Sapire, Hilary (2018) The 1947 Royal Tour in Smuts' Raj: South African Indian responses. In: Aldrich, R. and McCreery, C. (eds.) Royals on Tour: Politics, Pageantry and Colonialism. Studies in Imperialism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526109378.
Abstract
Hailed for its 'healing influence' in the most troubled dominion in the post-war years, the royal visit of 1947 provoked contradictory and passionate responses from South Africa's Indian population, most of which was concentrated in the port city of Durban. Taking place in the midst of the Passive Resistance Campaign, the most concerted political action by Indian South Africans since Gandhi's departure in 1914, and in defiance of the Natal Indian Congress' call for a boycott of the royal visit in protest against the government's racially discriminatory policies, the ceremonies of welcome for the royal family in Natal attracted massive Indian crowds and effusions of loyalism. The chapter explores the reasons for the apparent resurgence of imperial loyalism amongst South African Indians in Durban. Taking place at the same time as the king's cousin, Lord Mountbatten was in India negotiating Britain's exit from the Asian subcontinent, when Jawaharlal Nehru, as head of the transitional Indian government projected himself as global leader of a resurgent 'Asianism' and anti-colonialism, and at a heightened moment of white 'anti-Indianism', the royal visit of 1947 posed unsettling questions about South African Indian identity, senses of belonging, and loyalty. It is with these dilemmas that this chapter is concerned.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | South Africa, Indians, Passive Resistance Movement, 1947 Royal Visit, moderates |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Hilary Sapire |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Apr 2018 13:59 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:39 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/21362 |
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