South African Indian Congress
The South African Indian Congress (SAIC ) was from 1924 until the end of apartheid, the representation of the ethnic Indian population in South Africa. The SAIC applied for the purposes of Mahatma Gandhi on methods of non-violent resistance and allied himself permanently to the African National Congress ( ANC), which represented a large part of the black majority, against the apartheid government.
History
Prehistory and beginnings
From 1860, many Indians came to South Africa to work on the sugar plantations in Natal. From the 1880s came the Indians to South Africa to work as merchants. In 1891 they were expelled from the Orange Free State. Under the later Nobel Peace Mahatma Gandhi, they formed in 1894 in the Natal Natal Indian Congress (NIC ) in order to against the dominant "white " better represent the interests of the ethnic Indian population. In 1903, the Transvaal, the Transvaal British Indian Association ( TBIA; later Transvaal Indian Congress, TIC), before 1917 in the Cape Colony of the Cape British Indian Congress ( CBIC, later Cape Indian Congress, CIC ) was founded. Under Gandhi, there were several actions of nonviolent resistance according to his Satyagraha policy. After Gandhi's return to India, however, took a more moderate people leadership. On January 26, 1919 Congress of the three organizations was opened in Cape Town, which should ensure the representation of Indians in the Union of South Africa was founded in 1910. A common organization did not exist at that time, however. It was not until 1924, the SAIC was founded at a meeting held in Durban. Its first president was Umar Hajee Ahmed Jhaveri. The guidance of the SAIC remained despite discriminatory laws, such as the 1924 adopted Class Areas Bill moderated. She tried to gain through petitions and appeals hearing.
Radicalization
In the 1930s and 1940s, the SAIC was more radical. Actions of nonviolent struggle against the increasing disadvantage affecting of Indians against the whites were more frequently. First time, the Indian -Russians allied with the black South Africans. 1945 took over Gagathura Mohambry "Monty" Naicker the guidance of NIC, Yusuf Dadoo 1946 the leadership of the TIC. 1946-1948 led SAIC nonviolent action against the discriminatory laws Trading and Occupation Land Bill, short Pegging Act, and the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act ( Act called Ghetto ) by. About 2,000 people were detained there. The newly elected Indian government then broke off trade relations with South Africa.
On March 9, 1947 completed the doctorate Naicker, Dadoo and the chairman of the ANC, Alfred Xuma Bitini, known as the Three Doctors' Pact, which provided a high degree of cooperation between the ANC and SAIC. In September, Naicker president of SAIC, Dadoo was also part of the guide. 1952 ANC and SAIC agreed at a meeting in Bloemfontein the implementation of the Defiance Campaign. In this campaign of nonviolent resistance around 8,500 people were arrested, including Naicker, Dadoo and Fatima Meer. Deputy Head of the campaign, Nelson Mandela was the Indian-born Ishmael Cachalia. In 1953, SAIC was next to the ANC, the South African Coloured People's Organisation ( SACPO ) and the South African Congress of Democrats ( COD) of the Congress Alliance, which the Congress of the People, 1955 in Johannesburg, the Freedom Charter adopted, in the equal rights were required for all South Africans.
However, the South African government did not respond to the demands. In the subsequent Treason Trial, a criminal trial, which lasted from 1956 to 1961, 21 of the 156 defendants were SAIC- members or of Indian descent, and Ahmed Kathrada about Dadoo. Similarly, some of them were set up in 1961 armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe, at. The SAIC and its affiliated organizations had not been banned by the authorities, but was prevented from so much work that he broke. Ahmed Kathrada was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial accused alongside Mandela and Walter Sisulu, which he served until 1989. In 1968, the apartheid government, the South African Indian Council, which was rejected by the SAIC and the majority of Indians and scored only six percent turnout in the election of ethnic Indian MPs in the three-chamber system. In the 1980s, carried out some actions of the organizations. Thus, the TIC was involved in the formation of the United Democratic Front, which was founded in 1983 as a broad opposition alliance against the apartheid government.