![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
This paper aims to add to our understanding of the cultural exchanges that took place between people of far away communities during the early twentieth century by looking at a few visiting Hindu missionaries in South Africa. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Hindu Arya Samaj missionaries began arriving in the country to propagate Hinduism and promote the reformist message. While the work of travelling Hindu missionaries in other places where Hindus settled in large numbers is well documented, much less is known about their work in South Africa. This paper tries to fill that void by looking at a few missionaries and the ideas that they tried to communicate in a particular period in the history of Hindus in South Africa. These missionaries who travelled across the globe and conducted lectures, formed religious institutions and worked with existing institutions in their attempts to propagate the Hindu religion, were very popular in South Africa and thousands attended the lectures that they conducted throughout the country. They were also crucial in motivating local Hindu leaders to establish bodies to unite the very heterogeneous group of Hindus and overcome sectional divisions. However, once they departed the enthusiasm shown soon disappeared and organisations that sought to unite Hindus fell into periods of inactivity. Looking at one period in which there were a few Hindu missionaries in the country together, this paper looks at the message that they tried to communicate, how they saw the position of Hindus and Indians in South Africa and address some of ways in which South Africans responded to the missionaries.
Notes
1See J.D. Kelly, A Politics of Virtue: Hinduism, Sexuality and Countercolonial Discourse in Fiji (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991); S. Vertovec, Hindu Trinidad: Religion, Ethnicity and Socio-Economic Change (London: Macmillan Education, 1992); and P. Van der Veer and S. Vertovec, ‘Brahmanism Abroad: On Caribbean Hinduism as an Ethnic Religion’, Ethnology, 30, 2 (1991), 149–166.
2M. Swan, Gandhi: A South African Experience (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985), 16–18, 200–103; 237; G. Vahed, ‘Swami Shankeranand and the Consolidation of Hinduism in Natal, 1908–1914’, Journal for the Study of Religion, 10, 2 (1997), 3–34; A. Desai and G. Vahed, Inside Indian Indenture. A South African Story, 1860–1914 (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2010), 237–247; S. Bhana and G. Vahed, The Making of a Social Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa, 1893–1914 (New Delhi: Manohar Press, 2005), 57–68.
3N. Vedalankar, Religious Awakening in South Africa: History of the Arya Samaj Movement in South Africa (Durban: Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, 1948).
4T. Naidoo. The Arya Samaj Movement in South Africa (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1992), and P.P. Kumar, Hindus in South Africa: Their Traditions and Beliefs (Durban: University of Durban-Westville, 2000).
5See K. Gopalan, ‘Caste, Class and Community: The Role of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha in (Re) Making Hinduism in South Africa 1912–1960’ (MA thesis, University of KwaZulu Natal, 2010).
6Regardless of the attempts by reformers, local and travelling missionaries to put an end to populist Hindu practices, the majority of South African Hindus practiced since the indenture period and continue to practice today, forms of worship and celebrate ceremonies condemned by reformers. For a description of the religious practices of Hindus in South Africa at different times see Desai and Vahed, Inside Indian Indenture, 228–248; Bhana and Vahed, The Making of a Social Reformer, 51–68; H. Kuper, Indian People in Natal (Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press, 1960), 186–261; A. Diesel and P. Maxwell, Hinduism in Natal: A Brief Guide (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1993) and Kumar, Hindus in South Africa.
7See S. Sugirtharajah, Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective (London: Routledge, 2003), 133–138.
8For a discussion of the Arya Samaj movement see K.W. Jones, Arya Dharma: Hindu Consciousness in Nineteenth-century Punjab (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), and B.C. Singh, Life and Teachings of Swami Dayananda (New Delhi: Jan Gyan Prakashan, 1871).
9M. Frost, ‘“Wider Opportunities”: Religious Revival, Nationalist Awakening and the Global Dimension in Colombo 1870–1920’, Modern Asian Studies, 36, 4 (2002), 937–967.
10For a discussion and brief literature review on how the Arya Samaj movement in India borrowed homogenising and missionary vocabulary from Christianity and Islam to remodel a counter colonial Hindu movement in India see Kelly, A Politics of Virtue, 121–139.
11See D.T. Reff, ‘Contextualizing Missionary Discourse: The Benavides Memorials of 1630 and 1634’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 50, 1 (1994), 51–67.
12Vedalankar, Religious Awakening, 48.
13Kelly, A Politics of Virtue, 131–139, and S. Vertovec, ‘Religion and Ethnic Ideology: The Hindu Youth Movement in Trinidad’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 13, 2 (1990), 132, 225–249.
