ABSTRACT
South African Indian women’s writings form an integral component of the African literary historiography and bring to light the role of women activists in the struggle for liberation and commitment to social justice and equality. A major feature of the Indian women’s writing is the concern with place, displacement, myths of identity and authenticity, and the engagement with these themes has added radical new dimensions to African resistance writings. The exclusionary practices in South African literary history have failed to accommodate the writings of black writers, as well as women writers. The exclusive nature of minority studies and the focus in this chapter on South African Indian women’s writing may be critiqued as ‘coolie ghettoizing’ given the need to reconcile the ravages of apartheid on the literary landscape with its unfortunate racial enclaves of white writings and black writings.
