On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi, the capital of India, barely five months after India gained independence from the British.

The father of the nation, as Mahatma Gandhi is called, did not live long to savor the freedom that he fought for all his life. The world was stunned. The apostle of peace was no more. With his unique message of nonviolent resistance called satyagraha, Gandhi inspired millions across the world, including leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, and Barack Obama. My grandmother spoke with misty eyes about how my great-grandfather cried his heart out. Even in small villages across the country, Indians did not cook food for days in mourning.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, a small coastal town in the state of Gujarat in West India. He was the youngest born of Kaba Gandhi, a man of high integrity, and Putlibai, a pious woman. The Gandhis belonged to the trading Bania caste that had, for three generations, produced prime ministers in the Kathiawad State, a princely state in today’s Gujarat territory.

At the tender age of thirteen, he was married to Kasturba, a girl who was only fourteen at the time.

After he matriculated, he was advised to go to England to study law. Arranging five thousand rupees for three years of college was tough. What was tougher was to get permission from his mother to go. She did not want her son to cross the kala paani, or “black water.” She allowed her son to go as long as he vowed not to touch wine, woman, or meat, and to perform rituals to keep his caste intact. In 1888, at nineteen years old, Gandhi set off for England alone, leaving his young wife back in India.

Gandhi as a young lawyer in England, 1888
Source: Gandhi Lutheli Documentation Center

Gandhi found the Victorian way of life enchanting and tried to imitate the English, although he never ate meat or drank wine. He returned to India in 1891, having passed the Barrister at Law exam in London. But his legal practice in India did not take off, partly because he was not a man of worldly ways. There were many a case where he admonished the clients for cheating and implored them to plead guilty. Meanwhile, the expenses of running a household mounted and there was little hope that his law practice could pay for their living.

In early 1893, a request for legal help came from a merchant in South Africa. Little did Gandhi know that this appeal for help would change his life and that of mankind. His brother’s friend, Sheth Abdul Karem Jhaveri, a partner of Dada Abdulla and Co, promised Gandhi a princely amount of 105 pounds per year and all expenses paid, including first-class travel, to resolve a dispute with another Indian firm, Tyeb Seth. Gandhi, who had yet to learn the basics of accounting, relented under his brother’s pressure and agreed to the offer. He again set sail, leaving his wife and son behind in India.

In April 1893, the twenty-four-year-old Gandhi sailed from Bombay, India, to South Africa. A short trip to solve a legal case turned into a twenty-one-year journey that transformed M. K. Gandhi from a humble lawyer to “Mahatma,” the founder of satyagraha, a movement the likes of which the world had never seen before.

He reached Natal at the end of May. His journey, unlike Viriah’s, was much more comfortable because he was traveling first-class. Gandhi made friends with the ship captain who ensured that Gandhi got his vegetarian meals properly cooked. They played chess and he had a good time with other first class passengers. Gandhi avoided mingling with the hoi polloi and had a denigrating attitude toward the coolies aboard the ship for their unclean habits and pedestrian language. One must remember that this trip was within two years of his returning from London and his infatuation with the Victorian lifestyle was still fresh.

He was well received in Durban, but history was waiting for him in Pietermaritzburg. On June 7, 1893, eight days after landing in South Africa, he boarded a train from Durban to Charlestown, Pretoria. The clerk from the Jhaveri Company bought him a third-class ticket like those for other Indians. Gandhi put his foot down and demanded a first-class ticket, which led to a nervous breakdown for the poor clerk. No amount of persuasion helped, and Gandhi went to the counter and showed his barrister papers and bought a first-class ticket. However, because of an act passed in 1888, Indians did not have any rights for occupying a first-class compartment except to attend on a customer as a member of the waitstaff.

On boarding the train, the caretaker, a native African, refused to seat him in the first-class compartment, which amused rather than annoyed Gandhi. It was nine p.m. when the train reached Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal. The ticket collector, who by then had received word from the Durban station that a coolie was seated in a first-class cabin, stormed into the compartment and told Gandhi to move to third class. Gandhi insisted that he would not move as he had a first-class ticket. He tried to politely state his case, but the ticket collector hailed a police constable who promptly threw Gandhi and his luggage onto the platform.

Shaken up and barely controlling his rage, he stormed into the railway station master’s office. He made his case again that he was a barrister from London and had a first-class ticket and would travel in no other class but first. It was getting dark and the next train would arrive only the next morning. It was winter and as Pietermaritzburg is at a higher altitude, the night was cold. Gandhi sat in the waiting room, shivering all night and wondering whether he should return to India or go onto Pretoria. Whether he should ignore the insults or fight the injustice.

