Act to impose restrictions with regard to the acquisition and occupation of fixed property in the Province of Natal; to amend the law relating to the ownership and occupation of fixed property in the Province of Transvaal; to make special provision for the representation in Parliament of Indians in the Provinces of Natal and Transvaal, and for the representation in the Provincial Council of Natal, of Indians in that province; and to provide for other incidental matters.
The Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, 1946 (Act No. 28 of 1946; subsequently renamed the Asiatic Land Tenure Act, 1946, and also known as the "Ghetto Act") of South Africa sought to confine Asian ownership and occupation of land to certain clearly defined areas of towns. The Act also prohibited Asians from owning or occupying property without a permit when such property had not been owned or occupied by Asians before 1946.[1][2]
The Act deprived the Asian South Africans of communal representation and took away their fundamental and elementary right of land ownership and occupation. It is called and regarded universally by Indian people as the "Ghetto Act".[3]
The act struck at the heart of Indian commercial and economic life. Not only did it intend to reduce the levels of Indian trade and reduce progress in the acquisition of fixed property, it also is thought to have reduced the opportunities of the masses of the Indian people to earn a decent living and ultimately condemn them to existence in increasingly over-crowded slums and locations. Thus on 31 March 1948, it is thought that about 6,000 Indians marched in protest to the Act in Durban, South Africa.[4][5]
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