsis (ca. 1945). Three recent histories provided additional detail: Freund, Insiders and Outsiders; Bhana and Brain, Setting Down Roots; and Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa, which was particularly useful for its detailed timeline of laws and restrictions. Kalpana Hiralal kindly provided me with parts of her dissertation, "Indian Family Businesses in the Natal Economy, 1890–1950" (University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000), which informed my understanding of the Gujaratis of Grey Street.

  I use the contemporary term "Afrikaners" throughout this chapter to refer to the dominant white group in South Africa, even during the colonial period when they were known, sometimes proudly and sometimes with derision, as the Boers. Insight into Afrikaner politics was provided by sources including O'Meara's Forty Lost Years and Calpin's At Last We Have Got Our Country Back.

  "To deny yourself": Jan Hennop, March 4, 2001.

  [>] "There were, say": Indian Opinion, December 2, 1905, pp. 812–13.

  [>] The first whites settled: Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa, revised edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 33–36.

  "The fate of the Colony": Quoted in Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa, p. 4.

  [>] "The ordinary Coolie": Ibid., p. 16.

  "There is probably not": Ibid., p. 19.

  [>] The census taker warned: Census of the Colony of Natal, April 1904, pp. 25–26.

  "As the steamers sailed": Indian Opinion, December 2, 1905, pp. 812–13.

  [>] At the port leading to: The shortest way to reach Johannesburg was to disembark at Delagoa Bay, in modern Mozambique, and then travel inland by train.

  "The whole subject is": Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa, p. 69, quoting a Colonial Office minute dated June 17, 1897.

  Trade with India: James, Raj, p. 365.

  By 1901: Restrictions upon British Indian Subjects, 1900.

  [>] "entirely satisfactory": Ibid.

  [>] One shipmaster locked: Indian Opinion, November 11–18, 1905, pp. 764, 778.

  And officials confiscated: Bhana and Brain, Setting Down Roots, pp. 130–36.

  "a second-rate Bombay": Indian Opinion, December 30, 1905, p. 875. My description of Durban and its Grey Street area early in the century also draws from Tichmann'
s Gandhi Sites in Durban; Badsha's Imperial Ghetto; and The Official Guide to Durban with Map, 1926–27 edition, published by the Durban Publicity Association.

  [>] "black matter in the wrong place": Quoted in Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa, p. 244.

  [>] three thousand indentured: Indian Opinion supplement, February 18, 1905.

  "on the smell of an oil rag": The origin of this phrase is uncertain, but it is repeatedly found in written and oral texts of the time. Huttenback, in Gandhi in South Africa, cites one of the earliest instances, an article in the Rhodesia Herald, June 4, 1898, which says that Indians are "filthy dirty, and with their uncleanly habits may at any time sow the seeds of deadly epidemic. They live upon what may be termed the smell of an oiled rag, and the result is that in certain branches of business they dislocated trade by cutting-down prices, to the detriment of the legitimate trader" (p. 237).

  [>] By 1908, the licensing bureau: Huttenback, Gandhi in South Africa, p. 246.

  [>] el capitán: Newspaper profile of Ranchhod Kapitan contained in Kapitan family file, Old Courthouse Museum, Durban.

  [>] at a courtyard fountain: Meer, Portrait of Indian South Africans, p. 188.

  "a religion that recognizes polygamy": Cape Supreme Court, vol. 81, case no. 319.

  "I then awoke": Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 33.

  [>] At 113 Grey Street: Bridglal Pachai, "Aliens in the Political Hierarchy," in Pachai, South Africa's Indians, p. 21.

  It became "shameful": Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 68.

  [>] Three in five were born: Dhupelia-Mesthrie, From Cane Fields to Freedom, p. 13.

  In keeping with the times: Meer, Portrait of Indian South Africans, p. 190.

  [>] Aboobaker Mansions: named for Aboobaker Amod, elsewhere spelled Abu-bakr. According to Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Amod was the first "passenger" Indian in South Africa and the first to receive a license to trade in West Street.