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DECEMBER 2010, CONFERENCE |
International Seminar
on
India and South Africa: Political, Economic,
Strategic and Diaspora Relations
2-3 December 2010
Venue: 2/12/2010 at Conference Hall-1, India International Centre ,
Max Muller Marg, New Delhi &
3/12/2010 at 203-School of International Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delh
organized by
African Studies Association of India (ASA India)
in collaboration with
India International Centre (IIC) &
Centre for African Studies, JNU
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Session 1
Political Relations: Historical Goodwill and Current Issues
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Abstract
India and South Africa: Strategic Partners in Africa?
Sanusha Naidu
India and South Africa have both identified themselves as strategic partners seeking to pursue common interests with respect to reforming the global system towards equitable power relations, championing the voice of the South and advocating Africa’s sustainable development agenda that is aimed at increasing the continent’s integration in the global economy. While both New Delhi and Pretoria portray themselves as active development partners in Africa, it is also becoming evident that Indian Inc and corporate South Africa have also identified the African market as a critical space for doing business.
Recently during President Zuma’s official visit to India, it was explicitly stated that South Africa can serve as a gateway into Africa that will see an expansive consumer market being opened up for Indian and SA businesses to exploit. While it is important to recognise the role of business in the engagement between India and SA, it must also be borne in mind that this idea of India and SA being strategic partners in Africa can have the parochial effect of perpetuating the self-interests of the corporates in Africa.
Therefore this presentation will interrogate the extent to which India and SA are strategic partners in Africa. Is it borne out of a shared political concern or an economic expediency? How will this be perceived amongst African actors (both elites and ordinary persons)? Finally are we witnessing a new corporate formation between Indian and SA businesses to exploit African economies? And as a result, what is the outcome for the normative view that India and South Africa are seeking to reverse Africa’s underdevelopment misfortunes?
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| By ASA India on 30-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
Behind the Veil: India’s relations with Apartheid South Africa
Hussein Solomon and Sonja Theron
History remembers India as a vocal and consistent supporter of the anti-apartheid movement. The existing literature on relations between India and apartheid South Africa describe an antagonistic relationship defined by decades of sanctions. However, such literature only scratches the surface of India and South Africa’s true relations. Archival research has shown that India’s stance towards South Africa was much more ambiguous than expressed on the international stage. Evidence has surfaced that India considered re-establishing diplomatic relations with South Africa and exchanged military technology. Moreover, the reasons for publicly opposing the apartheid regime were not purely ethical but also strategic. These include establishing newly-independent India as a player on the world stage, seeking to play a role in the Commonwealth and maintaining manoeuvrability in a bi-polar world. Thus, this paper analyses archival evidence within India’s domestic and international context, including the Indian foreign policy establishment, economic and security crises and caste issues. This research then serves as an example of India’s more pragmatic and less normative foreign policy by showing how India’s stance on apartheid was, while also having ethical concerns, mainly adopted for strategic reasons. It also serves a wider purpose by demonstrating the complexity of foreign policy making and the inability of a single theory to explain these complex processes. Rather, multiple theories, using realism as a base that is complemented by bureaucratic politics and psychological aspects, need to be used to explain foreign policy outcomes. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
India and South Africa: Historic Goodwill and its Contemporary Relevance to Political Relation
Dr. Jamal M. Moosa
India and South Africa relation can be traced to the global reorganisation that colonialism undertook. The transfer of indentured labourers resulted in active movement of traders, professionals such as lawyers. Amongst these was Mahatma Gandhi who began to experiment with Satyagraha and other forms of struggle during his sojourn in South Africa. These relations got further depth on the collaboration with each other during the long nationalist struggles. Moreover after attaining independence India continued to actively support anti racial and anti apartheid struggle. India was the first country to sever trade relations with the apartheid Government and subsequently imposed a complete diplomatic, commercial, cultural and sports embargo on South Africa. India also consistently put the issue of apartheid on the agenda of the UN, NAM and other multilateral organisations and demanded for the imposition of comprehensive international sanctions against South Africa. The ANC has been maintaining a representative office in New Delhi from the 1960s onwards.
