The Asians and Uhuru: the role of a minority community in Kenya politics, 1939-1963

Abstract

Asian participation .in Kenya's struggle for independence during the late Colonial Period has come mainly through institutions. Political organizations, newspapers, and the trade union movement provided the lines of communications between the Africans and the Asians, and the British colonial Government. As race rather than class, family status, religion, or generation was the social determinant which fixed and circumscribed colonial life, it is not unpredictable that institutions would be organized along racial lines. Thus, like the Africans and Europeans, the Asians formed their own organizations. The focus of this study is on the political activities of these organizations; their relationship with the colonial regime; and more particularly, their role in Kenya's independence movement. Special emphasis is placed on their changing attitudes toward colonial rule and their involvement with African nationalist organizations and leaders. In order to provide an overview of Asian political history in Kenya and, more particularly, an understanding of the Asian position in the colonial framework, the study is given an empiric base. The Introduction, therefore, is a review of the development of Kenya as a colonial state, the nature of Indian settlement, and the economic position