Hinduism in South Africa

Hinduism is found in various provinces of South Africa, but primarily in KwaZulu-Natal. Approximately 1.22% or 551,669 of the South African population professed to be Hindu, according to the 2001 census. This is the largest concentration of Hindus in Africa after Mauritius.

It is unclear when the first Hindus settled in parts of South Africa. Vast majority of current Hindus in South African provinces are descendants of indentured laborers brought in by the British colonial government, from 1860 to 1919, to work in plantations and the mining operations owned by European settlers. Many came from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and some from other states of India. Early Hindu settlements in South Africa suffered discrimination, abuse and persecution. Hindu Indians were among the people who were referred to as coolies, racially segregated as colored people, and their discrimination continued through the Apartheid era until 1994.

The first Hindu temples were in operation in the 1870s. Some South African local governments banned temple building and property ownership by Hindus in 1910s. Modern South Africa has many Hindu temples, and its Hindu community observes major festivals of Hinduism such as Deepavali.

There is an ongoing controversy about the first arrival of Hindus in modern South Africa. One school of scholars state that Indians first arrived in modern South Africa during colonial era as indentured servants for the British Empire. The second school states Indians arrived between 500-900 AD about the same time as Islamic traders arrived. The third school states that Hindus very likely arrived by 1st millennium BC, or possible before. The third school's uses indirect linguistic, literary and gold mining process technology evidence to support its theory, while there is ample additional archaeological and historical evidence for the first two schools.

A number of ancient Indian texts describe shipping and trade. Kautiliya's Arthasastra dedicates a chapter to it, and mentions a government official called navadhyaksha, or minister of shipping whose job was to capture and prosecute pirates, manage sea ports and collect custom duties. Wilfred Schoff's work provides evidence of a chain of active trading ports along east and west Indian coasts by 1st century BC. While there is extensive evidence for the presence of Hindu traders and merchants in Mozambique and Swahili coast (Tanzania, Kenya), archaeological evidence has not been found for any shipping or trading in ancient times, including those by Hindus from India, along the coast of modern South Africa. Bruno Werz states that this is likely because the coastal region of Mozambique and Swahili coasts are calmer and offer many natural ports that fall is natural trade winds between India and Africa, in contrast to the more turbulent coast and seas around South Africa. Hromnik states that the likely path was arrival in Mozambique, followed by a land route inland into gold mining areas belonging to Shona people in Zimbabwe to South Africa. Regardless of the era when Hindus first arrived in South Africa, their numbers were small and they were limited to the coastal or urban regions before the colonial era.

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