Asian (South Africa)

This article is about the term "Asian" as used in South Africa. For the group referred to as Indian/Asian, see Indian South Africans.

In South Africa, Asian usually refers to people of South Asian ancestry, more commonly called Indians.[1][2] They are largely descended from people who migrated to South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th century from British ruled South Asia.

The "Indian"/"Asian" identity was codified by law under Apartheid as a race group.[3] This term excluded other peoples from Continental Asia, including East Asians such as the Chinese, who were either classified as Coloureds or Honorary whites,[2] West Asians (particularly the Lebanese and Syrians), who were originally classified as "Asian" until the early 1900s,[4] and later as “white”, or groups like the Cape Malays who have some degree of Southeast Asian ancestry, and were classified as a subgroup of Coloured.

  1. ^ "Statistical Release P0302: Mid-year population estimates, 2020" (PDF). Statistics South Africa. p. 3.
  2. ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Apartheid | South Africa, Definition, Facts, Beginning, & End | Britannica".
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ownership was invoked but never defined (see the help page).