When the negotiations of transfer of power were initiated between the Apartheid South African Government and the ANC, India restored relations with South Africa after a gap of over four decades with the opening of a Cultural Centre in Johannesburg in May 1993. Formal diplomatic and consular relations with South Africa were restored in November 1993 during the visit to India of the then South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha. The Indian High Commission in Pretoria was opened in May 1994. Similarly a series of high profile visits have been undertaken by the top political leadership of both the countries including the President of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma\'s State Visit to India in June 2010. President Zuma’s delegation included seven Cabinet Ministers and three MOUs/Agreements were signed during the visit.
Both the countries have signed many agreements since the transfer of power. These include the 1995 agreements on the principles of inter state relationship and the setting up of the Joint commission at the level of Foreign Ministers to identify areas of mutually beneficial cooperation. The 7th session of the Commission was held in Pretoria in February 2008. They also collaborate on trilateral basis under the IBSA Initiative began in June 2003 when the Foreign Ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa set up a Dialogue Forum for regular consultations. Subsequently in 2006 these were upgraded to Summit level dialogue. Four such Summits have been held with the last one Brasilia in April 2010. Similarly India and South Africa have a common approach on many global issues, including UNSC reform, the future of multilateralism, climate change, South-South Cooperation and multilateral trade negotiations. This has led to cooperation in such multilateral fora.
As a consequence at the time of transfer of power both India and South Africa had large goodwill of mutual struggle and striving against historic oppression. It is more that one and half decade since those changes were achieved in South Africa. There is a need to re-evaluate and revisit past relationship and prospects for the future. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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SESSION 2
Political Relations: Historical Goodwill and Current Issues |
Abstract
India and South Africa’s Potential to Reshape the Global Order through IBSA: Possibility or Pipedream?
Karen Smith
This paper explores the India-South Africa relationship within the context of the IBSA forum, focusing on the potential of this grouping to the future global order. It is argued that India and South Africa, together with Brazil, constitute a potentially powerful independent, alternative bloc to counter both Western and Chinese dominance. Importantly, they are democracies who share a stated commitment to human rights, international law and multilateralism. Relatedly, they share a similar approach to many global issues, in particular a stated commitment to promoting the interests of the global South, and reforming global institutions like the UN. In short, they are states who are not Western, yet still promote a liberal internationalist order which is underpinned by universally accepted values. In order to achieve their foreign policy objectives and advance their stated goals of global reform and a more equitable international order, however, it is important that these states intensify their strategic alliance in all spheres for the pursuit of common interests in global institutions, and to increase cooperation in a number of areas. The 2011/2012 UN Security Council term, in which all three IBSA states will serve as non-permanent members, provides an important opportunity to solidify existing alliances and to consolidate strategies. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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ABSTRACT
India and South Africa Partnership in the Age of Globalization
Dr. Imankalyan Lahiri
Today in the age of globalization India and South Africa is working hard to implement a new strategy in the international platform, i.e , in the words of Andre Gunder Frank ‘development of underdevelopment”. Both the nations are trying hard to establish a relationship between expansion of national economic base and enhancement of external capabilities by establishing greater autonomy in foreign policy decision making through non-violent yet conflictual strategy. Thus South-South co-operation acquired a discernable dimension under the leadership of India and South Africa in the continents of Asia and Africa respectively. In recent years India and South Africa is scheming their domestic and International policies so as to maximize the potential benefits from globalization, and to minimize the downside risks of destabilization in the international platform. The decline of U.S. global hegemony and the current fundamental restructuring of world power raise questions about the future role of the emerging powers of India and South Africa Partnership. The emergence South Africa (and other countries like Brazil) as economic powers provided India the opportunity to pursue South-South connections again which was almost lost during the cold war period. Strategically, both the nations are now striving hard to shift their economy from P-Economy (Production driven economy) to the K-Economy (Knowledge Driven Economy).
