The Indian has journeyed from pain to progress

FAKE or not, the memo that went viral proposing a reduced quota of Indians who can gain admission to the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, is distressing for its perpetuation of racism. In an authentic-looking missive, some race-obsessed organisation or individual pushed for an increase in the allocation for coloured applicants from the current 9% to a minimum of 15%, and for the allocation for Indian applicants to be dropped from 19% to 13%.

This change, the document states, is to ensure that students from underprivileged backgrounds - especially rural and township schools - have better access to medical education. The university has distanced itself from the document, claiming it is false and is intended to "inflame emotions and engage in race-baiting for narrow agendas”. Yeah, right, we like to believe UKZN because Indians are too often seen as easy targets when racial tension is deliberately provoked.

Here think of the 2021 Phoenix violence where Indians have been portrayed in some narratives as aggressors or gatekeepers. If it is true that our coloured brothers and sisters must be given more chances to become doctors, I can already see in my mind’s eye the long lines of Indians outside hair salons in Chatsworth and Phoenix wanting curl-enhancing products to bypass the quota restrictions and enter medical school as coloureds.

Remember the pencil test from the days of apartheid? A pencil was inserted into a person’s hair. If it fell out easily, the person was deemed to have “European” hair and could be classified as white. If it stuck, the person was considered to have “African” hair texture and was classified as black or coloured.

Social media was abuzz after the race quota proposition began circulating. There was rightful concern about any plan, whether true of not, to surgically cut Indian student enrollment. There were probing questions. Will academic standards plummet further? What about the long-term impact on the quality of medical professionals? Those proposing an Indian quota decrease say it will rectify historical injustices. They state that the coloured community, as a historically marginalised population, warrants greater representation.

Will somebody please remind the instigators of the race quota document that the majority of Indians - those of girmitiya or indentured stock - were as disadvantaged as anybody can be, including the native Africans, when they arrived in this country from India 165 years ago to slave on the sugar cane plantations and railways. And that too, with little more than their tattered cotton garbs. Please also inform those who have an aversion for Indians that, like the coloureds, Indians too were side-lined in this country under apartheid and post-apartheid frameworks.

Despite institutionalised injustices, Indian leaders opposed to the colour bar played a sterling role in the anti-apartheid movement, even giving their lives for the struggle. Indians have faced systemic challenges, yet built enduring community institutions, preserved cultural identity, and contributed meaningfully to society. The difference between Indians and other race groups who were suppressed under apartheid is that Indians do not constantly invoke historical disadvantage to jump the queue.

The Indian of 2025 does not depend on a victim mindset to receive favours. They advocate for moving forward based on merit, resilience, and personal responsibility. Many Indians, especially the younger generation, have chosen to define themselves by perseverance, adaptability, and progress. Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting the past, but Indians choose not to remain trapped by it. It is becoming more prevalent nowadays that non-racialism is invoked, while race-based policies remain central to government strategy.

That tension isn’t just philosophical - it’s lived. You can see it in hiring practices, university admissions, procurement rules, and even the dirty looks from the people in the car next to your fully paid-up BMW M5 at the traffic lights. The ideal of a society where race no longer determines opportunity feels distant when race still shapes access. It is true that Indian applicants constitute a larger proportion of total applications annually at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. There are good reasons for this. Among those who aspire for a solid profession, Indians constitute a large number in the greater Durban population.

When Indian pupils attain distinction-level matric passes, they lean towards a higher career such as medicine or law. Being a doctor is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and well-compensated professions. Any wonder then that for Indian parents, the idea of a doctor as a spouse for a child carries layers of meaning that go far beyond the pay-cheque. It is all about prestige and respect.

In the matchmaking matrix, “Dr” before a name still carries serious weight, never mind that plumbers who perform a 10-minute operation on my leaking bathroom or kitchen faucet bill me far more than my trusted urologist, Dr Preg Chetty, on each consultation to check out my own plumbing.

The Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine admits around 250 students annually. The current official racial quota is as follows: 69% black African, 19% Indian, 9% coloured, 2% white and 1% other. Only 48 spots are set aside for Indian students. Expectedly, admission is highly competitive, with thousands of applicants each year. Preference is often given to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and rural areas to support equitable healthcare access. This means an Indian student from Chatsworth, Phoenix, Umhlanga or Ballito, with seven As - or even a dozen - will not be automatically selected.

No prizes for guessing why a growing concern is medical negligence - the Health Professions Council of SA receives too many complaints involving misdiagnosis, surgical errors, medication mistakes, and ethical breaches. And the complaints in-box is getting bigger by the day.

Indians have had an arduous struggle to attain the MBChB. From about the 1930s onwards, the road for Indians who had an ambition to become doctors was long, winding and strewn with obstacles. Political heavyweights such as Monty Naicker, Yusuf Dadoo and Kesaveloo Goonam received their training at Edinburgh. My friend Professor Bugsy Singh, a retired doyen of surgery at the medical teaching school in KZN, recalls that at the height of apartheid (1968 to 1977), whites who constituted 17% of the population, accounted for up to 87% of all medical graduates.

The African majority, constituting 70% of the population, had less than 5% of all medical graduates in South Africa. The global isolation of South Africa from the late 1940s further impacted negatively on the medical training for black people in South Africa. He said during apartheid, the Government of India provided full scholarships to the marginalised in South Africa to study medicine in India.

“This initiative, coming at a time when India was grappling with its post-colonial challenges, was a remarkable yet seldom appreciated gesture,” said Professor Singh.

Meanwhile there was continued opposition to a non-white medical school in Durban. My reading tells me that the idea of a medical school in Durban dates back to 1921, when Dr John McCord and Dr Alan Taylor attempted to establish a private school to train black doctors. It was shut down within a year due to lack of government approval. Thirty years later, in 1951, the then University of Natal officially opened its medical school with 35 students, becoming the first institution in South Africa primarily focused on training African, Indian, and coloured students.

Admission in the early years was based more on merit than racial classification. But then isn’t the proficiency of a doctor more important than skin colour when a patient is dying? As the quota for Indians students at the Durban medical school has decreased over the years, hundreds of students, many of whom are bright, passionate, and deeply committed to becoming doctors, find themselves locked out of medical education at home due to systemic constraints.

The dream doesn’t die - but it’s rerouted, often painfully, through foreign shores. Despite the odds, these students persist. They study in freezing Russian winters, navigate Mandarin in Chinese hospitals, and adapt to Caribbean clinical rotations - all for the chance to wear a white coat and serve humanity. Their journey is not just academic - it’s a test of resilience, identity, and sacrifice.

Many are supported by families who bond their houses or become samoosa and murkhu vendors, just to fund their children’s education abroad. So, those stirring up racial tensions to manipulate emotions, gain political advantage, or distract from other issues, must back off. The Indian is a survivor like the cactus in the dry Karoo and will thrive while holding onto identity, values, and dignity.

Yogin Devan is a media consultant and social commentator. Reach him on: [email protected]

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.

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