Natal Indian Congress
During its formative years, the constituency of the NIC largely comprised educated Indian merchants who sought to oppose discriminatory legislation through petitioning.
In the mid-1940s, the organisation became increasing confrontational under the leadership of Monty Naicker, who led the NIC through a renowned campaign of passive resistance against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act from 1946 to 1948.
After the introduction of formal apartheid in 1948, the NIC participated in the Defiance Campaign, the beginning of a long, though not untroubled, alliance with the African National Congress (ANC).
It was revived in October 1971 and continued its activism against apartheid, notably through boycotts of the South African Indian Council and Tricameral Parliament.
[6] In the 1930s, dissatisfaction among young professionals and trade unionists led to the emergence of a rival and more progressive political organisation, the Natal Indian Association (NIA).
[4][6][7] Also during this period, the NIC made unprecedented advances towards inter-racial cooperation, together with the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), where Naicker's counterpart was Yusuf Dadoo.
[10] The SAIC was a signatory of the Freedom Charter at the 1955 Congress of the People and several NIC leaders, such as Naicker and Billy Nair, were among the defendants in the resulting Treason Trial.
[3] After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, the apartheid government embarked upon a major campaign to repress political opposition, banning the ANC and effecting mass arrests around the country.
Though the NIC was not itself banned, its members were severely restricted: some, such as Billy Nair and Ebrahim Ebrahim, were imprisoned due to their dual membership of Umkhonto we Sizwe; others, such as M. P. Naicker, H. A. Naidoo and George Ponnen, were dual members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and went into exile with the party; while others, such as Monty Naicker, Dawood Seedat, J. N. Singh and I. C. Meer, were subject to prolonged banning orders under the Suppression of Communism Act.
[3][8] In addition, the implementation of forced removals of Indians under the Group Areas Act severely disrupted patterns of civic and political mobilisation.
[8] At the meeting, held at Durban's Bolton Hall on 25 June, attendees agreed to revive the NIC and established an ad hoc committee, chaired by Ramgobin, to carry out the task.
[4] Within a month, 29 NIC branches had been established across the province, and the organisation was officially relaunched at a convention at the Phoenix Settlement on 2 October 1971, Gandhi's birthday.
"[8]However, from the late 1970s, the direction and public profile of the NIC was strongly influenced by a younger generation of Indian community activists, including Pravin Gordhan, Yunus Mohamed, Zak Yacoob, Charm and Maggie Govender, and Roy Padayachie.
[3] In 1990, Ramgobin, Meer, and Yunus Carrim all told press that they expected the NIC to have a limited lifespan and to disband once it had helped attract an Indian constituency to the ANC.
In June that year, the NIC and TIC decided at a joint meeting to disband and join the ANC, though both were represented independently at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa.
The NIC ultimately never formally disbanded but "simply faded into the folds of history", with the vast majority of its leadership and committed membership henceforth represented by the ANC.