In order to understand the relation between the two countries it is necessary to establish a theoretical framework and the context in which they are operating in the age of globalization. Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that, since the end of the Cold War, the world has become a more complex place. Consequently, the old theories of International Relations that were used to explain the relation between two emerging economies in two different continents are no longer useful to understand the current dynamics of bi-lateral relations. The objective of this paper is to comprehensively analyse the strategic partnership between India and the South Africa, under the theoretical approach of inter-regionalism. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Section 3
Strategic Relations: Strategic Partnership and Competing Interests |
Abstract
South Africa and India: Political and Military linkages
J. E. Spence
My paper examines the diplomatic and strategic relations developed between India and SA in the contemporary era. I hope to focus in particular on the different trajectories followed by the two countries as each began and continued a process of emergence to a new, still to be fully defined, role in international politics. An attempt will be made to compare and contrast the experience of this process and the incentives and constraints governing productive relations between the two countries. Particular attention will be paid to naval cooperation in the Indian Ocean, arrangements for staff exchanges for training purposes and joint participation in peace keeping and/or peace making operations. General diplomatic cooperation – e.g. support for each state’s claim to a permanent seat on the Security Council will be explored. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
India and South Africa: Strategic Partnership and Competing Interest
Dr. Nivedita Ray
India and South Africa are strategic partners. Their partnership is being defined by the changing international and regional security environment. It is guided by common vision of a global order marked by peace and security and common positions in various strategic and securities issues. Various factors contribute to this partnership. Both countries are endowed with significant geo-strategic and geo-political importance in their respective regions. They are emerging powers and influential players in their region. Both possess considerable attributes of power in terms of military force, expanding economies and so also an expanding industrial infrastructure.
As they are emerging regional powers with rising aspirations, they have a strategic stake in the peace and stability in their respective regional security environment and their extended neighborhoods. They have stated areas of strategic convergence. Some of these stated areas of convergence are the plethora of ‘new’ security threats including terrorism, flows of illegal migrants and refugees, international crime syndicates, illicit small and light arms trade, money laundering schemes, narcotics trafficking, environmental degradation, the spread of communicable diseases and transborder crime. Both countries are consolidating their cooperation at the bilateral and multilateral level to deal with such threats. South Africa’s support to India in the Indo-US Nuclear deal passing through the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is yet another area of strategic convergence. In addition to this maritime security is another important area of contemporary strategic convergence between the two countries. Both are littoral states to the Indian Ocean and thus are located in each other’s strategic neighbourhood. They have common interests in the Indian Ocean region, which includes protection of the sea lanes of communication, and the threat of piracy in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
However, despite these common interests that shape their strategic relationship there are areas where they have competing interests. Both countries for instance have different perspectives on the NPT and nuclear disarmament. Both countries are legitimate aspirants to permanent membership on the UN Security Council. Both countries while pursuing their own national security interest in the Indian Ocean and the African region are competing for power, influence, hydrocarbon and strategic resources and market.
So India and South Africa strategic relations are marked by common and competing interests. This paper will try to explore this relationship and reflect upon their complementarities as well as competing interests in various strategic and security issues.
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| By ASA India on 27-Nov-2010 |
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Section 4
Strategic Relations: Strategic Partnership and Competing Interests
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Abstract
India-South Africa Strategic Relations: The Way Ahead
Meena Singh Roy
India and South Africa have rich historical relations going back to the colonial period. India has been in the forefront of the anti-apartheid struggle ever since Mahatma Gandhi started his civil disobedience in South Africa during 1890s and 1900s. There is also the shared oceanic history from the time of the Arab traders to the present Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation. The bilateral ties between the two countries have grown significantly since the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994.The rapidly shifting international environment and the concomitant strategic imperatives have been a major factors in forcing the two countries to reorient their foreign relations towards each other.