The decision he made that night to stay and fight for the right cause changed the course of history.

The train arrived the next morning and Gandhi boarded it again. This time, though, there was no untoward incident. When he landed in Pretoria, he started working on the case between two wealthy Indian traders, Abdullah Seth and Tyeb Seth (Seth meaning “merchant” in Hindi).

The case was about forty thousand pounds, an enormous sum of money in those days, that Tyeb Seth owed Abdulla Seth. They were among the richest Indian traders in South Africa and were related to one another. Abdullah lived in Durban and Tyeb in Pretoria. Being partners, they frequently lent goods and money to each other. Some complications arose regarding the payment terms and claims based on promisory notes, and soon the two traders found themselves in an imbroglio. They engaged local English counsels to resolve the dispute but got nowhere.

Unlike the indenture coolies, traders like Abdulla Seth or Tyeb Seth mostly came from Gujarat and arrived in Natal starting in 1860. They paid their own fare and hence were “free” Indians. With the strong connections they had in India, they were able to source rice, spices, textiles, jewelry, and cotton goods. In a short span of time, they established themselves and started competing with the white traders.

The Abdullah casework took Gandhi to the different stores and warehouses of the two companies. He was aghast to see the humiliating living conditions of Indians and native Africans. What bothered him also was the lack of hygiene in the colored world. During the very first meeting in Pretoria, Gandhi pointed out the unsanitary habits of Indians. He insisted that clean surroundings and proper hygiene gave people a basic sense of self-respect, failing which they could never fight for their rights. 

Gandhi worked hard with both Abdullah Seth and Tyeb Seth to see reason and settle out of court. He settled the deal for thirty-seven thousand pounds that Tyeb Seth would pay, but over a longer period of time and in smaller installments. Both parties were happy over the result and Gandhi’s stature grew in the Indian community.

Once the Abdullah-Tyeb case was wrapped up, Gandhi began preparing to return to India, but fate decreed otherwise. At the farewell party in Durban in 1894, Gandhi heard of the Indian Franchise Act which was soon to be passed. If passed, this would not only strip Indians of the right to vote, but they would not have any status or recognition in South Africa. This incensed the traders as they would no longer be able to run any businesses or even move around without a pass. Gandhi decided to postpone his departure and planned a protest. The traders were enthused by his zeal and requested that he stay longer. He decided to stay back in Natal and help set up the Natal Indian Congress in 1894.

Gandhi proposed nonviolent resistance, something that was very uncommon. He proposed that they would fight their oppressors with noncooperation. This was the birth of satyagraha (satya meaning “truth” and agraha meaning “holding onto firmly”), a movement that led to India’s freedom and gained admirers worldwide.

Meanwhile, the local English traders and farmers were getting uncomfortable with the growing Indian competition. The Indian traders sold goods at a lower price and worked harder. Some of the coolies who had completed their indenture set up vegetable and fruit gardens and began selling their produce in the markets as well.

The English traders and farmers began lobbying the white government to reduce the Indian competition and soon the government imposed a combination of taxes and restrictive business and franchise policies with the aim of reducing Indian influence. One of the harsh rules imposed said that Indian hawkers could sell their wares but only before nine in the morning.

In an effort to force Indians to return to India and to reduce the number of free coolies, the government legislated that indenture coolies must return to India on expiry of their indenture or sign a fresh contract every two years. If they failed to meet either requirement, they would be have to pay an annual tax of twenty-five pounds.

Gandhi was shocked to learn about the twenty-five pound tax. Under his leadership, the Natal Indian Congress organized a series of protests and strikes until the government reduced the tax from twenty-five pounds to three pounds, which in itself was still more than most people could afford.

“Gandhi Bhai,” as other Indians affectionately called him (Bhai meaning “brother”), began amassing public support to protest repressive laws and to win equal rights for Indians. He started a newspaper called the Indian Opinion to create awareness about the living and working conditions of Indians.

In 1904, a plague swept through Johannesburg. Indians who lived in crowded and insanitary conditions suffered the most. In the Indian Opinion, Gandhi wrote about the poor living conditions and held the municipal authorities responsible for negligence in not providing sanitary facilities for Indian laborers. He then set up a clinic and with the help of volunteers, aided the sick. The newspaper article attracted the attention of Mr. Henry Polak, an English Jew who met Gandhi and was impressed with his character and humanitarian vision. They felt alike about the essential matters of life and became close friends.

