Azaadville - Little India of South Africa

The decade of the 1960s marked a wave of mass decolonisation. A total of 31 nations globally gained independence from the United Kingdom and France, 75% of which were in Africa alone. In fact, nearly 60% of the African continent achieved sovereignty during this decade. Countries like Algeria, Chad, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Botswana, Cameroon,  Mauritius, among others, breathed the air of freedom for the first time in their modern histories. However, the joy of independence was quickly overshadowed by the outbreak of civil wars—many of them ignited by the deep-rooted divisions and seeds of conflict sown during colonial rule.

As the 1960s began, the earliest African country to plunge into civil war was the former Belgian Congo, which had gained independence in June 1960 and was renamed the Republic of Congo (or Congo-Léopoldville). Within days, the country descended into chaos following an army mutiny and the secession of Katanga and South Kasai, engulfing the newly independent nation in a brutal warzone that lasted five years. This was followed by the overthrow of the Arab-led Sultanate in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), the Oromo-Amhara ethnic rebellion in Ethiopia, the Nigerian coups and the Biafran War, political repression in Equatorial Guinea, and finally the overthrow of King Idris in Libya by Muammar Gaddafi, closing the 1960s as one of the most turbulent decades in African history.

Amid these upheavals, many Indians were trapped in the crossfire. The most infamous incident remains the expulsion of over 80,000 Indians from Uganda in 1972 by dictator Idi Amin. But there were others. Indian communities were affected during the Liberian Civil War (1989–1997), especially small diamond-trader families; the Ivory Coast Civil War (2010–2011) saw the Indian Ambassador Shamma Jain rescued by French troops during intense shelling. In the 21st century, Indian civilians were also evacuated from conflict zones in Libya, South Sudan, and most recently Sudan, where the Indian Air Force executed major rescue missions that helped over 20,000 citizens escape war zones.

Yet, this is not the only modern connection between India and Africa. Beyond medieval and colonial trade links, and apart from the Indian diasporas established through indentured labour systems in places like Mauritius or Natal in South Africa, one specific Indian connection stands out—one born of forced displacement, helplessness, and racial segregation. This is the story of Azaadville.

Located about 30 km west of Johannesburg, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, Azaadville was established in the mid-1960s under the apartheid regime’s Group Areas Act of 1950. Indians were forcibly removed from Krugersdorp, which had been declared a "White neighbourhood", and relocated to this new township. What was intended as an act of displacement became a story of cultural survival and community building. Today, Azaadville’s streets carry names like Tulsi Street, Mandir Avenue, Mysori Avenue, Taj Mahal Street, Kashmir Street, Shastri Street, and Tagore Street—each echoing the legacy of Indian identity.

The township’s majority population is Muslim, and its religious and educational prominence grew with the founding of Darul Uloom Azaadville—a Deobandi-style Islamic seminary established by Moulana Abdul Hamid Is’haq, a South African of Indian origin, born in 1946 in Germiston. He travelled to Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur, India, to study Islamic sciences, later returning to found an institution that would attract students from across the African continent. The cultural connection between Deoband and Azaadville illustrates a rare modern bridge between India and Africa, rooted in shared history, faith, and resilience.

Azaadville also features street names inspired by Iranian cities like Shiraz and Isfahan, and the name “Azaad” itself—meaning "free"—derives from Persian but is widely used in Urdu and Hindi. In the 1980s, the Hindu community in Azaadville also began to expand, and by 1985, a Hindu temple was established. To this day, festivals like Diwali, Navratri, and events by South Indian cultural organisations are actively celebrated.

While Azaadville never produced nationally famous anti-apartheid leaders, it contributed to the dismantling of apartheid through a quieter, but equally powerful form of resistance: self-reliance. By building its own religious institutions, schools, and community centres, Azaadville became a self-sustaining township that depended on no one—not even the apartheid state. Meanwhile, prominent Indian South Africans like Ahmed Kathrada, Kay Moonsamy, Paul David, Lenny Naidu, and Fatima Meer, based mostly in Durban, took direct roles in the struggle, affiliating with the United Democratic Front and the Natal Indian Congress, and supporting Nelson Mandela against the National Party’s white supremacist regime.

One may ask: if apartheid South Africa viewed Indians as non-Whites, why weren't they simply deported? The answer lies in the state’s need for Indian labour and commerce, and the logistical, diplomatic, and economic risks associated with expulsion. Indians were deeply embedded in the economy, and many were multi-generational citizens. So instead of deportation, the regime created racially segregated townships like Azaadville, Chatsworth, and Phoenix for Indians, while Lenasia, Mdantsane, Nyanga, Gugulethu, KwaMashu, and Thembalethu were designated for Black South Africans. These were meant to clear “White cities” like Fordsburg, Pageview, Clairwood, District Six, and Cato Manor between the 1950s and 1980s for exclusive white occupation.

At present, Azaadville is a hub of cultural congregation as recently in 2023, the township hosted a three-day Ijtema drawing around 30,000 Muslims for prayers. The gathering was one of the largest the province had seen and it indeed helped in strengthening a community connection for Muslims in South Africa. Below here are maps of Azaadville and a South African map marking some of the townships created for White and Coloured population, as in 1968.