The strategic significance of South Africa for India is undeniable. The Red Fort Declaration signed between the two countries can be seen as the beginning of new phase in the evolving strategic partnership between the two countries. India views South Africa not only as important entity in Africa but also an emerging power globally. In contemporary times, India has not only deepened this relationship but expanded it to cover wide-ranging political, economic and security aspects. India and South Africa have also developed military cooperation, trading arms and joint exercises and programs to train forces.India’s trade and economic relations have been growing fast. The trade relations have grown from US $4billion in 2005-06 to US $7.5 billion in 2009. Indo-South African relations have also extended under the framework of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Grouping.
Both India and South Africa are key countries in their regions. The current security challenges- terrorism, narcotics trafficking, issues of climate change, energy security, sea piracy are common challenges on which both the nations need to work under various bilateral, regional and multilateral frameworks. There are also shared concerns about United Nations reform and the future role and relevance of the NAM in this new global order which is still evolving. Today, India-South Africa relations reflect both complementarities and competing interests. The present study is an attempt to explore the potential of strategic partnership and examine the complexities faced by the two countries to take this partnership to new levels in future. |
| By ASA India on 29-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
India-South Africa Strategic and Security Relations
Bijay Ketan Pratihari
India and South Africa have long historical relationships. This could be traced back to the age old migration of Indians to that part of the world much before the colonizers entered South Africa. The million strong Indian diaspora is strong heritage resource and represents the oldest cultural link between the two countries. This linkage was further strengthened by the struggle for freedom and justice in South Africa where Mahatma Gandhi started his Satyagraha movement over a century ago. India, at that time, was in the forefront of the international community in its support to the anti-apartheid movement. India was the first country to severe trade relations with the apartheid government (1946) and subsequently imposed a complete – diplomatic, commercial, cultural and sports embargo on South Africa. India had worked consistently highlighted the problems of apartheid in the multilateral organisations like UN, NAM and other organisations. The African National Congress (ANC) maintained a representative office in New Delhi from 1960s onwards.
Since India occupied a special place in South African history, the move to normalize the relationship was expedited in the post-apartheid period. As a result the diplomatic relations between the two countries was established in 1993. Reestablishing formal links with South Africa was a formality by looking back the long association with that country. The relationships between the two countries have since then seem to be relatively trouble free because both the countries share similar basic values. Among various aspects of bilateral relationship, strategic and security relationship is no less important.
Defence cooperation is one of the oldest areas of cooperation in the post-1994 period. India’s biggest support has been in the form of training exercises for peacekeeping operations, in which South African Defence Force had very little experience. In this field India had a wide experience having participated in the peacekeeping operations in Congo, Namibia, Mozambique, Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, and Angola.
India and South Africa are littoral states to the Indian Ocean and thus are located in each other’s strategic neighbourhood. They have common, as well as competing, interests in the Indian Ocean region, around the Western Indian Ocean islands, across the sea lanes of communication, and in the threat of piracy in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
Another area where the future cooperation can be possible is tackling the ‘non-conventional threats’, such as narcotics and human trafficking, small arms proliferation and border control. There is also no real discussion of bilateral cooperation on the ‘war on terror’.
On nuclear issue there is discord between India and South Africa. This has become a constant irritant in the relation between two countries. The reasons are like South Africa is an advocate of non-proliferation. It had voluntarily relinquished its nuclear capacity after 1994 and joined both NPT and CTBT. India on the other hand because of security concerns has been refusing to sign both NPT and CTBT. It has also developed nuclear weapons and capability to deliver them, and had conducted several tests since 1974. This does not mean that India opposes universal disarmaments. But India held that these two treaties (NPT, CTBT) are discriminatory in nature. However the two countries were coming closer because of two reasons, first, India and South Africa have agreed for phased eliminations of all nuclear weapons. Secondly, India is coming closer to USA on strategic issues including the civil nuclear issue. In this regard South Africa welcomed the Indo-US nuclear deal and supported India in the Nuclear Supplier Group.
