City of Johannesburg - Highest point honours Indian army
Written by Lucille Davie
11 July 2005 - Last Updated 15 February 2013
The monument shortly after it was built in 1902
Courtesy: Indian War Memorial: Selective Memories of the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, by Eric
Itzkin
JOHANNESBURG'S highest point is acknowledged in an unusual way: with a monument
commemorating the little-recognised contribution of Indians in the South African War of 1899 to
1902.
Atop the city's highest ridge, the Observatory Ridge, at 1 808 metres above sea level, sits the
elegant sandstone monument. It was installed in 1902 and bears the inscription: "To the
memory of British Officers, Natives, NCOs and Men, Veterinary Assistants, Nalbands, and
Followers of the Indian Army".
The Indian Monument today, with its 18m lightning conductor in the background
At the time, the Indian Army officers were British subjects and about 9 000 men were brought
from India to serve in a non-combative capacity as stretcher bearers, veterinary assistants,
farriers (nalbands), grooms, water and ammunition carriers.
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City of Johannesburg - Highest point honours Indian army
Written by Lucille Davie
11 July 2005 - Last Updated 15 February 2013
Eric Itzkin, the deputy director of immovable heritage in the City's arts and culture department,
contends that the Indian Army was the biggest foreign contingent. It "helped turn the tide of the
war".
This was the case in many of the wars the British fought. "The Indian Army was critical in many
countries."
Bengal Lancers at the Kroonstad Remount Camp
Courtesy: Indian War Memorial: Selective Memories of the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, by Eric
Itzkin
During the South African War the Indians were "the engine of the war in many ways - they
performed a critical function". They have never been recognised for their contribution, however,
because of a reluctance on the part of the British military to "acknowledge the extent to which
they relied on people of colour to bolster their power".
Mahatma Gandhi
The contribution made by black men to both sides of the battle has also remained
unrecognised for years. It is believed that about 100 000 men participated in the war, and about
24 000 black men, women and children lost their lives in the war, often dying in inhumane and
deplorable circumstances in concentration camps.
Mahatma Gandhi, who was living in Johannesburg at the time, rallied the Natal Indian
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City of Johannesburg - Highest point honours Indian army
Written by Lucille Davie
11 July 2005 - Last Updated 15 February 2013
community, leading about 1 000 stretcher bearers, mainly from Natal's sugar estates, to perform
valuable duties. They saw action in the battles of Colenso and Spioenkop.
Gandhi felt at the time that it was "an opportunity for Indians to prove their loyalty to the
Empire". He believed that to claim rights as British subjects, it was necessary to serve as British
subjects, an attitude that was to change by the end of WW1.
First arrivals
Indian stretcher bearers carrying the wounded in the war (Drawing by FA Stewart)
Courtesy: Indian War Memorial: Selective Memories of the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, by Eric
Itzkin
The first arrivals from the British colony of India, about 1 000 men, stepped on to African soil in
early October 1899. By April 1900 more than 3 000 Indians were involved in the war.
With the Indian contingent came 2 334 horses and 611 mules and ponies and medical units,
comprising three complete field hospitals for British troops and one field hospital for their Indian
orderlies.
Breaking in and training horses was performed by the Indian auxiliaries. As the war progressed
and became more guerrilla-based, with Boer parties making hit-and-run recces on the Brits, the
latter retaliated with the same tactics, requiring a ready supply of horses.
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City of Johannesburg - Highest point honours Indian army
Written by Lucille Davie
11 July 2005 - Last Updated 15 February 2013
1902 monument
The copper lightning conductor on top of the monument was recently stolen, but has been
replaced with an 18m high galvanised steel mask, placed several metres from the monument.
Being the highest point in the city, the ridge is particularly vulnerable to lightning strikes.
Vandalised almost since the time it was placed on the ridge, within a year the inscriptions were
covered in graffiti and the fence was broken. By 1960 the lead lettering had been removed and
in the late 1980s some of the marble tablets were smashed. Originally written in Urdu, Hindi and
English, only the English inscription still exists.
Built at the end of the war, in 1902, it is probably Joburg's first war monument. It consists of an
obelisk cut from the ridge's sandstone, offering spectacular views of both the southern and
northern suburbs. It honours Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and Zoroastrians who died
during the war.
The remount camp in the Bezuidenhout valley
Courtesy: Indian War Memorial: Selective Memories of the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, by Eric
Itzkin
The majority of the Indian corps was involved in the remount camp positioned below
Observatory, now Bezuidenhout Park. Up to 4 000 horses could eventually be accommodated
in the camp.
The park, originally part of the farm belonging to the Bezuidenhout family, was ideal for horses
with its acres of green meadows, large oak trees and a stream running down the valley.
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City of Johannesburg - Highest point honours Indian army
Written by Lucille Davie
11 July 2005 - Last Updated 15 February 2013
The monument was unveiled on 31 October 1902, exactly five months after the war ended, by
Hon NG Lyttleton, KCB, the officer commanding the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies.
Funding came from the public and the Indian community, in a "rare acknowledgement of Indian
dignity".
Gravestone of four Muslims reburied in the Braamfontein Cemetery
Courtesy: Indian War Memorial: Selective Memories of the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, by Eric
Itzkin
Four Muslims
A few months prior to the unveiling, in August 1902, four unidentified Muslims from the remount
station were buried just east of the camp, near the present bowling greens. The cause of their
deaths is unknown, although, speculates Itzkin, it could have been typhus.
Their cemetery was demarcated with a stone wall and black wattle trees, and a sandstone
headstone. The graves were marked with an inscription in shale reading: "There is no God but
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City of Johannesburg - Highest point honours Indian army
Written by Lucille Davie
11 July 2005 - Last Updated 15 February 2013
Allah and Mahomet is his Prophet".
In 1964 the City planned the park and needed to remove the graves, developing the spot into a
protea garden. The bodies were exhumed and taken to the Braamfontein Cemetery.
However, the Muslim section was full and the remains were placed in the section normally
reserved for whites. They were reburied near the graves of white soldiers and victims of the war.
The tombstone has the following inscription: "1899-1902 In memory of four unknown details
from India who died during the South African War. Originally buried at Observatory Park and
now laid to rest here."
The sad irony of the Indian contribution to the war is that "the War Office preferred to ignore
their presence officially, throughout the war and in the official histories", according to Itzkin.
Perhaps the re-burial of the four Muslims in the white soldiers' section is belated recognition by
an apartheid official of their and their countrymen's contribution to the war.
In 1999 the Rand Regiments Memorial, at the top end of the Johannesburg Zoo was
re-dedicated to the memory of all the men, women and children, irrespective of colour, who lost
their lives in the war. It was originally built, in 1913, to honour the British dead.
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