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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
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| Title: | Uprooting, Rerooting: Culture, Religion and Community among Indentured Muslim Migrants in Colonial Natal, 1890-1911 |
| Author: | Vahed, Goolam H. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Periodical: | South African Historical Journal |
| Issue: | 45 |
| Period: | November |
| Pages: | 191-222 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Natal South Africa Great Britain |
| Subjects: | Islamic culture immigrants Indians colonialism contract labour agricultural workers Urbanization and Migration History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft Labor and Employment |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470108671408 |
| Abstract: | This article considers issues relating to religion and culture among Indian Muslims in Natal, which imported 152,184 indentured workers from British India between 1860 and 1911. It is based on official reports, the most valuable being those of the Protector of Indian Immigrants, who was appointed in 1870 to supervise the indenture system. After presenting background information on the indentured Muslims arriving in Natal from 1860 onward, the article pays attention, amongst others, to working and living conditions on the plantations where they lived, resistance and desertion of indentured workers, issues related to marriage and family, and white hostility towards Indians. While the traditions, values, practices and beliefs of migrants' varied experiences in India played a crucial role in the creation of the Muslim community in Natal, we need to move beyond cultural continuity and take cognizance of the imperial context in Natal which forced Muslims to transform, perhaps even abandon some of their practices. Indenture was a difficult, traumatic, even degrading experience, and the process of reconstituting their societies involved both fragmentation and reconstruction. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