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| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Section 5
Economic Relations: Challenges of South-South Co-operation |
Abstract
Indo-South African Economic Relations: Challenges of South-South Co-operation
Dr. Suresh Kumar
Indian Ocean strengthens the brotherly bond and key linkage between India and South Africa that connects both the countries further to Atlantic Ocean, opening the way to the other parts of the world. The geo-strategic concerns regarding security and maritime trade in Asia and Southern Africa are the source of economic ties between them in general and at the country level in particular. The security concerns further lead to the greater understanding between the two countries and strengthens their defense market during normal as well as period of exigency. The maritime trade of the countries with Latin American countries in general and India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) in particular provides alternative economic relations to the world community.
India and South Africa are having significant positions in the emerging international economic order, supported by rapid GDP growth, technological advancements and strong manpower base. Both of them decreased their dependence on the West systemically for trade and investments and generate different products in their respective countries. Both have asserted their leadership on all the international platforms and raised the interests of the developing countries on different issues such as poverty & food security, farm subsidies, climate change and adoption of clean-green technology.
The private sectors of both the countries focus on inclusive growth and social change that fit well in the emerging global economic order for competitiveness and inclusivity. It is incumbent on both, the state businesses to work for long-term bilateral partnership. In the India Business Forum (IBF), South Africa is one of the major platforms to strengthen positive impact on the bilateral trade and investment flows. Bilateral trade volume between both the countries grew at an appreciable rate of USD $7.41 billion in 2008-09 and revised a target of achieving USD $ 12 billion trade by 2012. This target will get strengthened by working with Southern Africa Customs Union bilaterally. Both governments have agreed to work on India-SACU preferential trade agreement (PTA) and bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPA) to give fresh impetus to trade in goods and investments between the two countries. Today, both are the key trading and investment partners in a large pool of developing countries, providing essential power to South-South Cooperation.
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| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
India-South Africa Strategic Economic and Trade Relations since 1994:
Nature and Trend
C.S.Sundaresan
India is one of the influential players in the economic and trade domains of Africa. As far as South Africa is concerned it remained an outspoken critic of the apartheid government for about four decades. However, its diplomatic and economic relations re-established with the return of a democratic regime in the country. Indian high Commission in Pretoria was opened in 1994 and South Africa has reciprocated with its diplomatic centers in Delhi and Mumbai. There remains however, a feeling that India’s engagement with Africa has been analyzed in limited ways and not very significant at policy level (in general). The recent India-Africa summit (2008) brought in a sort of enthusiasm in India towards reaching out to Africa. There have been questions as how much can India do and where does India stand in comparison to China’s engagement with the region. It is however significant that India’s trade with Africa is estimated at around US$16.3 billion and the trend is showing an upward trend.
It is true that South Africa is one of the major allies in India’s Africa partnership. As per the 2008 statistics (Economic Development in Africa Report, 2010), 14 percent of the total exports of South Africa flows to India. This is significant compared to the share of 9 percent to China. India is the 6th largest trade partner of South Africa in the Asian region. The India-South Africa commercial alliance has been facilitating consultations at the ministerial level for political and economic tie-ups. The ‘New Delhi agenda for cooperation’ (with Brazil) allows the three countries to discuss and share the opportunities, achievements and experiences to take the bilateral economic and trade relations forward.
The economic and trade relations between India and South Africa can be traced in its bi-lateral and tri-lateral agreements. One of the main segments of this cooperation has been tourism where Indian tourism to South Africa has increased by 16 percent in 2006 and ended up in a further increment of 17 percent in 2007. It is however important that since 1994, South Africa has been creating its relations with other Asian Nations as well with focus on areas like scientific and technological exchange, international development assistance and investment strategies.
