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Message: <blockquote data-quote="G.D.1.nirmal" data-source="post: 11519303" data-attributes="member: 80976">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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_Indian_Congress" target="_blank">Natal Indian Congress</a> in 1894,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-tendulkar-5" target="_blank">[6]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-essential-16" target="_blank">[17]</a>  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.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-tendulkar-5" target="_blank">[6]</a> In 1906, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transvaal_Colony" target="_blank">Transvaal</a>  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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Christiaan_Smuts" target="_blank">Jan Christiaan Smuts</a> to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas took shape, and the concept of satyagraha matured during this struggle.  Accusations of racism Some of Gandhi's South African articles are controversial. On 7 March 1908, Gandhi wrote in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Opinion" target="_blank">Indian Opinion</a> of his time in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African" target="_blank">South African</a> prison: "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28racial_term%29" target="_blank">Kaffirs</a>  are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are  troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals... The kaffirs'  sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife  with and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness. They're  loafers... a species of humanity almost unknown among the Indians."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-19" target="_blank">[20]</a>  Writing on the subject of immigration in 1903, Gandhi commented: "We  believe as much in the purity of race as we think they do... We believe  also that the white race in South Africa should be the predominating  race."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-20" target="_blank">[21]</a>  During his time in South Africa, Gandhi protested repeatedly about the  social classification of blacks with Indians, whom he described as  "undoubtedly infinitely superior to the Kaffirs".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-21" target="_blank">[22]</a> Remarks such as these have led many South Africans to accuse Gandhi of racism.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-guardian_racist-22" target="_blank">[23]</a> Two professors of history who specialise in South Africa, Surendra  Bhana and Goolam Vahed, examined this controversy in their text, The Making of a Political Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa, 1893–1914.  (New Delhi: Manohar, 2005). They focus in Chapter 1, "Gandhi, Africans  and Indians in Colonial Natal" on the relationship between the African  and Indian communities under "White rule" and policies which enforced  segregation (and, they argue, led to inevitable conflict between these  communities). Of this relationship, they state that, "the young Gandhi  was influenced by segregationist notions prevalent in the 1890s."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-23" target="_blank">[24]</a>  At the same time, they state, "Gandhi's experiences in jail seemed to  make him more sensitive to their plight...the later Gandhi mellowed; he  seemed much less categorical in his expression of prejudice against  Africans, and much more open to seeing points of common cause. His  negative views in the Johannesburg jail were reserved for hardened  African prisoners rather than Africans generally."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-24" target="_blank">[25]</a> However, when plans to unveil a statue of Gandhi in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannesburg" target="_blank">Johannesburg</a> were announced, a movement unsuccessfully tried to block it because of these allegations of racism.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-guardian_racist-22" target="_blank">[23]</a>  Role in Zulu War of 1906 Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambatha_Rebellion" target="_blank">Bambatha Rebellion</a> In 1906, after the British introduced a new poll-tax in South Africa, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_people" target="_blank">Zulus</a> killed two British officers. In response, the British <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_War_of_1906" target="_blank">declared war</a> against the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_kingdom" target="_blank">Zulu kingdom</a>.  Gandhi actively encouraged the British to recruit Indians. He argued  that Indians should support the war efforts in order to legitimise their  claims to full citizenship. The British, however, refused to commission  Indians as army officers. Nonetheless, they accepted Gandhi's offer to  let a detachment of Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearer corps to  treat wounded British soldiers. This corps was commanded by Gandhi. On  21 July 1906, Gandhi wrote in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Opinion" target="_blank">Indian Opinion</a>:  "The corps had been formed at the instance of the Natal Government by  way of experiment, in connection with the operations against the Natives  consists of twenty three Indians".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-25" target="_blank">[26]</a> Gandhi urged the Indian population in South Africa to join the war through his columns in Indian Opinion:  “If the Government only realised what reserve force is being wasted,  they would make use of it and give Indians the opportunity of a thorough  training for actual warfare.”<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-26" target="_blank">[27]</a> In Gandhi's opinion, the Draft Ordinance of 1906 brought the status  of Indians below the level of Natives. He therefore urged Indians to  resist the Ordinance along the lines of satyagraha by taking the example of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28ethnic_slur%29" target="_blank">Kaffirs</a>".  In his words, "Even the half-castes and kaffirs, who are less advanced  than we, have resisted the government. The pass law applies to them as  well, but they do not take out passes."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-27" target="_blank">[28]</a> In 1927, Gandhi wrote of the event: "The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer_War" target="_blank">Boer War</a>  had not brought home to me the horrors of war with anything like the  vividness that the [Zulu] 'rebellion' did. This was no war but a  man-hunt, not only in my opinion, but also in that of many Englishmen  with whom I had occasion to talk."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-28" target="_blank">[29]</a>  Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–45) See also: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_independence_movement" target="_blank">Indian independence movement</a> In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He spoke at the conventions of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_National_Congress" target="_blank">Indian National Congress</a>, but was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopal_Krishna_Gokhale" target="_blank">Gopal Krishna Gokhale</a>, a respected leader of the Congress Party at the time.  