Moulvi Ismail Ahmed Cachalia, veteran freedom fighter of South Africa, respected by Indians and Africans alike, will be eighty on December 5th this year.
To pay tribute to him is to recall the story of one of many families, inspired by Gandhiji, which have struggled and sacrificed for generations to end the scourge of racism in South Africa.
Moulvi`s father, Sheth Ahmad Muhammad Kachhalia, was one of the closest colleagues of Gandhiji in the Satyagraha of 1906-1914. A merchant by profession, he was elected chairman of the Transvaal British Indian Association in 1908 and played a key role in organising the Satyagraha.
He not only suffered imprisonment but was ruined financially. His European creditors exerted tremendous pressure on him to abandon the struggle and, when he refused, instituted bankruptcy proceedings against him. But he remained firm and gained great respect in the community.
Gandhiji wrote of him:
"I have never, whether in South Africa or in India, come across a man who could surpass Mr. Kachhalia in courage and steadfastness. He sacrificed his all for the community`s sake. He was always a man of his word. He was a strict orthodox Mussalman, being one of the trustees of the Surti Meman mosque. But at the same time he looked upon Hindus and Mussalmans with an equal eye... My close contact with him for years leads me to hold firmly to the opinion that a community can rarely boast of having in their midst a man of the stamp of Mr. Kachhalia." (Satyagraha in South Africa, Chapter XVI).
Ismail was born on December 5, 1908, when his father was in prison in the Satyagraha. His father passed away in 1918 while he was in primary school. After completing his early education in Johannesburg, he left for India in 1924 to study at the Madressa Darul Oloom at Deoband in the United Provinces. While in India, he met Gandhiji several times and was influenced by the non-cooperation movement.
Returning to South Africa in 1931, he began a soft goods business in partnership with his brother, Yusuf. But soon, as the racist regime instituted new measures against the Indians, he got involved in the resistance.
He joined Dr. Yusuf M. Dadoo and others in establishing a Nationalist Bloc against the compromising leadership of the Transvaal Indian Congress, and became a member of the Non-European United Front which sought to build the unity of all racial groups in the struggle for equality.
He was one of the leaders of the Indian Passive Resistance Movement of 1946-48, conducted under the guidance of Gandhiji, in which two thousand Indians courted imprisonment. Some Africans, Coloured people and whites joined the movement to show their solidarity. This second Satyagraha of the Indians, and the contacts they made with African leaders during that time, laid the basis for the building of a militant mass movement in South Africa.
After the apartheid regime came to power in 1948 and enacted a series of racist laws, the African and Indian Congresses agreed on a common strategy and launched the non-violent "Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws." Nelson Mandela came to prominence as the Volunteer-in- Chief of the Campaign, and Moulvi Cachalia worked closely with him as the deputy Volunteer-in-Chief. Over eight thousand people of all racial origins went to jail violating racist laws. Moulvi was given a suspended sentence of 18 months` imprisonment and banned from any participation in the activities of the Congresses. But he managed to find ways to make his contribution to the movement.
In 1955, the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress decided to send a delegation to the Asian-African Conference in Bandung and chose Moses Kotane and Moulvi Cachalia as its members. Moulvi managed to leave the country without a passport. Prime Minister Nehru arranged for the travel of the delegation to Bandung and introduced them to many leaders at the Conference.
When Moulvi returned to South Africa, he was placed under more stringent banning orders. During the State of Emergency after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, he was again arrested and detained for three months. He was served with further restriction orders in 1963 and placed under virtual house arrest. He escaped from South Africa in 1964 to assist in the external work of the Congresses.
Maulvi Cachalia represented the ANC in India from 1967 when the ANC Asian Mission was established in New Delhi. Because of ill-health, he was obliged to retire in the early 1970`s and has been living since then in his ancestral village near Surat.
His wife, Miriam Bhana, also a leader of the Transvaal Indian Congress, went to prison twice in the Indian passive resistance movement and again in the Defiance Campaign. She passed away in 1973.
Moulvi`s brother, Yusuf, was Secretary-General of the South African Indian Congress and member of the joint planning committee for the Defiance Campaign. He defied the laws in Johannesburg with Nelson Mandela and was sentenced with him. He was imprisoned several times and restricted for fifteen years from 1963. His wife, Amina - daughter of another colleague of Gandhiji, Ebrahim I. Asvat, and a leader of the women`s movement - was also restricted. For several years, the couple were prohibited from leaving their home at nights and weekends.
After repeated efforts over the years, Amina and Yusuf were recently allowed to visit Nelson Mandela in the nursing home.
The next generation of Cachalias are also playing an active role in the freedom movement. Firoz Cachalia, a nephew of Moulvi, was restricted and detained in 1981 while a student; he is publicity secretary of the Transvaal Indian Congress and the United Democratic Front in the Transvaal. Another nephew, Azhar Cachalia, is national treasurer of the United Democratic Front. He has also been detained for a long period during the State of Emergency.
For the Cachalias, as for many others smitten by Gandhiji eighty years ago, the struggle continues in South Africa until the evil of racial discrimination is no more.
Moulvi Ismail Ahmed Cachalia died on 8 August 2003
(Written by ES Reddy, 1988)