SARANYA DEVAN
Just as the navel or belly button remains on the abdomen as permanent reminder of the attachment site of the life-giving umbilical cord, so too is the case with Indian diaspora around the world.
Indian culture, languages and religion jointly constitute the navel where the umbilical cord connects Indian communities around the globe with Motherland India.
The power of Indianness was driven home strongly for me since I embarked on a Journey of Devotion (Bhakti Payanam in Tamil) with 20 men and women on a religious and socio-cultural tour of Mauritius and Malaysia.
I have spent a lot of time in India and I am familiar with most things Indian – regional foods, languages, music, dance, dress and mannerisms – in the land where the roots of Indianness run deep.
I am familiar with the lifestyle distinctions of Indians in South Africa. Here I must add that the typical Indian characteristics that set apart this race group in South Africa have been air-brushed. Indian languages are no longer spoken. Woolies chick schnitzel has replaced Cornish chicken curry with pink-tipped double beans. Temples are being emptied of worshippers, especially the younger generation which seeks spiritual sustenance in pursuits other than religion. The sari is becoming as unfashionable as flowy dresses and hairspray.
Since the advent of democracy three decades ago, the South African Indian has been in a conundrum - whether to identify with the majority Africans, or whether to swim against the current and continue looking to Mother India for inspiration and stimulation.
The answer to the puzzle was plain and clear when I spent four days in Mauritius. Almost 68% of residents are of Indian origin with linguistic roots in Bhojpuri, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu and Telugu. The French influence on the paradise island is still strong - after all, it is estimated that 53% of Mauritians are Creole speakers, a French-originated dialect. Hence, Indians speak with a French accent. But while they may spell their Tamil and Hindi names differently from the way they appear in South Africa, Indians in Mauritius still cling fiercely to their cultural and religious traditions.
The Mauritius Tamil Temples Federation alone is governance custodian of at least 30 temples. Hindi-dominated temples count about 20 on the island, which from north to south, is equal to the distance between Durban and Stanger (KwaDukuza).
We were in Mauritius in the week running up to Thai Poosam Kavady and the temples were teeming with sari clad women, much like in Chennai. Various bhajan groups went from temple to temple, singing in praise of Lord Muruga.
A visit to the Mahatma Gandhi Institute which promotes research and preservation of cultural heritage and arts, especially languages, dance and music, made me cringe. We so arbitrarily closed down the Department of Indian Languages at the former University of Durban-Westville (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) when the ANC came into power. Moreover, I was gobsmacked by the fact that the MG Institute has over 2000 voluminous registers of the indenture labourers who arrived I Mauritius. Looking at those pictures with full name, place of departure, etc was a sight I’ll never forget.
I cringed again when we visited the Aapravasi Ghat, an Immigration Depot built in 1849 where indentured labourers from India disembarked in Mauritius. More than 164 years after the first Indian indentured workers landed in Durban, we have yet to erect a memorial.
On the second leg of our tour, I was again surprised to see how strongly Indians make their mark in Malaysia. They constitute just 6.6% of the population, with Malays and Chinese in the majority, but Indians surely punch above their weight. Here too, like in Mauritius, Indian customs and traditions are well preserved - and practised.
I love traditional Tamil dishes – dosa, idli, pongal, coconut chutney, sambar, rasam and filter coffee. I ate to my heart - and stomach’s - content in Malaysia. Soon after arrival, we had a vegetarian lunch at Saravana Bhavan restaurant in Kuala Lumpur – and I could have well been eating at Saravana Bhavan in Mylapore, Chennai. The taste, texture and presentation of the food is indistinguishable between the two cities. Not forgetting that most of my meals were on a banana leaf for most of the tour.
Tamils are in the majority among Malaysia’s two million Indians and, again their lifestyle so closely resembles that of the people of Tamil Nadu, never mind that they will keep adding “lah’ to sentences, although the word has no real meaning.
We were caught up in the fervour of Thai Poosam and some among our group carried kavady and paal kudam up the 272 steps to the Murugan temple in the Batu Caves. The festival is so popular, huge - it is respected by the central government with a public holiday - and at least one million devotees take part in the week-long festival.
Indians in Malaysia are more westernised than their counterparts in most of India. But when the occasion calls for it, they are not afraid to flaunt their Indianness.
On Thursday evening, the South African group presened a food festival for our Malaysian hosts. We carried mielie meal, rombo rusi spices, Saldanha canned fish, nuts pickle, Taystee wheat and madumbe on the aircraft for the South African Indian dishes we prepared: chilli bites, sour porridge and mixed vegetable curry, tinned fish chutney with boiled eggs, chicken breyani, roti, malva pudding, delectable trifle and soji. Hopefully, the GNU will not make these dishes extinct.
Saranya Devan is a theatre-maker, dance performer, academic and proud Tamilian. She holds an MA in dance from UCT, and a MA in Bharatha Natyam from the University of Madras.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.