furniture made of ebony, sandalwood and ivory and similar goods. His customers are mainly Europeans.
Indentured labourers were called ‘coolies’ by the Europeans. A ‘coolie’ means a porter. The expression was used so extensively that the indentured labourers began to describe themselves as ‘coolies.’ Hundreds of Europeans called Indian lawyers and Indian traders ‘coolie’ lawyers and ‘coolie’ traders. There were some Europeans who were unable to perceive or believe that the name implied an insult, but many used it as a term of deliberate contempt. Free Indians, therefore, tried to differentiate themselves from the indentured labourers. For this and other reasons peculiar to conditions in India, a distinction was sought to be drawn in South Africa between indentured and freed labourers on the one handand free Indians on the other.
Free Indians and especially the Musalman traders undertook to resist the wrongs detailed above, but no direct attempt was made to seek the co-operation of the indentured and ex-indentured labourers. Probably it did not occur to any one to enlist their support; if the idea did suggest itself to some, there was in their opinion the risk of making matters worse by allowing them to join the movement. And as it was considered that the free traders were the chief target of attack, the measures for defence were limited to that class. It can be truly said that free Indians fought well against difficulties, seeing that they were thus seriously handicapped, that they were ignorant of English, and that they had had no experience of public work in India. They sought the help of European barristers, had petitions prepared, waited upon the authorities on some occasions in deputations, and did what they could to mend matters. This was the state of things up till 1893.
It will be helpful to the reader to bear some important dates in mind. Before 1893 Indians had been hounded out of the Orange Free State. In the Transvaal, Law 3 of 1885 was in force. In Natal, measures, calculated to enable only indentured labourers to live in the colony
