Search results for ""Author Goolam Vahed""

In fascinating detail, Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed bring the inner workings of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) to life against the canvas of major political developments in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s, and up to the first democratic elections in 1994.The NIC was relaunched during the rise of the Black Consciousness Movement, which attracted a following among Indian university students, and whose invocation of Indians as Black led to a major debate about ethnic organisations such as the NIC. This debate persisted in the 1980s with the rise of the United Democratic Front and its commitment to non-racialism. The NIC was central to other major debates of the period, most significantly the lines drawn between boycotting and participating in government-created structures. The NIC continued to attract recruits who encouraged the development of community organisations. Some members played dual roles and were members of a legal organisation as well as allies of the African National Congress’ underground armed struggle. Drawing on oral interviews, newspaper reports, and minutes of organisational meetings, this in-depth study tells a largely untold history, challenging existing narratives around Indian ‘cabalism’, and bringing the African and Indian political story into present debates about race, class and nation.

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In this collection of letters between a South African political prisoner and a community organizer in Durban, two people who have never met become dear friends during the last decade of apartheid. Ahmed Kathrada is being held in Robben Island when he sends a letter to a former flat mate and receives a reply from the man's sister, Zuleikha Mayat, the "Betty Crocker" of South Africa and the editor of the best-selling cookbook Indian Delights. Virtual strangers, these two have in common their small-town Transvaal childhoods, and they find much to explore in their different approaches to culture, politics, and religion. The letters are written with wit and style as they discuss both the issues of the day and the sustenance found in memory.

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Explores the adaptation of Hinduism and Islam in diasporic settings and inter-religious relations in the Girmit diaspora. Archival research, micro-biographies, and ethnographic studies shine light on the development of Hindu and Muslim communities around the world, and the relationships between them, to deliver new insights into the history of indentured labour and its impact on the formation of religious heritage and identity. Twelve chapters cover regions including the Southern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean. Part I examines Hinduism in Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and the Caribbean, while Part II considers the Muslim diaspora. Importantly, Part III looks at the relationships between these two religious groups within the Girmit diaspora, including interreligious cooperation and the experiences of religiously mixed families. Includes perspective from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, linguists and others. Features contributors based in Australia, France, Fiji, Mauritius, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and the USA.

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