ABSTRACT
In a country of rigorous standards and colossal denials experienced by black peoples, Indians, who number a little more than 700,000 and constitute 2.8 percent of South Africa's population, have made a valuable contribution to the South African economy out of all proportion to their meager numbers. The assertion of European racist superiority manifested in attitudes and laws was aimed at keeping down the number of non-European immigrants so as to protect the present and the future interests of the European rulers. Whatever the extent of the discrimination against indigenous blacks, they cannot be considered "foreigners"; similarly, the coloured population is as local to South Africa as the Dtakensberg Mountain. The beginnings of Indian trade were very modest. In 1870 the first two Indian traders appeared on the scene to serve an Indian population in Natal of 6,000.
