The Crossing That Was Never Meant to Be Permanent
In November 1860, a ship called the Truro docked at Port Natal carrying 342 Indians from Madras. They had signed five-year indenture contracts to work the sugar cane fields of the Natal colony. The British needed labour after emancipation freed enslaved Africans. The Indians needed escape from famine and debt. Neither side imagined they were founding a community that would outlast the empire that arranged the meeting.
