Nandi people

“ The Nandi live northwest of Naivasha, on a plateau which contains iron deposits, and they make a business of mining and smelting. Since the railroad has been built, they have come down from time to time and raided the tracks, and the British have had several little fights with them to drive them off.
These Nandi are among the bravest of the African natives. They are much like the Masai, delighting in warfare, and ready to fight at the least provocation. They are more civilized than the Kikuyus, and do considerable work in iron and leather. ”

“ One of the most troublesome tribes proved to be the Nandi, who occupied the southern part of the plateau west of the Mau escarpment. They repeatedly raided their less warlike neighbours and committed wholesale thefts from the railway and telegraph lines. In September 1905 an expedition was sent against them which reduced the tribe to submission in the following November; and early in 1906 the Nandi were removed into a reserve. The majority of the natives, unaccustomed to regular work, showed themselves averse from taking service under the white farmers. ”

“ In the meantime, for aught that appears in Mr Hollis’ careful account of the Nandi, no change of costume is necessary beyond what other members of the clan must undergo on the death of a relation. The killing of a person belonging to another tribe—a person who is not a Nandi,—however, entails a stringent condition of taboo, yet it is a subject, not of blame like the killing of a Nandi, but of praise. ”

“ So speak, Nanda; bare your heart to me."
"Brother," replied Nanda, "I doubt if you would understand, for you once spurned sovereign power I and you deserted loving Gopa!"
"You expect to be king some day, and that is why you are happy, Nanda!"
"Yes. And I am also happy because I love Sundarika, and because Sundarika will soon be my bride."
"Poor man!" cried the Master. "How can you be happy, you who live in darkness? Would you see the light? Then first rid yourself of happiness: fear is born of happiness, fear and suffering. He neither fears nor suffers who no longer knows happiness. ”

“ He also receives from the tribal doctor a medicine which he chews with his food.592 When a Nandi of British East Africa has killed a member of another tribe, he paints one side of his body, spear, and sword red, and the other side white. For four days after the slaughter he is considered unclean and may not go home. He has to build a small shelter by a river and live there; he may not associate with his wife or sweetheart, and he may eat nothing but porridge, beef, and goat's flesh. ”

“ He keeps for Himself only those who would otherwise wander unclaimed and masterless. He has but one servant, the devoted Nandi. He rides, not on horse or elephant, but on a shabby old bull. Because the serpents were rejected by all others, did He allow them to twine about His neck. And amongst human beings, all the crooked and hunch-backed, and lame and squint-eyed, He regards as His very own. ”

“ Among the Nandi, a Nilotic tribe of East Africa, it is the duty of the Toiyoi, or Thunder-clan, when a heavy thunderstorm occurs, to seize an axe and, having rubbed it in the ashes of the fire, to throw it outside the hut, crying out: “Thunder, be silent in our village!”177.2 Among their neighbours (but not kinsfolk) , the Wawanga, an old man was recently found by a government official to have stuck a curious-looking spear in an ant-hill in his village to drive off the hail.177.3
Similar practices are found in the less advanced cultures of the New World. ”

“ The Cape Times, a leading newspaper in South Africa, says:
Natal presents the curious spectacle of a country entertaining a supreme contempt for the very class of people she can least do without. Imagination can only picture the commercial paralysis which would inevitably attend the withdrawal of the Indian population from that Colony. And yet the Indians is the most despised of creatures; he may not ride in the tram-cars, nor sit in the same compartments of a railway carriage with the Europeans, hotel-keepers refuse him food or shelter and he is denied the privilege of the public bath! ”

“ Now the chief industries and sanitation of the whole Colony of Natal are entirely dependent upon the Indian labour. The Indians have made Natal “the garden of South Africa”. In the words of another eminent Natalian, “Indian immigration brought prosperity, prices rose, people were no longer content to grow or sell produce for a song”. Of the 51,000 Indians, 30,000 are those that have served out their indenture and are now variously engaged as free labourers, gardeners, hawkers, fruiterers, or petty traders. ”

“ These two generations are supposed to have reigned for a century, which cannot possibly be true. The Jains, doing still greater violence to reason, extend the duration of the dynasty to 155 years, while the Buddhist Mahavamsa, Dipavamsa, and Asokavadana deepen the confusion by hopelessly muddled and contradictory stories not worth repeating. Some powerful motive must have existed for the distortion of the history of the so-called "Nine Nandas" in all forms of the tradition, but it is not easy to make even a plausible guess at the nature of that motive. ”

“ The attitude the Natal Government have now taken up during the crisis is the silver lining to the dark cloud that is hanging over our heads in Natal as well as other parts of South Africa. We only trust that the fellow-feeling that has guided the Natal Government in its treatment of the Indians during the crisis would be continued, even after it is over, and that British subjects of all nationalities will be allowed to remain, as they ought to be, in harmony and peace. ”

“ In the instant revolt of conquered India which followed, he took a prominent part, and found himself, in B.C. 321, with an army at his back which, having accomplished its purpose and given its leader paramount power in Punjâb, was eager to follow his fortune elsewhere.
He led it to Magadha, and taking advantage of the Nanda king's unpopularity, slew every male member of the family.
This was the Eastern etiquette on such occasions; the sparing of a brother or an uncle being considered a weakness sure to bring speedy repentance in its train. ”

“ Quoting statistics to prove the prosperity of the Indian community is quite unnecessary. It is not denied that the Indians who go to Natal do earn a living and that in spite of the persecution. In the Transvaal we cannot own landed property, we may not trade or reside except in specified locations which are described by the British Agent “as places to deposit the refuse of the town, without any water except the polluted soakage in the gully between the location and the town”. We may not, as of right, walk on the footpaths in Johannesburg and Pretoria, we may not be out after 9 p.m. ”

