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23-11-2019, 19:46 #1
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159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
159 years ago, in South Africa, 16 November 1860 the first ship brought 342 Indentured labourers from Madras. Poor Indian communities from many parts of India were transported as indentured labourers to work on the sugarcane plantations of Natal Colony, and, in total, approximately 200,000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers over a period of 5 decades, later also as indentured coal miners and railway workers.
‘Coolie’ in Tamil referred to payment for menial work for people at the lowest levels the labour sector. The term ‘coolie’ was later used as a derogatory term for all South Asians, though in Tamil the meanings never change (lowest sector labourer, wage)
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23-11-2019, 20:37 #2
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
A Pakistani told me that the word refers to a certain caste within Indian society, meaning "carrier".
Would like to know more about this.
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23-11-2019, 21:09 #3
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
It is a Tamil word for- ‘lowest sector labourer’ and ‘lowest wage kinds’. India is a caste system country for many thousand years. In that sense a coolie should be from a lower cast, yes. There was no cast named as Coolie. At Railway stations and Ports, the porters (carriers) were called as coolies by British.
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23-11-2019, 22:10 #4
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
Thanks.
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24-11-2019, 02:56 #5
Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
@ Ds J, Kula is clan ( or ~caste). Coolie/Kuli is porter/doorman/bellhop/errand boy. The Coolies are from the working class and laborer caste but are not untouchable caste. The form (formed) an important role in society there ( still do).
@ avislog, It is not a Tamil word but a common term across British India for porter. ( British India was from Persian/Afghan to Burma to Southern tip of India) not just the fraction of what is called India today. ( I suspect that you cut and pasted some Inida Indians personal definition)
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They did not come from Madras, they came from the Madras Presidency which was almost half of todays India South of the Bombay Presidency. ( fyi Fort St George > Madras City > Chennai)
They were recruited and were not slaves. They were willing and free will. The Indenture was a working visa.
Indians were first here in South Africa 210 years before this date. via the Dutch and the many via the Portuguese via LM into the Boer Republics. ( before the Dutch Indians came to South Africa via East Africa in search of gold and mined here. They went as far as Baviaans Kloof)
The celebration of this arrival is spitting on the history of those that came here and suffered slavery ( Cape) and the confiscation of rights ( of pensions and land ~ The Boer Republics after the British occupied Boer lands)
History is what the one wants to believe ( or researchers get paid for or youtubers get incentivised for or politicians use to massage the electorate).
Celebrate or remembering this arrival is a nail in the coffin of the real arival 210 years prior.Last edited by KK20; 24-11-2019 at 03:04.
live out your imagination , not your history.
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24-11-2019, 07:35 #6
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
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24-11-2019, 07:41 #7
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
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24-11-2019, 07:50 #8
Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
1834
1879
These years and its records erased by the British.
These year saw the influx of a large number of Indian Military men for the Boer war and Zulu war.
Records gone but artifacts never lie ...live out your imagination , not your history.
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24-11-2019, 07:57 #9
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
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24-11-2019, 11:32 #10
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Re: 159 Years ago news “The Coolies Here’ at Port Natal
KK20 has deeper knowledge in SA history.
Tamil (Dravidian) and Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) are the ancient languages in India. Sanskrit became dead language at the time of Buddha (c 500 BCE). Tamil is still spoken by around 70 million people around the world. Before European merchants arrived, Tamil was the trade language in South Asia sea routes for Arabs, and Chinese. There are more than 500 Tamil words in Korean language. Later English too adopted many words from Tamil one of them is ‘Coolie’.
I see in media, Hindustani, Gujarati, and Hindi languages has word ‘Coolie’ with similar meaning. These languages are younger when to compare to Tamil.
The first batch of Indentured labourers were not from Madras, they were boarded ship from Madras port. We could read the history of SA, 1860 as the landing of first Indentured labourers from India not the first Indians to South Africa.
For centuries Arab and Indian sailors helped European merchant ships once they left coast of Africa . They were hired in their ships to navigate South Asian and Far-East sea routes. Their history is still under the carpet.
I read poor people from Ireland and Scotland were sent to Australia as Indentured labourers. A labour contract exploited by British Empire against the poor people around the world
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