Gagathura Mohambry Naicker

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Gagathura Mohambry "Monty" Naicker (born September 30, 1910 in Durban ; † January 12, 1978 ibid) was a South African politician of Indian descent who was in opposition to the apartheid regime . As a leading member of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), he worked closely with the African National Congress (ANC).

Life

Naicker's parents were of Tamil descent. His grandfather had come to Natal from India as a contract worker . His father Papiah Gagathura Naicker was a banana dealer, his mother's name was Dhanalutchmee Pillay. Monty Naicker had several younger siblings. He attended Marine College in Durban and moved to Great Britain in 1928, where he began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh , graduating with a doctorate in 1934. During his stay in Scotland he was active in the student council and became a member of the Edinburgh Indian Association , founded in 1883 , for which he worked from 1932 to 1934 as the editor in charge of its yearbook. In 1935 he returned to South Africa and opened a practice.

In 1935 Naicker founded the Hindu Youth Movement to promote social and sporting activities among young people of Indian origin. The following year he married Mariemuthu Appavu, with whom he had a son and a daughter. They took part in some of his political actions. In 1940, Naicker joined the Liberal Study Group , a liberal opposition group of all population groups. In 1944 Naicker was co-founder and first chairman of the Anti-Segregation Council, which took a more politically decisive position than the representatives of the Indian population at the time. In 1945 he took over the chairmanship of the Natal Indian Congress. The following year, organized Naicker with Yusuf Dadoo of the Transvaal Indian Congress actions of nonviolent resistance against a law of the apartheid government, the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act (also known as Ghetto Act known). On March 9, 1947, Naicker signed the Three Doctors' Pact with Dadoo and the ANC President Alfred Bitini Xuma , which contractually regulated the cooperation of the SAIC with the black-led ANC. Shortly thereafter, Naicker toured India with Dadoo and met Mahatma Gandhi , among others , who assured them his support. Naicker asked the newly elected Indian government to campaign against apartheid at the United Nations - the commission that was then set up, each with a representative from India, South Africa and Pakistan , remained ineffective, however, as South Africa resisted the action. In 1952, the UN General Assembly set up another commission to investigate the situation. India's reactions to the situation in South Africa at the time have become known as the Indian dispute with South Africa .

Naicker was arrested several times; so in 1948 he was sentenced to six months of hard labor under the Immigration Regulation Act . In a speech given after his release from prison, he called for the establishment of a United Democratic Front open to all sections of the population . In 1951, the apartheid authorities issued a ban on him based on the Suppression of Communism Act , even though he was not a communist. In 1952 Naicker was one of the leading organizers of the Defiance Campaign , which was mainly supported by the ANC and SAIC. He was arrested again after entering a waiting room reserved for whites with 21 blacks. He took part in the planning for the adoption of the Freedom Charter . In December 1954, Naicker opened the ANC's annual meeting after Albert Luthuli of the ANC had done so in October at the SAIC meeting. In 1955 and 1956, as in 1961, Naicker was President of the SAIC. In 1956 he was among the 156 defendants in the Treason Trial ; the charges against him were dropped in 1958. From 1956 to 1973 he was banned almost continuously. After the state of emergency was declared in April 1960, he went underground disguised as a Muslim clergyman until September. In 1966 Naicker's house in the Morningside district of Durban was forcibly evacuated due to the Group Areas Act . Although he was physically weak, in 1977 he led the Anti-South African Indian Council Committee, or Anti-SAIC for short, which opposed the poor representation of Indians in the apartheid system.

In 1978 Naicker died after a brief illness in St Aidens Mission Hospital in Durban.

Honors

  • In 2007 Naicker was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in silver.
  • One street in downtown Durban is called Monty Naicker Road.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Monty speaks: speeches of Dr Gagathura Mohambry (Monty) Naicker 1945–1963. Compiled by ES Reddy, 1991 (English, PDF for download), accessed on April 13, 2015
  2. ↑ a b c d e biography at sahistory.za.org (English), accessed on April 13, 2015
  3. ^ A b The Presidency Republic of South Africa: Dr Gagathura Mohambry Naicker (1910-1978) . at www.thepresidency.gov.za (English), accessed April 11, 2018
  4. ^ The Open University: Edinburgh Indian Association . on www.open.ac.uk (English), as viewed April 25, 2015
  5. ↑ a b Timeline "Indian South Africans 1950–1959" at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on April 13, 2015
  6. ↑ Timeline “Indian South Africans 1960–1969” at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on April 13, 2015


personal data
SURNAME Naicker, Gagathura Mohambry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Naicker, Monty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Durban
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1978
Place of death Durban