Role in World War I In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Thesiger,_1st_Viscount_Chelmsford" target="_blank">Viceroy</a> invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-29" target="_blank">[30]</a> Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India's independence,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-30" target="_blank">[31]</a> Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-wikilivres.info-31" target="_blank">[32]</a>  In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in  1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time  Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled  "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To bring about such a state of  things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the  ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of  arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist  ourselves in the army."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-32" target="_blank">[33]</a> He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maffey,_1st_Baron_Rugby" target="_blank">Viceroy's private secretary</a> that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-33" target="_blank">[34]</a> Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence as his friend <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Freer_Andrews" target="_blank">Charlie Andrews</a>  confirms, "Personally I have never been able to reconcile this with his  own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where I have  found myself in painful disagreement."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-34" target="_blank">[35]</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahadev_Desai" target="_blank">Gandhi's private secretary</a>  also acknowledges that "The question of the consistency between his  creed of 'Ahimsa' (non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised  not only then but has been discussed ever since."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-wikilivres.info-31" target="_blank">[32]</a>  Champaran and Kheda Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champaran_and_Kheda_Satyagraha" target="_blank">Champaran and Kheda Satyagraha</a>  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi_Kheda_1918.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Gandhi_Kheda_1918.jpg/170px-Gandhi_Kheda_1918.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi_Kheda_1918.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.18/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a> Gandhi in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran satyagrahas   Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918 with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champaran_and_Kheda_Satyagraha" target="_blank">Champaran and Kheda agitations</a>  of Bihar and Gujarat. The Champaran agitation pitted the local  peasantry against their largely British landlords who were backed by the  local administration. The peasantry was forced to grow Indigo, a cash  crop whose demand had been declining over over two decades, and were  forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy  wIth this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad.  Pursuing a strategy of non-violent protest, Gandhi "skilfully wrong  footed the administration" and "won major concessions from the  authorities".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-35" target="_blank">[36]</a> Kheda, in 1918, was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was  demanding relief from taxes. Using non-cooperation as a technique,  Gandhi advocated the non-payment of taxes even under the threat of  confiscation of land.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-36" target="_blank">[37]</a> Gandhi established an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashram" target="_blank">ashram</a>  there, organising scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers  from the region. He organised a detailed study and survey of the  villages, accounting for the atrocities and terrible episodes of  suffering, including the general state of degenerate living. Building on  the confidence of villagers, he began leading the clean-up of villages,  building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village  leadership to undo and condemn many social evils such as untouchability  and alcoholism. His most important impact came when he was arrested by police on the  charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province.  Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail,  police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court  reluctantly granted. Gandhi led organised protests and strikes against  the landlords. With the guidance of the British government, these  landlords agreed to suspend revenue hikes until the famine ended and to  grant the poor farmers of the region increased compensation and control  over farming. It was during this agitation that Gandhi was addressed by  the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardar_Patel" target="_blank">Sardar Patel</a>  represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended  revenue collection and released all the prisoners. As a result, Gandhi  became well known in India.  Non-cooperation Main article: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-cooperation_movement" target="_blank">Non-cooperation movement</a> Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle against the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj" target="_blank">British Raj</a>. In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_%28British_India%29" target="_blank">Punjab</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre" target="_blank">Jallianwala Bagh massacre</a> of civilians by British troops (also known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amritsar_Massacre" target="_blank">Amritsar Massacre</a>)  caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and  acts of violence. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj  and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution  offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the  riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted  following Gandhi's emotional speech advocating his principle that all  violence was evil and could not be justified.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGandhi199082-37" target="_blank">[38]</a>  After the massacre and subsequent violence, Gandhi began to focus on  winning complete self-government and control of all Indian government  institutions, maturing soon into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaraj" target="_blank">Swaraj</a> or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi_spinning.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Gandhi_spinning.jpg/220px-Gandhi_spinning.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi_spinning.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.18/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>     <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mahatma_Gandhi%27s_room_at_Sabarmati_Ashram.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Mahatma_Gandhi%27s_room_at_Sabarmati_Ashram.jpg/220px-Mahatma_Gandhi%27s_room_at_Sabarmati_Ashram.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mahatma_Gandhi%27s_room_at_Sabarmati_Ashram.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.18/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a> Mahatma Gandhi's room at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarmati_Ashram" target="_blank">Sabarmati Ashram</a>    <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi_home.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Gandhi_home.jpg/220px-Gandhi_home.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a>  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gandhi_home.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://bits.wikimedia.org/skins-1.18/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarmati_Ashram" target="_blank">Sabarmati Ashram</a>, Gandhi's home in Gujarat</blockquote>

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