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
Citation
Submitted in patial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate School of Syracuse University, November, 1979.Publisher
Arts -History