14Vahed, ‘Swami Shankeranand’, 5.
15For India see B.D. Graham, Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
16Van Der Veer and Vertovec, ‘Brahmanism Abroad’, 160.
17Kelly, A Politics of Virtue, 5, 202.
18Kelly, A Politics of Virtue, 90–91.
19Van Der Veer and Vertovec, ‘Brahmanism Abroad’, 161.
20For a discussion about Indian elites in South Africa see Kuper, Indian People, 44–80, and Swan, Gandhi, 16–18.
21South Indian indentured migrants as a percentage of the total indentured population constituted 6.3 per cent in Fiji, 31.9 per cent in Mauritius, and 6.3 per cent in British Guiana. In Natal, it was 67.9 per cent: see B.V. Lal, ‘The Indenture System’, in B.V Lal, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora (Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2006), 46–52.
22For founding principles of the Arya Samaj in Bombay see Singh, Life and Teachings, 103–104. The foreword to this book was written by Bhartendra Nath who argued that Swami Dayananda ‘realising that the Indian society's drawback is its disunity and division, he gave the call of one God-Om, one religion Vedic Dharma, one scripture-Hindi, one caste Arya and one method-Sandhya’ (). However, some scholars, such as Vickie Langohr, have argued that the promotion of Hindi as the medium for understanding Hindu scriptures was an aim by Arya Samaj leaders in India as part of the Hindu nationalist drive to ‘unify the Hindu community and marginalise the “Muslim” language Urdu’: see V. Langohr, ‘Colonial Education Systems and The Spread of Local Religious Movements: The Cases of British Egypt and Punjab’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 47 (2005), 161–189, 163.
23See C. Kuppusami, Tamil Culture in South Africa (Durban: Rapid Graphic, 1993), 49, 50, 98.
24There are few exceptions like in 1936 when Ms Sammy, a Hindu woman from prominent Hindu family converted to Islam to marry the Indian Agent General sent to South Africa, Sri Sayed Raza Ali who was Muslim. In protest Hindu members of the Natal Indian Congress threatened to resign as a form of protest. However, instances like this were very rare and issues which divided South African Indian political leaders were usually secular issues like the decision to participate in the South African government's colonisation scheme. See S. Bhana, Gandhi's Legacy: The Natal Indian Congress 1894–1994 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1997).
25K. Gopalan, ‘Caste, Class and Community’.
26Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre (Hereafter GLDC), Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Collection (Hereafter APS), Minutes of 1933 APS Hindu Conference, 23 October 1933.
27Although Swami Shankaranand was a proponent of the Arya Samaj, due to the heterogeneity of South African Hindus he dispelled that label Arya Samaj and claimed to represent the interests of all Hindus. The name Maha Sabha meaning ‘great society’ was selected as the name for this body. However, a list of the local leaders in the Maha Sabha showed that they also belonged to Arya Samaj bodies. For a list of these leaders see N.P. Desai, ‘A History of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha’, in R.S. Nowbath, S. Chotai and B.D. Lalla, eds, The Hindu Heritage in South Africa (Durban: The South African Hindu Maha Sabha, 1960), 91–95.
28Desai, ‘A History of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha’, 91–97.
29B.D. Lalla, ‘A Review of the Work of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha’, in Nowbath et al., The Hindu Heritage, 108, 107–111.
30‘South African Hindu Maha Sabha, Council Meeting’, Dharma Vir, 6 September 1918 and ‘Notes and News’, Dharma Vir, 18 October 1918.
31For example, an umbrella Tamil body aiming to unite all the Tamil bodies in the country was founded in 1924 with 22 affiliated bodies but it lost momentum when its secretary, P.R. Pather, and chairman, V.S.C. Pather went to Cape Town to attend the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) conferences. See Kuppusami. Tamil Culture, 49, 50, 98.
32See U. Dhupelia-Mesthrie, ‘The Cape Town Agreement and its Effects upon Natal Indian Politics, 1927–1934’ (Paper presented to the conference of History of Natal and Zululand, University of Natal, Durban, 1985), and B. Dayal and B. Chaturvedi, ‘A Report on the Emigrants Repatriated to India under the Assisted Emigration Scheme from South Africa’, an independent study published by B. Dayal and B. Chaturvedi, 15 May 1951.
33‘Professor Ralaram’, Indian Opinion, 19 February 1932.
34Vedalankar, Religious Awakening, 54.
35N.D. Pandya, The Samaj: An Outline of the History of Transvaal Hindu Seva Samaj 1932–1982 (Johannesburg: PNJ Publishers, 1982), 16.
