Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views,
ethics and political leadership skills. Indians in South Africa were led by
wealthy Muslims, who employed Gandhi as a lawyer, and by impoverished Hindu
indentured laborers with very limited rights. Gandhi considered them all to be
Indians, taking a lifetime view that "Indianness" transcended
religion and caste. He believed he could bridge historic differences,
especially regarding religion, and he took that belief back to India where he
tried to implement it. The South African experience exposed handicaps to Gandhi
that he had not known about. He realised he was out of contact with the
enormous complexities of religious and cultural life in India, and believed he
understood India by getting to know and leading Indians in South Africa.
In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed
at all coloured people. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after
refusing to move from the first-class. He protested and was allowed on first
class the next day. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a
driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger. He suffered
other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several
hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to
remove his turban, which he refused to do.
These events were a turning point in Gandhi's life and
shaped his social activism and awakened him to social injustice. After
witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa,
Gandhi began to question his place in society and his people's standing in the
British Empire.
Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South
Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote.
Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in
drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found
the Natal Indian Congress in 1894,[12][24] and through this organisation, he
moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In
January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked
him and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police
superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any member of the
mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal
wrong in a court of law.
In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new
Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass
protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted
his still evolving methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or
non-violent protest, for the first time. He urged Indians to defy the new law
and to suffer the punishments for doing so. The community adopted this plan,
and during the ensuing seven-year struggle, thousands of Indians were jailed,
flogged, or shot for striking, refusing to register, for burning their
registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. The
government successfully repressed the Indian protesters, but the public outcry
over the harsh treatment of peaceful Indian protesters by the South African government forced South
African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.
Gandhi's ideas took shape, and the concept of satyagraha matured during this
struggle.(Contact for, Sure Success Suggestion at ignousolutions99@gmail.com)
