A.S. Chetty was born and bred in Pietermaritzburg. Today he is an executive member of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC).

Chetty: I come from a middle class background. My father was a builder, my mother a housewife and Tamil school teacher. I got involved in NIC politics soon after school. We used to do a lot of pamphleteering, and a lot of painting of the walls and all that. Those days we painted “Resist this”, “Resist that” … whatever the campaign was, “Support the Potato Boycott”, “Support the Cigarette Boycott”.

The leader of the NIC here was Dr M. Motala at that time. NIC was becoming quite a strong unit in Pietermaritzburg. But what helped us very much was the ANC.

During the Congress of the People campaign we had a very strong branch of the ANC here under the leadership of Archie Gumede. Harry Gwala was also very, very important. The ANC was a well-knit body, which helped the NIC here. We formed a strong alliance and worked together on the question of the campaign.

African people were very co-operative with Indian volunteers, in both the urban and rural areas. When we Indians go into an African area there was no question, you know, that the guy's going to assault you. The moment you give them the sign, you’re a comrade. You say: “Afrika!” and they return it: “Mayibuye!” Straight away you’re a comrade. Open, come into the house and talk.

But acceptance of the non-racial spirit was sometimes more difficult to foster in the Indian areas.

Chetty: It took a hell of a time to break the old pattern. It was mainly by our action at the time, mainly in ‘Maritzburg, where we can actually physically portray to people that we can jointly together do things. Because this idea of association with Africans was a hell of a bogey created by the oppressors at that time. Swartgevaar was a real bogey, and it made our task very difficult.