THESEGREGATIONERA
Africans deeply resented the arming of the Coloured batallions, however,
and at war's end the government disbanded all the black units and failed to
recognize their services.P
Black South African resistance to the racial order was impeded not only
by Blacks' lack of access to firearms but also by their cultural and historical
differences. Indian and Coloured South Africans had little in common with
one another or with Africans, and were themselves disunited. Indians,
amounting to 2 percent of the population of nearly ten million in I 936,
were concentrated in Natal and the southern Transvaal and were first- and
second-generation South Africans. Most were Hindus, the product of the
process that had brought indentured laborers to Natal between I 860 and
I9 I I. There was also a conspicuous minority of traders, mostly Muslims,
who had come to South Africa independently; some of these had built up
large businesses. Most Indians did not identify with the other subject
peoples. Gandhi's movement won minor concessions for the Indian popu-
lation but fought no battles on behalf of the Africans.t"
The Coloured People-8
percent ofthe population-were
concentrated
in the Cape Province. They were exceptionally diverse by ethnic, cultural,