Indians in South Africa – 150 years of toil and triumph When the Truro dropped anchor in the bay off Durban she had arrived earlier than expected and so the preparations for the reception of the indentured labourers had not been completed. As the local newspaper, the Natal Mercury , reported on 22 November 1860, "The barracks were not completed. Whoever expected they would be? Was any work, ever executed by any Government, ready for an emergency?" As there was at that time no harbour for ships to dock in the passengers had to be brought ashore in smaller boats. The Natal Mercury reported the event: "There has seldom been such a crowd at the Point as there was on Saturday. The boats seemed to disgorge an endless stream of living cargo. Pariahs, Christians (Roman Catholics), Malabars, and Mahometans, successively found their way ashore. The major portion of this lot are, we understand, not so much field labourers, as mechanics, household servants, domestics, gardeners, and tradespeople. There are barbers, carpenters, accountants, and grooms amongst them. Among the women we find ayahs, nurses, and maids. It seems to be rather a heterogeneous assortment, comprising a few of all callings, than a supply of labour for the plantations ... They were all provided with two days' rations from on board, consisting of rice, fish, ghee, and dholl. Each of them carried his household chattels in a teakwood box, and may appear to be flush with spare cash, which they immediately endeavoured to invest in the purchase of 'something to warm them'." In fact, the religious groups of the passengers were 2 % Brahmins, 9 % Kshatriyas, 21 % Vaishyas and 31 % Sudras, 27% Scheduled Castes, 3 % Christians and 4 % Muslims. There were 75 women and 83 children under the age of 14 among the 342 people who arrived on the Truro.
The late Professor Fatima Meer, in her delightful book A Portrait of Indian South Africans (Avon House, 1969) commented: "They brought to their new country ancient traditions which had become theirs through telling and retelling, through learning and remembering over hundreds of generations - accounts of gods and sages and kings, and crafts of wood, metal and fibre and husbandry of animal and soil." (Professor Meer was a sociologist!)