India-South Africa bond a special one

By Ami Nanackchand I couldn't resist an interest in the story, headlined "Indians to invest in smelter", published in a local newspaper last week. The writer was reporting on the visit by executives of Tata Steel to Richards Bay, where the Tata Group plans to build a multi-million rand high carbon ferro-chrome smelter in the town. On another occasion, not too long ago, also in one of the local papers, the reporter still referred to Kingsmead (cricket ground), which as some know, has undergone a name change. It's now called Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, because the India-based global computer giant is the ground's chief benefactor. Whether the emphasis on Indians or the omission of their identity is deliberate or an embarrassment is beside the point. The reality is that the likes of Tata, Sahara, Ranbaxy, Mahindra, or Laxmi Mittal's steel giant, Ispat, are the new kids on the block as India's relations with South Africa reach a new turning point. Today, India celebrates the anniversary of the establishment of its republic. For some, it's an occasion to look back and reflect on the achievements of South Africa's historic and more recently, strategic relations with India. Yes, Indian roots in South Africa go back to 1860 - there were, of course, Indian slaves of Bengali, Malabar and Coromandel stock in the Cape around the early part of the 18th century. Yet Indians in this country remained stateless right up to 1961. Neither the Dutch, British nor their successors who became the first governors of the Union of SA conferred citizenship on Indians. Perfidious Albion (Britain) disowned Indians in their South African colonies right up to 1910 - even though Indians were their subjects. After union, their sons and daughters persevered doggedly, to repatriate Indians. When India emancipated itself from the yoke of the British by winning its political independence, it, in a way, retaliated by thumbing its nose at South Africa. For 47 years it regarded the racist apartheid regime as a pariah and cut off political, economic, cultural, sporting and other links with this country. But both countries' quest for a new relationship changed dramatically in 1994. There was a realisation that we couldn't go on harping about the sentimental ties between the countries, even though the temperature has risen in some quarters here as South Africans of Indian origin feel miffed by their exclusion from India's new dispensation on citizenship for a quota of its expatriates. Ten years is not a long time for business, economic and other conditions to change significantly. Both countries immediately started showing the paces of their strategic ties. Talking to Tata Steel icon Jamshed Irani, at Durban's Royal Hotel, I recall him waxing about the liberalisation of Indian industry - the watershed of which came in 1991. Others followed in the wake. Soon there was a beeline by all and sundry for South Africa. Few realised the Indian Ocean, rather than dividing the people of both countries, united them. The free and flourishing trade among seafarers of countries of the Ocean rim were disturbed only by a long period of colonialism. But in March 1997, the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation was formally set up at a meeting in Port Louis, Mauritius. At the time, India's External Affairs Minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, who later paid a state visit to South Africa as prime minister, described the ground-breaking agreement as the recovery of history and a vital re-affirmation of the vision of Afro-Asian partnership . The IORA has not recently featured on the radar screen in any noticeable manner. That's because it may not have the same idealism and political relevance it had in 1997. At least two of its founding members, South Africa and India, possess a leadership of ideas, which is more focused in the collective forum of developing countries. That's encouraging, because corporate South Africa and India have come a long way since apartheid and the years of the "license raj". As one Indian commentator reflecting on the Bollywood movie, Dewaar, says, perhaps the most memorable line is the standoff between the brothers, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Sashi Kapoor). One has power and riches. The other has nothing but the line: "Ma . . . mere pas ma hai ( at least I have my mother)". Whether one pulls at the purse strings or the heartstrings, the bonds between both countries will always be special and enduring. Published on the web by Post on January 26, 2005. © Post 2005. All rights reserved.