UNIT 1 EMERGENCE OF GANDHI

Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Childhood of the Mahatma

1.2.1 Gandhi A Law Student in England

1.3 Gandhi The Lawyer

1.3.1 Gandhi in South Africa

1.4 Between India and South Africa 1.5 Let Us Sum Up

1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit you are introduced to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a child, a lawyer and a fighter for the victims of racist discrimination. After going through this unit, you should be able to: recall Gandhis childhood; describe his stay in England as a law student; trace the events of an Indian lawyer in South Africa; and recall his struggle against injustice by the South African authorities towards the people of Indian origin.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The first unit gives a brief biography of Mahatma Gandhi. Born in Porbandar, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhis father was then the Dewan of Rajkot. You will read in this unit about Gandhis early childhood, his marriage at a very early age, his education in India and in England. Gandhi as a lawyer in Bombay, went to South Africa to take up a legal case, but ended up as a satyagrahi in order to fight racial discrimination, by the white rulers, against the local people and the people of Indian origin. His experience in South Africa enabled him to lead Indias struggle for freedom, later using truth and nonviolence as effective tools.
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1.2 CHILDHOOD OF THE MAHATMA

Let us begin with a short biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in 1869 at Porbandar, a small township on the north-western coast of Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat.

His father Karamchand Gandhi was barely a literate man but highly informed otherwise. His mother, Putlibai was a pious lady of great moral standing. His grandfather was the Diwan (prime minister) of Porbandar princely state; his father was the Diwan of Rajkot and Vankaner states. Gandhi completed his high school education at Alfred High School, Rajkot. He was neither good at studies, nor did he take part in sports and other extracurricular activities. He did however inculcate the habit of walking long distances, a habit which he sustained all through his life. He was married at the age of 12 to Kasturba who never attended any school. Child marriages were common in those days; and girls education was rare. He passed his high school examination in 1887 and proceeded to England for the bar-at-law in the hope of following the family tradition to become Diwan of Rajkot. From his early childhood, Gandhi maintained a strong moral posture. Apparently, he was very much influenced by the moral standards of his parents particularly the mother. The
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plays, by which he was impressed, were Shravana Pitrabhakti and Harishchandra. Why should not all serve their parents like Shravana and be truthful like Harishchandra? asked

Mohandas to himself in that tender age. Ramayana by Tulsidas left an indelible mark on his life. He was always truthful to his parents, teachers and elders in general and took special care to guard his own character.

Despite strong moral footings, Gandhi did go astray in his school days. He was inspired to break old traditions and become modern by eating meat, smoking bidi (local cigarette) and yield to other temptations of modern life, which he never succumbed, as acknowledged by Gandhi.

1.2.1

Gandhi A Law Student in England

Gandhis parents did not have enough money to send him to England. Further, his mother was totally against his son going to a country across the seas and falling prey to bad habits like meat eating, drinking etc. With great difficulty, the passage was arranged and the young Gandhi had to take vows to avoid the evils while in England. His community was
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totally against Gandhis trip. They threatened to excommunicate him but he defied them and later won over them. Gandhi set sail for England on September 4, 1888 from Bombay. His shyness came in the way of his mixing with co-passengers. While in England, he at first tried to look and behave like a perfect English gentleman. He remained vegetarian and started associating himself with London Vegetarian Society. During 1889, he met two theosophists: Madame Blavatsky and Mrs. Annie Besant and thus was introduced to Arnolds Song Celestial (Bhagavad Geeta) and the Light of Asia. Gandhi was admitted to the Inner Temple on November 6, 1888. His three years stay in England was eventful in many ways. England, during that time, was passing through a period of great debate on freedom of thought. The Independent Labour Party was formed in 1887. The English edition of Das Kapital by Marx (1887) and Fabian Essays by Bernard Shaw (1889) stirred the minds of conservative England. Arnolds Song Celestial and the Light of Asia earned many friends for India. At least in the intellectual circles, the assertion that India was not ready for representative government was being questioned. Lectures on Indian philosophy by Max Muller became highly popular. Gandhi did not remain untouched by the emerging favourable understanding of India.

1.3 GANDHI THE LAWYER

Gandhi sailed for India on June 12, 1891. On his return to India he tried for two years to establish himself as a lawyer at Rajkot and Bombay. In his first appearance in the court, he became so nervous that he could not utter a word and sat down. He could not establish himself at Bombay and returned to Rajkot after six months. At Rajkot too he could not make any headway, but being a good draftsman, he could earn enough to meet his
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expenses. In the meanwhile he got an offer from South Africa, which he accepted and left for Durban in April 1893.