36 Indian Opinion, 2 February 1934.
37GLDC, APS, 23 October 1933, and see ‘A General Meeting of the Maha Sabha’, Indian Opinion, 5 January 1934.
38In two articles, the Indian Opinion voiced strong disapproval arguing that the Maha Sabha would create communal divisions in South Africa like the All Hindu Mahasabha was doing in India. Indian Opinion editor, Manilal Gandhi may have opposed the Maha Sabha due to his opposition to its leaders who were also part of the Natal Indian Congress which chose to participate in the South African Government's Colonisation Scheme whereas Manilal was part of a breakaway group to oppose it. The All Hindu Mahasabha in India was in opposition to Manilal's father, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi at this time and the South African Hindu Maha Sabha's founder Swami Shankaranand was also Gandhi's adversary during his South African stay. Manilal was probably opposed to a South African version of the Maha Sabha for similar ideological reasons to his father. See ‘The Hindu Maha Sabha’, Indian Opinion, 5 May and 14 May 1934, and Gopalan, ‘Caste, Class and Community’, 81–83.
39‘Lapse of twenty years, Hindu revival conference’, Natal Mercury, 28 May 1934.
40‘Lapse of twenty years, Hindu revival conference’, Natal Mercury, 28 May 1934.
41‘Lapse of twenty years, Hindu revival conference’, Natal Mercury, 28 May 1934.
42‘Lapse of twenty years, Hindu revival conference’, Natal Mercury, 28 May 1934.
45GLDC, South African Hindu Maha Sabha collection (Hereafter SAHMS), Minutes of 1934 SAHMS Hindu Conference, 27 May 1934.
43See A. Desai and G. Vahed, Monty Naicker: Between Reason and Treason (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter, 2010), 49–63.
44GLDC, South African Hindu Maha Sabha collection (Hereafter SAHMS), Minutes of 1934 SAHMS Hindu Conference, 27 May 1934.
46GLDC, South African Hindu Maha Sabha collection (Hereafter SAHMS), Minutes of 1934 SAHMS Hindu Conference, 27 May 1934.
47GLDC, South African Hindu Maha Sabha collection (Hereafter SAHMS), Minutes of 1934 SAHMS Hindu Conference, 27 May 1934.
48GLDC, South African Hindu Maha Sabha collection (Hereafter SAHMS), Minutes of 1934 SAHMS Hindu Conference, 27 May 1934.
49These reasons have been put forward by Hindu leaders in the country throughout the twentieth century. However, the reasons for conversion in South African are far more complex. In spite of the concern by Hindu leaders during the interwar period, it was only after the passing of the Group Areas Act in 1950 when large numbers of Hindus began converting to Christianity. See G. Pillay, Religion at the Limits? Pentecostalism among Indian South Africa (Pretoria: University of South Africa, 1994).
50These sentiments appear in Maha Sabha and APS council meetings. In 1946 the Maha Sabha began publishing a journal called the Hindu which it distributed to affiliated organisations and temples. In one article titled ‘Divine Healing and Conversions’, local Hindu leader N.P. Desai argued that that ‘misguided Christian missionaries, in order to gain their ends, have been sent all over Natal to convert large masses of ignorant, illiterate and economically downtrodden Hindus to Christianity’. In a different untitled article but in the same edition of the Hindu, Desai argued that if Hindus studied their own texts they would realised that there is no need for conversion. See Hindu, May 1946. For a lengthy discussion about the relation between poverty, ignorance and conversion see South African Hindu Maha Sabha (Hereafter SAHMS), Biennial General Report, June 1945 to March 1947. Made available by SAHMS secretary in 2009.
51‘Philosophy of the East, Dr Mehta Jaimini to Lecture in City’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1933.
52P. Ramsurrun, Arya Samaj in a Nutshell (Delhi: Aryan Heritage, 1984), 32.
53P. Ramsurrun, Arya Samaj in a Nutshell (Delhi: Aryan Heritage, 1984), 32.
54‘Philosophy of the East, Dr Mehta Jaimini to Lecture in City’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1933.
55S. Vertovec, ‘Religion and Ethnic Ideology’, 227.
56S. Vertovec, ‘Religion and Ethnic Ideology’, 227.
57‘Philosophy of the East, Dr Mehta Jaimini to Lecture in City’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1933.
58Vedalankar, Religious Awakening, 55.
59 Indian Opinion, 1 June 1934.
60‘Philosophy of the East, Dr Mehta Jaimini to Lecture in City’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1933.
61‘Dr Jaimini's Lecture on the Vedas’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1934.