“ Nandi was a man whose holiness was so great that the human body could not contain it. So those molecules changed into a god-body.
The tremendous engine of competition will destroy everything. If you are to live at all, you must adjust yourself to the times. If we are to live at all, we must be a scientific nation. Intellectual power is the force. ”

“ This feeling of intense hatred has been reproduced into legislation in the various States of South Africa restricting the freedom of Indians in many ways. To begin with, Natal, which is the most important from an Indian point of view, has, of late, shown the greatest activity in passing Indian legislation. Till 1894, the Indians had been enjoying the franchise equally with the Europeans under the general franchise law of the Colony, which entitles any adult male, being a British subject, to be placed on the Voters’ List, who possesses immovable property worth £50 or pays an annual rent of £10. ”

“ He will destroy demons, relieve the land of Braj of all its cares, be called the lord of the cowgirls and be praised the whole world over. Nanda promises to dedicate cows, loads the Brahmans with presents, and summons all the musicians and singers of the city. Singing, dancing and music break forth, the courtyards throng with people, and the cowherds of Gokula come in with their wives. On their heads are pitchers full of curd and as a magical means of ensuring prosperity, they proceed to throw it over the gathering. ”

“ Gandhi did not publish previously in Natal, and nothing that is not generally known. On the other hand, it is useless for Mr. Gandhi, or anyone else, to endeavour to have the Indian accepted in South Africa at his own estimate. There is no use being hypocritical in the matter. There is strong and deeply-rooted prejudice against Indians flocking into the country, and against their customs and mode of life. They may be British subjects by law, but they are aliens by what is stronger than law. viz., racial traditions and instincts.—The Natal Mercury, 18th January, 1897. ”

“ But it does not, therefore, at all follow that the European criminals, desperadoes and prostitutes, of whom Johannesburg may be said to have a fair number, could not go to Natal. Not only was the Colony open to them, but special arrangements were made for their reception—relief committees were formed, and everything that could be done to make them comfortable in their distress was naturally and justly done by the people of this Colony.
The Indians alone could not and must not come. They appealed to the Government with a view to obtain some relief. ”

“ A fortnight before I left Natal, an Indian student applied for admission to the Durban High School and his application was rejected. Even the primary schools are not quite open to the Indians. An Indian Missionary schoolmaster was driven out of an English Church in Verulam, a small village in Natal. The Government of Natal have been pining to hold a “coolie conference”, as it has been officially called, in order to secure uniformity in Indian legislation throughout South Africa, and in order to present a united front against the blandishments of the Home Government on behalf of the Indian. ”

“ The spirit of the tree under which he rests brings to him the cowherd Nanda, bearing a dead maiden, an infant just borne by his wife Yaçodā, who, fallen in a faint, does not know whether the child is a boy or a girl. Nanda gives aid reluctantly, but in memory of past favours. He seeks first to purify himself from contact with the dead, but a spring of water shoots forth and renders labour needless. ”

“ When these same ancestors has had no thought of a higher life, when selfpreservation was their first law, and the destruction of their neighbour’s village and the capture of his wife and infant their keenest enjoyment, the philosophers of India had grown weary with a thousand years’ conflict with the problems of existence. And it is the sons of this land of light who are despised as coolies and treated as Kaffirs. It is about time that those who cry out against the Indian merchant should have pointed out to them who and what he is. ”

“ In 1891, there were only 251 Indian voters as against nearly 10,000 European voters. The majority of Indians are too poor to command property qualifications. And the Indians in Natal have never meddled in politics and do not want political power. All these facts are admitted by The Natal Mercury, which is the Government organ in Natal. ”

“ It is precisely this class of men who form the most valued element in the municipal and other electorates in India. The argument that the Indian in Natal cannot claim higher privileges than ho enjoys in India, and that he has no franchise whatever in India, is inconsistent with the facts. The Indian has precisely the same franchise in India which of India the British and the native voters have equal rights, and 6,700 municipal commissioners in 1801 were natives as against 830 Europeans. ”

“ The motive of the two customs was probably the same. “To the present day, when a person of another tribe has been slain by a Nandi, the blood must be carefully washed off the spear or sword into a cup made of grass, and drunk by the slayer. If this is not done it is thought that the man will become frenzied.”118.5 So {119} among some tribes of the Lower Niger “it is customary and necessary for the executioner to lick the blood that is on the blade” ”

“ The great military power of the usurpers, as attested by Greek testimony, was the result of the conquests effected by Bimbisara and Ajatasatru, and presumably continued by their successors; but the limits of the Nanda dominions cannot be defined, nor can the dates of the dynasty be determined with accuracy. It is quite certain that the two generations did not last for a hundred and fifty-five, or even for a hundred, years ”

“ Sarojini Naidu said that the Indian people were under a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Gandhi's work in South Africa for justice and truth had been a source of inspiration to the people of India; Olive Schreiner had described him as the Mazzini of the Indian movement in South Africa, and Mrs. Gandhi appealed to them as the ideal of wifehood and womanhood. ”

“ Yet, as a matter of fact, the indentured coolies brought to Natal largely consist of the very lowest class of natives to be picked out of the gutters of Calcutta and Bombay. Man for man, the free Indian coming to Natal at his own expense is likely to be of a better stamp than the destitute coolie shipped across at other people’s expense. ”

“ There is a tin compartment reserved for natives and other coloured people in which we are literally packed like sheep, without regard to our dress, our behaviour or our position. In Natal, there is no such law but the petty officials give trouble. The hardship is not insignificant. In Delagoa Bay, the authorities so respect the Indian that they would not allow him to travel 3rd class, so much so that, if a poor Indian could not afford the 2nd-class fare, he is allowed to travel 2nd class under a 3rd-class ticket. ”