1.3.1

Gandhi in South Africa

On landing in South Africa, he shockingly realised that Indians were looked down upon as coolies. Gandhi by this time had developed a sense of pride in Indian culture and his English educational background. He could not be pushed around without protest. Soon after arrival in a Durban court, Gandhi was asked by a magistrate to take off his turban because it was not proper dress for lawyers. Gandhi refused to do so. And this act of defiance got good publicity in newspapers. After a week, Gandhi was asked to go to Pretoria to represent his client in the court. He was booked in the first class compartment. At Maritzburg, the capital of Natal, he was asked to change the compartment and on refusal to do so, he was forcibly ejected and thrown out on the platform. This bitter experience changed the life of Gandhi for he had resolved to fight injustice with all his might. The Maritzburg incidence also saw the innovation of a new weapon to fight oppression and exploitation. It was non-violence. The train in which Gandhi was travelling steamed away. He was forced to shiver all night in the dark waiting room of Maritzburgh. There was a white man in the room. I was afraid of him. What was my duty, I asked myself. Should I go back to India, or should I go forward, with God as my helper, and face whatever was in store for me? I decided to stay and suffer. My active non-violence began from that date. But more insults were in store for Gandhi. He left Maritzburg by the evening train in a reserved berth for Charlestown from where he had to go by a stagecoach to Standarton by evening. Gandhi was asked to sit besides the coachman and the leader of the coach sat inside with white passengers. After some time, he was asked to sit on the footboard so that the leader could sit besides the coachman and smoke. Gandhi refused. The leader beat him and tried to pull him down. The co-passengers intervened and Gandhi remained where he was. Next day, he reached Johannesburg in another coach. On reaching Johannesburg, he went straight to Grand Hotel, but there was no vacancy apparently because he was a coolie. Next day, he went to Pretoria by train. Gandhis mind was fully charged with the agony of his experiences and the urge to do something to improve the conditions of those Indians who lived and worked in South Africa. He took the help of an influential businessman
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Tyeb Haji Khan Muhammad and called a meeting of the Indians to discuss their problems. Gandhi spoke about honesty, hygiene and unity among various sections, and suggested the formation of an association to make representations to the authorities concerned. He offered to teach English to all those who so wanted and to devote time for the association. The association so formed used to hold monthly meetings. Gandhi became more closely associated with Indians and their problems. He found to his dismay that in 1888, Indians were deprived of all their elementary rights to pursue their vocation. Traders were sent out with small compensation. Indians could only be waiters and coolies. In Transvaal, a law was enacted in 1885 to levy a poll tax three pounds per head as entry fee. Gandhi succeeded in convincing Dada Abdulla (Gandhis client who brought him to South Africa) and his adversary Tyeb Seth to settle their case through arbitration. This proved to be a great success for Gandhi and his stock as a lawyer went up. In the meantime, he emerged as a leading figure among the Indians to fight for their legitimate rights. By the end of 1893, Gandhi went back to Durban en route to India. He had come to know of a law that was likely to be introduced to disfranchise Indians. He urged the Indians to protest. He was persuaded to cancel his return to India, to which he agreed and promised to fight

against this Bill without any professional fee. A petition was drafted and sent to the South African legislature on June 28, 1894. A large number of copies of the petition were distributed. Newspapers also gave wide publicity, and a large number of Indians participated in the movement. The Bill was however passed and became a law. Gandhi sent another petition to Lord Ripon, Secretary of Colonies in London. 10,000 Indians signed this petition.

Gandhi applied for registration as an advocate in Natal Supreme Court. The Natal Law Society rejected his application. He appealed and fought his own case until the Society agreed to register him. While Gandhi was fighting on the South African front, in India, the Indian National Congress started pressing the colonial administration to concede the participation of Indians in running the affairs of the country. Gandhi kept in touch with what was going on in India. He kept in touch with Naoroji who presided over the Lahore Congress in 1893 and regularly informed him of the situation in South Africa and the

work he was doing. On August 22, 1894, the Natal Congress was formed. Natal Congress met every month. Lord Ripon disallowed the Defranchising Bill. Thus the petitioner Gandhi succeeded. He then diverted his attention to making the people of both British and Indian origin aware of the real conditions prevailing in South Africa. This took several forms like adult education classes to teach English, and sanitation. Drafting and publication of pamphlets to acquaint the educated people with the pitiable conditions in which the Indians lived and worked in South Africa, was another major activity of the Congress. While these public activities kept Gandhi quite busy, he did not abandon his spiritual journey. He maintained close relations with his Christian and Muslim friends, had dialogue with them and tried to convince them that all religions were united on certain fundamentals like Truth and non violence
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and that they all should join hands on issues where these are jeopardised. In India, Gandhis work got wide publicity and the Indian National Congress held in Madras in 1894 under Alfred Webb as its President, resolved: This Congress earnestly entreats Her Majestys Government to grant the prayer of Her Majestys Indian subjects, residents in South African Colonies, by vetoing the bill of the colonial government to defranchise them.

