Gandhiji in South Africa May Be Briefly Reviewed Here As It Had a Lasting Impact on South Africa and India and Forms the Background for This Volume
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GANDHI AND SOUTH AFRICA 1914-1948 Edited by E.S. Reddy Gopalkrishna Gandhi NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE Ahmedabad - 380,014 1993 FOREWORD I feel greatly honoured to be asked to write a Foreword to this book. It appears at precisely the right moment in the history of the struggle against the institutionalised racism known as ‘apartheid.’ For only now, after nearly a century of oppression by the white minority governments of South Africa and after forty-five years of racist legislation by the National Party, has the process of negotiation to end ‘apartheid’ begun. One of the reasons why it has been so difficult to mobilise international opposition to this vicious and evil system based on racism is the lack of any historical perspective against which to judge it. It is as if the sudden "U-turn" (I refuse to call it a conversion) of President de Klerk and his party were simply due to a pragmatic and realistic political decision: a decision based on the obvious fact that South Africa could not re-enter the open market of the world community whilst still practising and upholding a racist ideology. So, to gain essential investment and development capital, `apartheid' must be ended. The world has been only too ready to interpret all this as a proof of the highmindedness of President de Klerk and the rightness of the policies of those Western powers - particularly Great Britain - who have consistently opposed the imposition of economic, cultural and sporting sanctions on South Africa as the one non-violent means of ending ‘apartheid.’ It is only a truly historical perspective that can put things straight. And in this immensely important book Enuga Reddy and Gopal Gandhi have put us all in their debt. Here for the first time the true significance of Mohandas Gandhi's sojourn in South Africa has been spelt out. And it is urgent that, at this present time of negotiation for a truly democratic, non-racist society based on human rights and human dignity, Gandhiji's contribution should be recognised and honoured. How many people in the western world even know that he spent twenty-one years in South Africa? That it was in these years that Gandhiji's concept and technique of non- violent defiance originated? That, as far back as 1906 he decided to defy the humiliating Asiatic Ordinance, whatever the consequences? But, even more significant is the way in which that concept of non-violent resistance to tyranny (in whatever form) has influenced the struggle for freedom across the face of the earth. We have seen it in the civil rights movements, the defiance campaigns, the non-violent rebellion in Eastern Europe - in Czechoslovakia, East Germany and the Soviet Union itself. But most of all, I would dare to affirm, we have seen it in the long years of struggle in South Africa itself. And of this I can speak with some authority since, from 1943 till the present moment, I have been involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Until 1956, when I became a most reluctant exile, I was directly participating in that non-violent struggle. I was present at a momentous gathering, known as ‘The Congress of the People’ at Kliptown, just outside Johannesburg, in 1955. It was there that, clause by clause, the Freedom Charter was passed and has been ever since the basic political and philosophical and ethical document of the African National Congress. Like the choice of the word ‘Congress’ the essence of the Freedom Charter is Gandhian. Similarly, in the struggle for liberation itself, non- violence has continued to be the chosen method of resistance to the evil of ‘apartheid.’ Whilst it is true that after the Sharpeville massacre the ‘armed struggle’ - strictly defensive, as Nelson Mandela has always defined it - became for the first time since 1912-13 one element in the strategy of liberation, it was never the only or even the predominant way to freedom. The Negotiating Process now begun and the Peace Accord now signed between virtually all the conflicting parties are a proof - if such is needed - that Gandhiji's life and work in South Africa have been triumphant. Shortly before his own death, in May 1947, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Dr. G. M. Naicker, both South African Asians, visited Gandhiji and he told them, "The slogan today is no longer merely ‘Asia for the Asians’ or ‘Africa for the Africans’ but the unity of all the oppressed races of the earth." It is impossible, in a brief Foreword, to do justice to this massive and wide- ranging book. But it will surely become the definite account of those twenty-one years in which the influence of Gandhiji was fundamental to the development of the whole freedom struggle. To know that history is to understand the history of the present moment. And to understand its significance for peace, not only in South Africa, but in the world, is an essential duty for all who care about the future of our planet Earth. I pray that this book may be read by those who have responsibilities in the government of nations, but, even more, by those in universities and schools who will be the inheritors of the world which is yet to be. December 1991 Trevor Huddleston CR INTRODUCTION Gandhiji left South Africa on July 18, 1914, after spending almost 21 years in that country as an attorney and public worker. He wrote as he sailed toward London: "I have left South Africa, but not my connection with that country." (Indian Opinion, August 26, 1914). It was in South Africa that Gandhiji had realised his vocation in life. It was there that he invented and practised satyagraha. It was in South Africa that not only his philosophy of life but his attitude to the social problems of India crystallised. Gandhiji often asserted that he was an Indian and a South African. He told his prayer meeting in New Delhi on June 28, 1946, that he was born in India but was made in South Africa. (Item 214). He said at another prayer meeting in Poona on July 10, 1946: "...in a way I belong to South Africa, having passed twenty years of the best part of my life there." (Item 218) Dr. Y. M. Dadoo and Dr. G. M. Naicker, leaders of the passive resistance movement in South Africa, met Gandhiji on April 11, 1947. He said to them: "Truly speaking, it was after I went to South Africa that I became what I am now. My love for South Africa and my concern for her problems are no less than for India..." (Item 233) On January 28, 1948, two days before he was assassinated, he told a prayer meeting in New Delhi: "I have myself lived in South Africa for twenty years and I can therefore say that it is my country." (Item 244). Gandhiji reminisced on South Africa even in his last public speech, at the prayer meeting the day before he was assassinated. The South African experience left a deep and lasting impression on Gandhiji and influenced the Indian national movement that he was to lead. As he began to lead local and then national struggles in India, Gandhiji often recalled his South African experience as a frame of reference for the direction of the struggles in India. In South Africa, Gandhiji became convinced of the invincibility of non-violent resistance to evil, if properly led. He developed strong convictions on the need for the elimination of untouchability, Hindu-Muslim unity, national language, prohibition, respect for manual labour, promotion of spinning and cottage industries etc. He had encouraged the participation of women in the last decisive phase of the struggle in 1913 and was gratified by the way they had acquitted themselves and inspired others. He was so impressed by the heroism of the poor workers that he said in London on August 8, 1914: "These men and women are the salt of India; on them will be built the Indian nation that is to be." *** He continued to follow the situation in South Africa until the end of his life, and to respond to appeals from the Indian community as it faced ever new measures of discrimination and harassment. He wrote and spoke extensively on the plight of Indians in South Africa, built public opinion and promoted public and governmental action in support of their legitimate rights. Towards the end of his life, he gave guidance and support to the Indian passive resistance movement in South Africa (1946-48), which was to inspire all the oppressed people and lead to the emergence of the great national movement of that country. The time and effort that Gandhiji spent on support to the Indians in South Africa, and his views on developments in South Africa after his departure from that country, are, however, not sufficiently known, as no collection of the relevant speeches, articles and letters has been available. The present collection is being published on the eve of the centenary of his voyage to South Africa and at a time when we, in India, can look forward to fruitful and friendly relations with a new South Africa. It will, we hope, promote a greater understanding between the peoples of India and South Africa whose national movements have been intimately linked for almost a century. *** The struggle for human dignity led by Gandhiji in South Africa may be briefly reviewed here as it had a lasting impact on South Africa and India and forms the background for this volume. A year after he arrived in South Africa as a 23-year-old barrister, Gandhiji decided to devote himself to serving the Indian community which was subjected to discrimination and humiliation by the white rulers.