The bilateral trade between India and South Africa is pegged at US$ 7 billion (2010) and the two countries are looking forward to take this figure to US$ 10 billion by 2012 (HBL, June 04, 2010). It is also expected that the India-SACU preferential trade agreement will eventually lead to a free trade agreement. Similarly an agreement for reciprocal promotion and protection of investments is waiting for take off. It is therefore anticipated that early conclusion of perceived economic and trade relations will provide a real impetus to the bilateral trade and economic growth to the countries for further expansion. It is significant in this context to mention that in the last three years (since 2007), about US$6 billion investments have been made by Indian companies in South Africa and there has been significant investment inflow into India as well. It is generally agreed that there remains substantial untapped potential for trade and economic engagements between the two countries.
This paper at an analytical level therefore attempts to establish the nature and trend in economic and trade relations between the two countries and to identify the scope of its way forward from strategic angles. |
| By ASA India on 18-Nov-2010 |
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Section 6
Economic Relations: Challenges of South-South Co-operation |
Abstract
India- South Africa Economic Relations: The Rise of Indian Multinationals in South Africa
Prof. Aparajita Biswas
The emergence of multinational corporations in developing countries is changing the landscape of international politics and economics in a big way. American and European firms, which once controlled and dominated business globally, are challenged by a host of emerging multinational corporations from southern countries in recent years. MNCs from China, India, Brazil and Malaysia are increasingly establishing themselves as corporate players.
Large corporations from India are rapidly establishing their presence in overseas markets, a trend that started immediately after liberalization of the Indian economy in the early 1990s. Apart from traditional export activities, the trans-border expansion of Indian firms is taking place via establishing overseas subsidiaries and acquiring productive entities abroad. Among the overseas markets, it is Africa which is serving as a major investing ground for the new Indian MNCs, thanks to its abundance natural resources and sustained rapid economic growth rate even during the recent global economic crisis.
India sees its investments in South Africa from a strategic perspective, i.e. investments in the ‘preferred country’ on the ‘preferred continent’. India also sees South Africa as the gateway to spreading its investments to the rest of the continent – more so because South Africa is the only nation in Africa that has a manufacturing and service base that matches the scale required for engaging Indian MNCs. Consequently, Indian investments in South Africa have grown in quantity as well as diversity.
This article will investigate the rise and role of Indian MNCs in South Africa. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
Coal Sector in South Africa: Prospects for India
Manendra Sahu
The burgeoning Indian economy needs constant supply of energy. However, the ever increasing demand of energy is met with the import of energy as India has limited domestic energy resources. India’s energy requirement can be classified into different groups namely coal, oil & gas, nuclear energy and non conventional sources of energy. Coal is the mainstay of India’s energy requirement. It dwarfs all other energy sources. When oil and gas, hydro-electricity and small share of each by other energy resources provide roughly half of the country’s energy requirements, coal alone provides 53 percent of the entire energy demand. India has fifth largest coal reserves in the world, however it is still is not sufficient to meet requirement of coal from various industrial sectors in India. As a result India imports coal from abroad and South Africa is a major coal supplier. South Africa supplied 6.9 MT of coal to India in 2008 which increased to 17.9 MT in 2009. It was about 29 percent of South Africa’s total coal export.
South African has abundant coal resources which are exploited at extremely favourable cost. Thus, South Africa is a competitive player in the international coal market. South Africa exports about 28percent of coal and is the fourth largest coal exporting country in the world. South Africa exports coal to Asia, Middle East and Europe. South Africa is hopeful that its ongoing infrastructure development and the prevailing high coal prices, it could export 85-90 MT per year for at least next two decades. Exports constitute contribute 55 percent of coal sector profit. The contribution to exchequer is no less significant, contributing around $3 billion annually. The Richard Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) is the largest coal handling facility in the world. It also has coal stockyard. At RBCD, India’s import almost tripled in 2009 year-on-year.