1.4 BETWEEN INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

By this time Gandhi had been in South Africa for three years. He returned to India landing in Calcutta and leaving for Rajkot by train. At Allahabad, he met the editor of the Pioneer. He published a Green Pamphlet in 1896 at Rajkot giving the details of the plight of Indians in South Africa. The pamphlet received good publicity in India, England and South Africa. He visited Bombay and met Ranade, Tyabji, and Mehta. He acquainted them with the conditions of Indians in South Africa. He met Tilak, Gokhale and Bhandarkar at Poona. He also went to Madras and met the editors of the Hindu and Madras Standard. At Calcutta he met Surendranath Banerjee. Gandhi was about to arrange a public meeting in Calcutta, when he received an urgent telegram from Natal on November 12: Parliament opens January return soon. He left India again on November 30, 1896 from Bombay, this time with his wife and child. The steamer reached Durban on 18 December. By this time, Gandhis activities and views have become known in various sections of the society. The whites were unhappy with his activities. They did not want him back in South Africa. About 2000 whites assembled to stop Indians disembarking from the steamer. They were persuaded to disperse but as soon as the passengers disembarked a crowd attacked them. Kasturba and the child were sent separately. Gandhi opted to face the crowd and to be fair to the senior officers of the government, Gandhi was given all the protection he needed.
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Gandhis public activities multiplied. To be more self-reliant, he started cutting down his personal expenses by washing his own clothes and cutting his own hair. He also engaged himself in social service such as treating lepers and helping patients in a hospital. This inclination towards the service of others became more visible during the Boer War in 1899. To show his loyalty to the empire he offered to organise an Indian Ambulance Corps. The work of the corps was highly appreciated. This experience gave lot of confidence to Indians and taught them a great lesson: How to organise the people for joint action. The Indians were ready to take over the responsibility of further work in South Africa. Gandhi decided to leave for India before a more successful legal practice swayed him. He wanted to continue his work in India. It must have come to his mind that if the South African Indians could be organised to successfully fight for their rights, there was no reason why Indians in India could not be organised to secure their rights for self-government. Gandhi, by then, had acquired considerable moral strength. On the eve of his departure, he was given a rousing farewell receiving a number of costly presents for himself and his family. He returned all of them on the plea that what he did was a service and that the offerings ought to go to the Natal Congress and other public organisations. He returned with lot of good will and affection from all sections of Indians: Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians. Gandhi left India as a barrister and he returned as a fearless fighter for human dignity and human rights. He reached Bombay on 19th December 1901 and immediately left for Calcutta to attend the seventeenth session of the Indian National Congress. The Congress began with a tribute to Ranade who had died the same year. Gandhi moved a resolution in the subject committee of the Congress on behalf of the hundred thousand British Indians in South Africa. He was however disappointed because his resolution did not get the attention it deserved. The Congress, however, gave Gandhi an opportunity to get closer to Gokhale, Tilak, Surendranath Banerjee and other leaders. Gandhi stayed in Calcutta for a month and interacted with Gokhale and several Bengali intellectuals. He paid a quick visit to Burma, which then was part of India. On his way back from Calcutta, he visited Allahabad, Benares and several other places in India travelling in the third class compartment of Indian Railways, a practice, which he followed throughout his life. After a halt at Rajkot for a few months, he shifted to Bombay where he established a good legal practice. He interacted with Gokhale frequently and learned about the problems of India and the trials and tribulations the Indians were passing through. On receiving a telegram from South Africa that Chamberlain was expected there, Gandhi decided to go back for a year leaving his family at Bombay. On reaching South Africa, he represented the case of Indians who, after the Boer War, were once again barred from entering Transvaal without permit. He was told bluntly you know the Imperial Government has little control over self-governing colonies. Gandhi decided to stay on and fight against the aforesaid unjust law. As Gandhis name spread round in Asiatic as well as European circles, his law practice and related activities grew fast. He could not handle them single-handedly. He therefore decided to take the help of some theosophists. In 1905 he called Kasturba and children
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back to Johannesburg where he settled down. In the mean time he had launched two major projects of significance: Indian Opinion, a weekly magazine, and Phoenix Settlement of 100 acres near Durban. The latter became the hub of all activities of Gandhi and his colleagues who moved to the new settlement. Indian Opinion also was shifted there. The settlement consisted of two types of people: schemers and workers. The schemers were the producers; each schemer had 3 acres of land to work on. The workers were paid wages. Gandhi moved between Phoenix settlement and Johannesburg. The same year (1905) Gokhale, in India, started the Servants of India Society to train men prepared to devote their lives to the cause of the country in a religious spirit and seek to promote, by all constitutional means, the national interests of the Indian people. The Indian National Congress demanded self-governing dominion status spearheaded by the Moderate leader Gokhale. Gandhi was highly moved by these developments in India. He took a keen interest in vegetarianism and religious unity. He had already won the confidence of the Muslims. In fact many Muslims were among his most influential followers. Most of the important meetings were held in the quadrangles of the mosques. He focused his attention on various sects of Christianity and he did prove successful in his endeavours. The theosophists gave him great support particularly at the time of crisis and functioned as a bridge between the Europeans and Gandhi. The Zulu rebellion of 1906 gave Gandhi yet another opportunity to prove his loyalty to the Empire by raising an Indian Ambulance Corps. As a volunteer of the corps, he realised that selfless service was not possible without voluntary poverty and brahmacharya (celibacy). Gandhi, on return to Phoenix, convinced Kasturba of both the ideas. Apparently,
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he succeeded in his efforts. He started transforming his own life in consonance with the task he had undertaken. M.K. Gandhi, Attorney, Barrister-at-Law who was trained to fight the opposite side legally was on his way to becoming a committed satyagrahi to fight the opponents with the weapon of love and non-violence. Check Your Progress 1 Note: Write your answer in the space given below. 1) What did Gandhi realise on his reaching South Africa? ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... 2) Explain Gandhis reaction to the disenfranchising bill proposed by the Government of South Africa. ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... 3) What did Gandhi do to become self-reliant? ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................
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1.5 LET US SUM UP

