The Indian community

The Boer War itself provided an unexpected boon to the municipality in the form of a concentration camp for Boer women and children, constructed at East London in 1902.

The war was soon over, however, and the buildings were then purchased by the Town Council at only half the cost of construction. The camp was thereupon turned into an Asian location in the hope that it would overcome the Indians' reluctance to build their own houses within the East Bank Location. In August 1903, a Council Regulation was then passed to force the Indians to take up abode within the location.

This decision proved to be highly controversial and reverberated even into the British House of Commons, where attempts were made to have the regulation vetoed. Although sympathy in both British and Cape governmental circles lay with the Asians, there was nothing that either body could do because the municipality's action was perfectly legal, constituted in terms of its Act of Parliament of 1895. Nevertheless, the town gained the reputation for being the most racist in the Cape Colony.

Most of the Indians had moved into the location by the end of 1904, at which point the population there peaked at 404 residents, with only about 100 Asians left within the town.

They quickly learnt, however, that there were ways around the regulation and that, if they rented accommodation in the town to the value of £75 annually, and as long as there were not more than six tenants in a house, the Council could not legally touch them. From 1904 onwards, therefore, the location population steadily decreased until, by 1912, it numbered a mere 53.

The Council was helpless to reverse the situation and was eventually forced to accept the principle that the Indians were determined to live within the town. It thereupon began to make use of the Asian location in other ways, especially for accommodating Poor Whites whose numbers escalated during the post-Boer War depression.

See also: Read more on East London's Indian community Knowledge4Africa.com Encyclopaedia East London The Really Useful East London Page

Why was East London unable to force its Indian population into the Asian Location?

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The problem lay in the Cape Colony's constitution which always allowed a way for anyone to improve himself and theoretically to become equal to the Whites. At the centre of this philosophy was an economic understanding that anyone — whether Black, White or Indian — was allowed to live within the town as long as he/she could pay the rents. At the same time, anyone who earned a certain annual sum or paid a rent that was higher than a specific minimum was then entitled to the vote. Such a person could not be legally discriminated against in any way. Although, therefore, the municipality was allowed to pass legislation to force Black and Indian people off the pavements and into the streets, this could not be applied to those Black and Indian people who had the vote. The Indians were very aware of this and so always set themselves up to earn enough money to be able to pay the rents and so become a voter. Once they were voters, the municipality could then not discriminate against them in any way.