Beginning in the mid-19th century, about 1.3 million Indian contract labourers were exported to Mauritius, Jamaica, British Guiana, Trinidad, St Lucia, Granada and Natal to satisfy the demand for labour that was both cheap and docile (Meer 1980: 3). Who were the indentured that landed in Port Natal in 1860? For the most part their history has been captured by a meticulous checking of ship lists to reveal the different castes of the indentured and the villages they originated from (Bhana 1991). Building on this painstaking and valuable …