You have read in this unit that Gandhi belonged to a middle class family of western India. He was married at the age of 12, completed his High School education at Rajkot, and despite strong opposition by his mother, he travelled to England and completed his education. In India, he unsuccessfully tried to practice law. He was invited by an Indian living in South Africa to plead his case in a court of law, which he eventually got settled through arbitration in South Africa. Gandhi took up the cause of Indians who suffered racial discrimination and became a satyagrahi. He took up several issues to launch peaceful agitations. Though he returned to India, he was again persuaded to go to South Africa. He took a vow of celibacy and to follow the path of truth and non-violence. Gandhi acknowledged Gokhale as his political guru. Gandhi thus became a committed satyagrahi. regarded Soviet Russia as an effective power against British imperialism he had no ideological sympathies whatsoever for the communist viewpoint even at a time when he knew little about communism, or the Russian Revolution (Bandopadhyaya 1966: 145). Gandhis faith in non-violence and God, and his theory that nothing everlasting and good could be built on the basis of violence, made him sceptical about the Russian Revolution and its consequences. He was so much against the use of violence that he refused to analyse objectively the Russian Revolution and its leaders. Being a mass leader of the twentieth century and dealing not only with the ways of attaining freedom but also concentrating on developmental aspects, Gandhis brushing aside of socialist thought and practice could be regarded as a serious omission. However, this omission has to be understood in the overall theoretical construct that he tried to develop. He rejected western civilisation and with it, its attendant achievements like industrialisation, urbanisation, mechanisation and technology as these, was according to him non-attractive because these entailed alienation, inequality and excessive emphasis on material success. This rejection was total for he also rejected the other ideologies that arose in the industrial era. Not only was he critical of Marxism but also of parliamentary institutions and the creed of liberalism. It was only grudgingly and quite late in the day that he accepted the model of western parliamentary democracy. He remained an outsider to the ongoing debate and political dialogue of the twentieth century, which is why he is comparable to Rousseau, the greatest figure of the Enlightenment who had nothing to do with basic principles and optimism of the age of Reason. Just as Rousseau, Gandhi too did not find any solace in any of the contemporary ideologies and was anguished by the basic maladies of modern industrialised civilisation. His notion of trusteeship, class harmony, sanctity of private property, admission of a silent debt to the capitalists and enlisting their support, vision of a decentralised but self-sufficient villages, futile yet persistent with his efforts to make trusteeship work and apparent satisfaction at small gains made him disagree with the Marxists. Many within his own Congress organisation did not agree with many of his precepts and were often restless with his emphasis on gradualism and his oft-repeated assertion of one step at a time. The Marxists, Bose and Ambedkar were critical of his advocacy of gradualism and did not take cognisance of Gandhis assessment of the Indian situation. Gandhis faith in gradualism was essentially because he, like any other leader in the field of social action was compelled to examine the means at hand. If he had the guns he might well have used them in an armed revolution against the British, which would have been in keeping with
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