Mooroogiah Dhanapathy Naidoo (1919 – 1 June 1995) was a

South African Indian Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it one of the la ...

political activist and lawyer. He is best known for his role in the

anti-apartheid movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies ...

, for which he was imprisoned on

Robben Island Robben Island () is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch language, Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrika ...

between 1967 and 1972.

Life and career

Naidoo was born in 1919 in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

to a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

family descended from indentured

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

laborers. His father, a merchant, lost his property in the 1929 stock market crash, and Naidoo's secondary schooling was delayed as he left school to find work. In 1943 he enrolled at the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu- ...

. The president of the students' union at his university, he became politically active in leftist and Indian organisations; he was particularly active in the Non-European United Front, the

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by t ...

, and the

Natal Indian Congress The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was a political organisation established in 1894 to fight discrimination against Indians in the Natal Colony, and later the Natal Province, of South Africa. Founded by Mahatma Gandhi, it later served an importan ...

. He was imprisoned for six months in 1946 for his participation in the

South African Indian Congress The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) was an umbrella body founded in 1921 to coordinate between political organisations representing South African Indians, Indians in the various provinces of South Africa. Its members were the Natal Indian ...

's campaign of

passive resistance Nonviolent resistance, or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, constr ...

against the Ghetto Act, and during this period he also represented the Congress at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. After 1948, Naidoo's political activity extended to the

. Meanwhile, in 1957, Naidoo was admitted to the bar in Durban, where he practised as a lawyer. However, after several years of persecution by the apartheid government, Naidoo was arrested in 1966 and charged with violating the

Suppression of Communism Act The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (Act No. 44 of 1950), renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976, was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which formally banned the South African Communist Party, Communist Party ...

; he was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, which he served on

between 1967 and 1972. Upon his arrival on Robben Island, he was immediately co-opted onto the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

High Command – the political prisoners' informal leadership organ, led by

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

– because of his seniority in the Congress movement. After his release, Naidoo faced house arrest, a banning order and surveillance and could not practice law. In 1977. M.J. Naidoo (M.D. Naidoo's brother) assisted him to escape into exile and enter UK illegally. Between 1977 and 1991, Naidoo lived in exile in Britain. Upon his return in 1991 he resumed his law practice. Ill with

emphysema Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema. Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...

, he died on 1 June 1995 in Durban, aged 75.

Personal life

In 1958 he married Phyllis Naidoo, whom he had met in the Natal Indian Congress. She had an extramarital affair during his imprisonment and they divorced in 1977. He had custody over their two sons, Sadhan and Sha, who predeceased him; they also had a daughter together, named Sukthie. Naidoo's brother, M. J. Naidoo, was also a prominent activist, and his sister Tim Naidoo married

Mac Maharaj Sathyandranath Ragunanan "Mac" Maharaj OLS (born 22 April 1935 in Newcastle, Natal) is a retired South African-Indian politician, businessman, and former anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he was the ...

in 1958.

References

External links

Report on ''The State v Naidoo''
(1966) 1919 births 1995 deaths 20th-century South African lawyers South African anti-apartheid activists Natal Indian Congress politicians {{DEFAULTSORT:Naidoo, M. D. South African politicians of Indian descent University of Natal alumni Activists from Durban Members of the African National Congress Members of the South African Communist Party Inmates of Robben Island South African people of Telugu descent