In September 1904, Gandhi was traveling to Durban. Polak saw him off at the Johannesburg station and lent him John Ruskin’s book, Unto This Last. That book cast a magic spell on Gandhi. He wrote in his autobiography that he could not put the book down even once throughout the twenty-four-hour journey. When he arrived in Durban, he was determined to change his life in accordance with the ideals in the book. Mohandas Gandhi translated Unto This Last into Gujarati in 1908 and published it under the title of Sarvodaya (meaning the “well-being of all”). The other book that had a significant influence on Gandhi was Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God Is Within You.

In Durban, he met Albert H. West, who became one of his closest associates in South Africa. He told West about the idea of building a settlement where everyone would be treated as equals and live in peace and harmony. They bought a piece of land in a picturesque valley near the Piezang River, situated two and a half miles from the Phoenix train station and fourteen miles from Durban. West gave up his business in Johannesburg, became one of the first settlers in the Phoenix Settlement, and lived on a very small salary. His wife, mother, and sister also became inmates of the Settlement. The Phoenix Settlement still exists today a heritage site in Durban, South Africa.

Gandhi continued the satyagraha movement to protest against the more oppressive laws against the Indians that the government passed. One law refused to recognize Hindu and Muslim marriages, and the Transvaal Immigration Act made it illegal for any Indian to seek jobs across provinces. This law meant that no matter how hard life was, Indian traders and coolies had to stay in the same province where they landed.

The resistance movement needed a center to train satyagrahis, and plan and coordinate the activities. Hermann Kallenbach, another of Gandhi’s close associates, donated the land for a farm twenty-two miles near Johannesburg. He named it Tolstoy Farm. It was at this farm that Gandhi spent the last of his years in South Africa. The Tolstoy Farm had people from all religions and walks of life living and working together. Gandhi insisted on a vegetarian diet for everyone along with natural remedies to sicknesses. The Tolstoy Farm is also a heritage site today.

In 1913, Gandhi proposed a thirty-six-mile march from Newcastle, Natal, to Charlestown, Transvaal, to protest the Transvaal Immigration Restriction Act. According to this act, it was illegal to cross from one state to another to seek employment. It was created to restrict the movement of all non-white people. Indenture coolies also joined the march in large numbers creating a groundswell, and the march gained enormous strength. On November 6, 1913, over 2,000 men and 127 women crossed the Transvaal border. Gandhi and his wife, Kasturba, were imprisoned as soon as they crossed the border. The police beat up hundreds of people and put them in prison, but the protesters remained calm.

The Transvaal March was highly successful and the agitation increased. This unrest led the British government to negotiate with Gandhi. In 1914, under the Gandhi-Smuts settlement, the government decided to scrap the three-pound tax, abolish the Black Act, recognize Hindu and Muslim marriages, and ease restrictions imposed by the Immigration Act.

This was a major victory for Gandhi, the Natal Indian Congress, and the satyagraha movement. Using nonviolence and civil noncooperation, he showed that one could overcome injustice. The news reached India, and soon senior leaders like Gokhale persuaded Gandhi to return to India as soon as possible to help with the freedom movement there.

In 1915, Gandhi decided to return to India. He had spent twenty-one long years in South Africa, and it had become his second home.

PHOTOGRAPH : Gandhi and Kasturba on their return to India, January 1915

 It is not a well-known fact that Gandhi’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have contributed immensely to South Africa.

PHOTOGRAPH : Gandhi Family Tree

Source : Gandhi Lutheli Documentation Center

 Manilal Mohandas Gandhi (1892 – 1956) was the second son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. He came to South Africa as a child with his parents and lived there all his life. He grew up on the Phoenix Settlement near Durban where he started as an assistant for the Indian Opinion newspaper. He took over as editor and continued there until 1956, when he passed away. He was jailed several times by the British colonial government after protesting against unjust laws. Manilal had three children, Sita, Arun, and Ela.

Sita Gandhi (Her name Sita was in fact given by Mahatma Gandhi) grew up on the Phoenix farm and worked tirelessly for the ashram. She was Gandhiji's aide from 1943 and returned to South Africa after Gandhiji's assassination. Here is a great read on her life :

https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/sita-memoirs-sita-gandhi-uma-dhupelia-mesthrie

Ela Gandhi (1940-), granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, is a peace activist and was a member of parliament in South Africa from 1994 to 2004, where she aligned with the African National Congress (ANC) party representing the Phoenix area of Inanda in the KwaZulu-Natal province. She was born on the Phoenix Settlement.

Arun Gandhi, another grandchild, is a journalist and a noted Indian-American social activist.

Uma Mesthrie, Gandhi’s great-granddaughter and Sita’s daughter, has written an influential book on Gandhi. She is a noted academic and lives in Cape Town.

TABLE : Chronology