62‘Dr Jaimini's Lecture on the Vedas’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1934.
63‘Dr Jaimini's Lecture on the Vedas’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1934.
64‘Dr Jaimini's Lecture on the Vedas’, Natal Witness, 30 April 1934.
65 Indian Opinion, 11 May 1934.
66‘Dr Jaimini on Reincarnation’, Natal Witness, 14 May 1934.
67‘Study of Indian Culture’, Indian Opinion, 15 June 1934.
68 Indian Opinion, 18 June 1934.
69 Natal Witness, 4 May 1934.
70See J. Hoefle, ‘The British Empire's Fascism Stalks America’, Executive Intelligence Review (2009), 12–18.
71 Natal Witness, 4 May 1934.
72 Natal Witness, 4 May 1934.
73 Natal Witness, 7 June 1934.
74‘The Future of a Great Religion’, Natal Witness, 7 June 1934.
75‘Swami Adhyananda’, Indian Opinion, 15 May 1934.
76‘Swami Adhyananda’, Indian Opinion, 15 May 1934.
77‘Shri Swami Adyananandji's speech’, Indian Opinion, 25 May 1934.
78‘Shri Swami Adyananandji's speech’, Indian Opinion, 25 May 1934.
79‘Swami Adhyananda’, Indian Opinion, 15 May 1934.
80‘Shri Swami Adyananandji's speech’, Indian Opinion, 25 May 1925.
81‘Welcome to Swami Adyannadji’, Natal Witness, 22 May 1934.
82Undated article taken from the Natal Witness: see GLDC, Press Cuttings, R.B. Maharaj Collection of Press Cuttings.
83Undated article taken from the Natal Witness: see GLDC, Press Cuttings, R.B. Maharaj Collection of Press Cuttings. For a summary of his lectures see ‘Swami Adayanand bids Farewell’, Natal Witness, 20 August 1934.
84‘What is Hinduism’, Natal Witness, 8 June 1934.
85‘What is Hinduism’, Natal Witness, 13 June 1934.
86‘Christian Teaching in Hindu Schools’, Natal Witness, 29 August 1934.
87‘Hindu Women's Interests’, Indian Opinion, 28 September 1934.
88 Indian Opinion, 2 November 1934.
89 Indian Opinion, 2 December 1934.
91‘Departure of Swami Adyananda’, Indian Opinion, 4 January 1935.
90‘Departure of Swami Adyananda’, Indian Opinion, 4 January 1935.
92See S. Bhana, Indentured Indian Emigrants to Natal, 1860–1902: A Study Based on Ships' Lists (New Delhi: Promilla & Co, 1991), 43–65.
93For an ethnographic study of Hindus conducted in the later 1950s see Kuper, Indian People, 186–261. For a study dealing with Hindu temples in South Africa which contain some historical information on practices conducted in these temples see P. Mikula, B. Kearney and R. Harber, Traditional Hindu Temples in South Africa (Durban: Hindu Temple Publications, 1982).
94 Natal Witness, 26 October 1934.
95 Natal Witness, 26 October 1934.
96 Indian Opinion, 18 May 1934.
97 Natal Advertiser, 18 July 1934
98Vedalankar, Religious Awakening, 55–56.
99 Natal Advertiser, 17 July 1934.
100 Indian Opinion, 3 August 1934.
101‘Baroda Girl Guides, Indian Reception in Durban’, Natal Witness, 30 July 1934.
102‘Touring Girl Guides’ Criticism’, Natal Witness, 14 August 1934.
103 Natal Advertiser, 18 October 1934.
104 Indian Opinion, 26 October 1934
105 Natal Witness, 26 October 1934.
106 Natal Witness, 26 October 1934.
107 Natal Witness, 26 October 1934.
108 Natal Advertiser, 30 October 1934.
109Vedalankar, Religious Awakening, 56.
110 Indian Opinion, 16 November 2010.
111Bhawani Dayal makes reference to this term in many of his speeches when referring to the regions Indians settled in. He was also editor to a newspaper distributed throughout these regions where Indians settled. For a study dealing with his use of the term in his newspaper see H. Hofmeyr, P. Kaarsholm and L. Subramanian, ‘Introduction: Print Cultures, Nationalisms and Publics of the Indian Ocean’ (Paper presented at the Print Cultures, Nationalisms and Publics of the Indian Ocean conference, Johannesburg, January 2009).
112Gopalan, ‘Caste, Class and Community’.
113These are the sentiments of Maha Sabha secretary S.R. Pather in SAHMS, Council Meeting, 17 May 1939. Made available by the SAHMS secretary in 2009.