South Africa has something more to offer than mere coal. South Africa possesses Coal to Liquid technology (CTL) which is important for India. This technology was developed by South Africa in midst of international sanction. It is capable of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbon like petrol or diesel. Indian companies are taking interest in CTL and acquiring technology from South Africa. Tata group has tied up with SASOL for an $8 billion CTL project. Tata group plans to produce 21 MT of oil and 1500 MW of power per year. Reliance Industry has shown interest in similar technology with a project of around 30 MT of oil per year. |
| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Section 7
Diaspora Relations: 150 Years of Indian Migration to South Africa |
Abstract
The PBD Africa as a Catalyst for Brand India in Indo-South African Relations
Anand Singh
In the process of organising the fourth mini-PBD in Durban, South Africa, India’s representatives in Durban were hamstrung by at least two major issues viz. that the forum was not going to be an elitist gathering of upmarket entrepreneurs and politicians only; and that as a rising economic world power it had to demonstrate how its role in Africa was going to be different from its major rival i.e. the Peoples Republic of China. The official response was ingenious. In addressing the first issue, it was emphasized that a more holistic approach to the mini-PBD was not only appropriate but also a necessary departure from the preceding three events in New York, Netherlands and Singapore - because of the need to be more inclusive across class as well as occupational and cultural spheres. With respect to how different India’s role in Africa will be from that of China’s, the official position was on avoiding an abstractive relationship in favour of building relationships based on mutual dependencies. After much deliberation around these issues, the mini-PBD took place in Durban on 1 and 2 October 2010. Against the background of much pomp and splendour, the event has raised numerous questions, which this paper will attempt to critically engage:
• Did the event meaningfully cut across class and occupational barriers?
• Did it attract the calibre of participation that at least hinted at, if not confirmed the possibility of a sufficiently substantial challenge to China’s role in Africa? OR
• Was it just an elaborate exercise to appease the voices representing the call for inclusiveness, but subtly restricting itself to the core business of strengthening and expanding economic partnerships?
I argue here that in interrogating these issues, clarity will emerge about the usefulness of the mini-PBD in Durban and its longer term impact, if any, on Indo-South African and Indo- Africa relations in the 21st century.
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| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Abstracts
India and its Diaspora in South Africa: Potential and Limitations of a Heritage Resource for Bilateral Relations
Ajay Dubey
There are over 1.2 million People of Indian Origin (PIOs) in South Africa. Most of them are descendents of indentured labourers whose migration to South Africa started 150 years ago. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi turned into Mahatma Gandhi taking up their cause. He developed his doctrines and tools of non-violence, satyagraha, civil disobedience, and so on, in South Africa and, subsequently, deployed them for the freedom of India. It is the South African Indian diaspora which gave us the father of the Indian nation. Later, the Indian government would play an unwavering role in South Africa’s fight against apartheid until its demise in 1994. The leaders of the Indian diaspora, too, opposed the apartheid system and fought along with the black majority population for its elimination. But the economic, educational and professional gulf between the PIOs and the black majority population grew exponentially. Today, Indians are more advanced that even some sections of the white population in certain educational and professional fields. The restructuring, inclusive approach, and affirmative measures, very rightly required by the democratic government, makes this affluent minority uncomfortable and apprehensive. A passive wait-and-see approach by this minority group alienates them from the majority community. In Africa, the Ugandan and Zimbabwean diaspora community experiences is a case in point. The role of the diaspora community, and the country of origin of the diaspora, becomes a sensitive and even a major issue in bilateral relations between the home and host country whenever economic and political restructuring takes place. In the past, the Indian diaspora policy recognised its diaspora as an entity, though having very little political, diplomatic and economic relevance for India; its interest was more of a cultural nature. But that was in the past. The Indian diaspora policy has made a U- turn. Now the Indian government intends to pro-actively link with its diaspora globally. It wants to build bridges with host countries to promote bilateral relations, including promoting its economic and diplomatic interests. In doing so, it cannot therefore completely ignore the concerns and expectations of its diaspora. This includes situations where they face ‘marginalisation’, and the consequences of restructuring and reconstruction in a democratic process. The Indian diaspora in South Africa is no exception. But, the African Union and African countries are trying to use their diasporas as heritage resources and effective drivers under globalisation. The success of a diaspora in supporting economic growth is not confined to China or Israel. South Africa, too, has an active policy to link up with its trans-Atlantic diaspora. In such a complex global and domestic scenario, will India be able to use its diaspora in South Africa as a heritage resource? Will South Africa be interested in using the Indian diaspora within as a driver for promoting its bilateral relations with India? What are the potential and limitations of the Indian diaspora in South Africa to serve as a heritage resource for promoting bilateral relations between India and South Africa? These are some of the questions and perspectives this paper will be addressing.
