SA celebrates 150th year of Indian arrival

Published Nov 17, 2010

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South Africa marked the 150th year since the first indentured Indian workers arrived by boat in Durban where curry, bindis and saris are today an integral part of the city. The anniversary was marked with prayers at sea and speeches on the beach. The indentured labourers who first arrived in November 16, 1860 to work colonial sugar cane fields were followed by immigrants, including India's independence hero Mahatma Gandhi whose descendants still live in the city.

Indians too were subjected to South Africa's racist rule but the white apartheid government, which ruled from 1948 to 1994, nevertheless placed them above the black majority.

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