Editing History of South Africa (section)

===Natal===
{{Main|Colony of Natal}}
[[File:Indians arriving in South Africa.jpg|thumb|Indian indentured labourers arriving in Durban]]
Indian slaves from the [[Dutch India|Dutch colonies in India]] had been introduced into the Cape area of South Africa by the Dutch settlers in 1654.<ref>SA History.org [http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/history-indians-south-africa-timeline1654-2008 History of Indians in South Africa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912214138/http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/history-indians-south-africa-timeline1654-2008 |date=12 September 2018 }}, Accessed 29 April 2015</ref>

By the end of 1847, following annexation by Britain of the former Boer republic of Natalia, nearly all the Boers had left their former republic, which the British renamed Natal. The role of the Boer settlers was replaced by subsidised British immigrants of whom 5,000 arrived between 1849 and 1851.<ref>Alan F Hattersley, ''The British Settlement of Natal: A Study in Imperial Migration,'' [[Cambridge University Press]], 1950</ref>

By 1860, with slavery having been abolished in 1834, and after the annexation of Natal as a British colony in 1843, the British colonists in [[Colony of Natal|Natal]] (now [[kwaZulu-Natal]]) turned to [[India]] to resolve a labour shortage, as men of the local Zulu warrior nation were refusing to work on the plantations and farms established by the colonists. In that year, the [[Steamship|SS]] ''Truro'' arrived in Durban harbour with over 300 Indians on board.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First Indian workers arrive in South Africa {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/first-indian-workers-arrive-south-africa#:~:text=The%20first%20group%20of%20Indian,aboard%20the%20ship%20%E2%80%9CTruro%E2%80%9D. |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=www.sahistory.org.za}}</ref>

Over the next 50 years, 150,000 more [[Indentured servitude|indentured]] Indian servants and labourers arrived, as well as numerous free "passenger Indians," building the base for what would become the largest Indian diasporic community outside India.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stiebel |first=Lindy |date=2011-07-01 |title=Crossing the Kala Pani: cause for &quot;Celebration&quot; or &quot;Commemoration&quot; 150 years on? Portrayals of indenture in recent South African writing |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&issn=02564718&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA264761124&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231113111845/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&issn=02564718&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA264761124&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 November 2023 |journal=Journal of Literary Studies |language=English |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=77–91 |doi=10.1080/02564718.2011.580649 |s2cid=143867244 }}</ref>

By 1893, when the lawyer and social activist [[Mahatma Gandhi]] arrived in Durban, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal. The [[civil rights]] struggle of Gandhi's [[Natal Indian Congress]] failed; until the [[#Post-apartheid period (1994–present)|1994 advent of democracy]], Indians in South Africa were subject to most of the discriminatory laws that applied to all non-white inhabitants of the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indianness Reconfigured, 1944-1960: The Natal Indian Congress in South Africa - The O'Malley Archives |url=https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02914/06lv02917.htm |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=omalley.nelsonmandela.org}}</ref>