Gujarati shoemakers in twentieth-century Cape Town: family, gender, caste and community

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Periodical article

Title:	Gujarati shoemakers in twentieth-century Cape Town: family, gender, caste and community
Author:	Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Uma
Year:	2012
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1465-3893)
Volume:	38
Issue:	1
Pages:	167-182
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Indians caste systems footwear industry women
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2012.640528
Abstract:	Noting the Natal and Witwatersrand-centredness of the historiography of Indian South Africans, and this historiography's neglect of caste amongst Gujarati Hindus where caste mattered, this study focuses on the Gujarati shoemaker caste in Cape Town, South Africa. Through narratives of those engaged in making, repairing or selling shoes, the article seeks to understand caste as occupation and explores how caste organization facilitated economic and social mobility beyond the world of shoemaking. By drawing attention to female shoemakers, for whom the South African setting was challenging yet empowering, the article disturbs an androcentric reading of the term shoemaker and points to the family as a crucial economic unit. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]