Mahatma Gandhi's descendants thrive in South Africa

Looking out across Durban port, the Indian ocean stretches thousands of miles east, connecting two
countries whose stories are deeply entwined. Home to the largest Indian population outside of India,
Durban is a bastion of Asian culture from across the sea.
The palm tree clad port at Durban has welcomed Indian traders, businessmen and their families
since the 1860s. Long-time home to one Mahatma Gandhi, the city has played its part as a launchpad
for the young Indian lawyer's political activism and minority representation.
Today, the place is a testament to multiculturalism, and a symbol of how the cultures of South Africa
and India are indelibly linked.
A journey across the seasOver 150 years ago, scores of Indian people made their way across the
ocean arriving into Durban in search of work in the city's sugar cane industry. Still today
descendents like local photographer Ranjith Kally have a strong connection to their families' stories.
"My grandfather came from India for better prospects" says Ranjith. "When my family were brought
here, they were told there's gold all over the city streets and there's a good life. Then they were
made to go and work in the sugar fields. That's how they came here."
Today over a million Indian people live in Durban province. Communities integrate into the social
and economic fabric of the region through trading business and clothing markets to religious
festivals and architecture.
"They make the city in many ways," says Ashwin Desai, Professor at the University of Johannesburg.
"You look at it in terms of its architecture, the Grey Street Mosque, the old churches and the
temples. Just the religious parts of that and what they give to this corner of Africa is incredible. They
bring a sense of a deep history."
Class struggleThis sense of history runs deep among South Africa's Indian communities. It's a story
that's embodied by Mohandas Gandhi.
In 1893, a 24 year old Gandhi arrived in Durban to settle legal disputes between traders - he quickly
became active in local politics representing minority Indian communities.
"He was sensitive enough to realize what was happening around him," says Mewa Ramgobin the
Chair of Phoenix Settlement Trust - a cultural project aimed at preserving Gandhi's legacy in South
Africa. "His own compatriots from India, my grandfather and others, were suffering at the hands of
their employers and the entire government at that stage, which inspired him to resist evil wherever
he saw it."
Gandhi would end up spending 21 years in South Africa, working to give South Africa's Indian
communities a political voice. In 1894 he helped establish the Natal Indian Congress, the region's
first political advocacy group to represent the views of Indian people to the government and the
press.
"For us in South Africa, we have a kind of responsibility not to extol the virtues of Gandhi, but to find
out whether we can use those values to transform our country," says Ramgobin.

Multiculturalism, not activismToday, Durban's Indian communities aren't defined by class the
struggles and political activism of their forefathers. Durban is a veritable hub of Asian culture - their
heritage survives in myriad forms from music and food to festivals and dance.
"[Our ancestors] brought a rich heritage from India - a very colloquial basis of how they would
survive in terms of their culture," says Verushka Pather - a local dance teacher who's ancestors
came to Durban from India to work in the cane fields.
Pather's ancestors, and their generation, brought with them the art of Indian classical dance. An
intricate display - including 13 head postures and 36 eye movements - that contrasts radically with
South Africa's indigenous Zulu dance forms. The Indian dance holds within it a form of cultural
nostalgia that carries on to this day.
"Every weekend people would do these activities in the evenings with their families and small
communities - it was very basic dancing which was telling the stories of the scriptures to keep it
alive now that they've moved from india."
The unmistakable gestations of Indian dance were self-evident on the streets of downtown Durban
last month, as hundreds of South Africans of all origins and backgrounds gathered together to
celebrate 68 years of Indian independence from British colonial rule.
"We're very proud that we have maintained it, we have allowed it to evolve as we have evolved
within the country." Dance teacher Verushka continues to teach and develop her dance in a
contemporary context.
"It's not just for telling Indian folklore stories, now it's become a medium to share contemporary
stories. [We're] telling South African stories through this Indian classical art."
This amalgamation of cultures - distilled into a street dance - is symbol that Gandhi would be proud
of.
To find out more about the Indian community in Durban, watch the video below:
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