In 1860, our ancestors were brought from India to South Africa by British colonialists. They came under indenture agreements, meant to work in sugarcane fields for 5 or 10 years. Many were told they could return to India after their contracts ended some were even promised land or a better life if they stayed.
But here’s the truth:
Most never got the return ticket.
And those who stayed were slowly stripped of rights, land, and identity both by the South African colonial regime and by silence from the Indian government.
They lived through apartheid, denied full rights in the country they helped build. But they were also denied any formal connection back to their homeland India.
After India gained independence in 1947, a new hope emerged. But instead of reaching back to its children scattered by colonial violence, India implemented a strict single-citizenship policy. That policy still stands today.
South Africans of Indian descent now six or seven generations deep are not allowed dual citizenship, even though countries like the UK, USA, and many others allow it.
So here’s the question:
Why hasn’t Prime Minister Narendra Modi acted on this?
He talks of *Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the world is one family. He courts the diaspora at stadiums in New York and Sydney. But the oldest Indian diaspora, formed through trauma and toil in South Africa, remains unacknowledged.
We’re not foreigners to India.
We were taken by force, by deception, by colonial machinery.
We built new lives in South Africa under struggle, and yet we preserved our languages, food, dress, festivals, temples, and values.
We’re not asking for handouts.
We’re asking for recognition,
For reconnection.
And for the restoration of a right that was unjustly severed.
We are part of the Indian story and it’s time India makes space for us in its future.
If Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is more than a slogan, then let it begin here:
with dual citizenship for the descendants of indentured Indians in South Africa.
It’s time we are seen.
It’s time we are welcomed home.
