Paper short abstract:

This paper examines free Indian migration to Natal between 1880-1930. It adopts a biographical analysis as a methodological tool to understand the complexity of the migratory process in terms of race, ethnicity, gender and citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

The history of indentured Indians has been well documented in terms of

migration and settlement in South African historiography. Shipping lists,

which meticulously recorded the biographical details of each labour, together

with Indian immigrant reports provide a wealth of information on the early

migratory and labour experiences of indentured Indians. Regrettably, this

aspect of Free Indian migration to Natal is absent in archival records. This paper seeks to examine the nature of Free Indian migration, in the context of travel documents, ways in which it facilitated and hindered both individual and family migration. Passage tickets, domicile certificates, affidavits, Certificates of Identity and passports, were key documents of travel and identity, which in most

instances, determined, not only the inward and outward journeys of

migrants, between Natal and India, but the ways in which citizenship was

defined and how migration controls w ere instituted and administered

towards free migration. This paper argues that free Indians, as "free British

Indian Subjects" were not really "free", often described as "aliens", but had

to constantly, defend and reclaim their civic rights, attest and verify their

identity, as the Natal Government sought new and creative ways to restrict

and prohibit their entry. This paper will provide insight into the travel and

migration experiences of free Indians in the context of gender and

citizenship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.