The contribution of South African Indians in the struggle against apartheid is not widely known in contemporary South Africa today, particularly among the youth. Even less recognised is the part played by Indian women in the struggle. Little is known of their role in the Indian resistance movements, as they fought alongside their men to change the course of history (Rajab 1999). In 1996, when the Indian Government honoured a young 16-year-old martyr of the South African freedom struggle, Ms Valliamah Munusamy Moodaliar, who died soon after her imprisonment for resisting apartheid, few South Africans knew her story and the situation has not changed in any significant way. For large periods of our history in this country, Indian women were largely invisible. Perhaps it is true to say that among their counterparts of white and coloured women, Indian women were the most occupationally stagnant group under apartheid rule (Walker 1991). Though higher education records paint a different picture, their qualifications did not always translate into job opportunities or positions of high status and although they fought alongside their men in the Satyagraha struggles, the taboos of culture, religion and other societal norms kept them locked in the restrictive duties of domesticity (Walker 1991). That Indian women played a valuable and crucial role towards the liberation of their people cannot be overlooked. In relinquishing their traditional role to don the mantle of resistance, they sacrificed their material comforts for a higher-order principle so succinctly captured in the words of the great Valliamah, 'who would not want to die for one's own motherland?' This chapter looks at women from indenture to democracy.
The Rosenzweig P — F Study was administered to a group of South African Indian students (N = 403) from the University of Durban-Westville with slight modifications in administration. The subjects were divided into three groups and were instructed to react to Blacks in Group A, to Whites in Group B, and to Indians in Group C. The results indicated that the subjects differed in their responses to the three racial groups revealing predominantly intropunitive and impunitive responses to Blacks, and extrapunitive responses to Indians.
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