ABSTRACT

The batch of indentured labourers from Calcutta and Madras reached Natal on November 16, 1860, truly an ominous date for India itself. Thousands of Indians, under the same indenture system, had already settled in Mauritius. When therefore the news reached Mauritius that indentured labourers were going to Natal in great numbers, some Indian traders, who had already done business with such indentured emigrants, were induced to follow these new labourers to Natal in order to trade with them. In course of time children were born to the Indian labourers under indenture. The Indian traders saw that they could trade only with the indentured labourers and the “free Indians,” but also with the Zulus. Indian traders had usually an easy way of trading with the Zulus. The British had settled in Natal, where they obtained at first some concessions from the Zulus.