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| By ASA India on 01-Dec-2010 |
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Section 8
Diaspora Relations: 150 Years of Indian Migration to South Africa |
Abstract
Tracing the Journey of South African Indian Women from 1860
Mariam Seedat-Khan
The arrival of Indian women in South Africa predates their celebrated and well documented 1860 arrival as indentured labourers alongside their male counterparts at the port of Natal on the east coast of South Africa. Indian women left the shores of Madras and Calcutta with white male British explorers and traders as; slaves, objects of sexual gratification, homemakers, mothers, wives and caregivers. These women were not given choices when they boarded the ships with foreign men to foreign lands. They arrived in the Cape Colony and integrated with the locals and later became known as the Malay women, a term that is used loosely today for Muslim women in Cape Town today. The focus of this paper are the Indian women that left Madras and Calcutta in 1860 as Indentured labourers to accompany their husbands; meet gender quotas and seek out a better life in Natal. The journey that these Indian women embarked tested their human limits. This paper seeks to provide a sociological story of these women’s experiences. Along their journey the author will begin to move these women along a sociological continuum of change, and through their lived experiences breathe life into their social, religious and economic experiences. It is their exhausting, daunting and humiliating experiences that will prove to be of paramount importance in understanding the Indian women in South Africa today.
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| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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Abstract
BHAVANI DAYAL SANYASI’S DAKSHIN AFRICA MEIN MERE ANUBHAV (My Experience in South Africa) : An Account of Indian Diaspora in Struggle against Racial Discrimination
Ipshita Chanda
This paper considers the text ‘Dakshin Africa mein Mere Anubhav” written by Bhawani Dayal Sanyasi, who was originally from Bihar, and migrated to South Africa for the second time with members of his family in 1912 under the auspices of the Assisted Immigration Act. Bhavani Dayal was also the author of a critique of the Assisted Immigration Act of the South African government, which outlined the policy towards Asian indentured laborers and their descendants. Though the author presents the text as dealing with the political and social discrimination faced by his Indian ‘brothers’ under ‘gorang neeti’ or apartheid, this discrimination is felt most keenly in his own life as well. It is also paired with the experience of closeness to Gandhi, and the consequent discovery of a strategy for the struggle against discrimination. I shall argue that the value of the text is not limited to the author’s own professed political position and documentation of his activist work in the cause of equality. Rather, the textualisation of life lived under the shadow of discrimination and the inspiration to oppose this discrimination provide us with the beginnings of many literary strategies to foreground the experience of the diasporic persona in a hostile land, as well as strategies to deal with this unwelcoming alienation. The documentary value of Bhavani Dayal’s work, then, is not limited to the historical or the socio-political alone, but extends, as all literary efforts must, into the realm of the personal being formed and forming the public sphere, especially where these two spheres are in conflict due to public policies of a state that extends it’s control into personal lives. This conflict is the rohstoff of diasporic literature, and this paper will attempt to chart the shaping of form and content that culminates in the ‘text’ that is a linguistic representation of Bhavani Dayal’s ‘experiences’, as a human being in a situation that he considers inhuman and resists in the name of humanity.
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| By ASA India on 17-Nov-2010 |
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| ASA India Periodicals on Africa |
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| Two Refereed Journals and a Newsletter |
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| Recent Books from ASA India |
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| Published in Association with ASA India |
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