Examines what the history of working class Indians in Durban says about the nature of South African capitalism in the 20th century.
This work, which draws on substantial interviews, is a study of economic history from below. It focuses on the cultural and social history of Indians in Durban, exploring such topics as: why did the Indian peasantry rise and decline like the African peasantry, but with a different chronology?; what was the economic logic of the Indian family and to what extent do new interests in the politics and economics of gender help us to understand that logic?; why did Indian workers become intensely militant and why did this militacy subside?; and, above all, what can this history tell us about the changing nature of South African capitalism?
North America: Heinemann
