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.