Peter N. Herndon
Students begin their acquaintance with Gandhi as a thirty-two year old barrister who has just made a life-changing decision to take a job in South Africa in 1893. He had spent two years in England studying law and returned home in 1891to his wife and newly-born son, with no prospects of employment. Fortunately, a family friend in Pretoria, South Africa required a lawyer to assist him. While on the train to meet his client, he was confronted by a European and the conductor who demanded to know how he, a person of dark skin, had obtained a ticket to ride first-class. When Gandhi refused to go to the third-class compartment, he was thrown off the train at the next station where he spent the night. As a result of this personal encounter with racial prejudice, Gandhi met with a group of friends, both Indian and English, and soon reached a landmark decision that would eventually change the lives of hundreds of Indians in South Africa and eventually the lives of millions in India. That decision was, of course, to peacefully and publicly confront the government that legitimatized the unfair pass laws, property laws, enfranchisement laws and others that relegated Indians to a type of second-class citizenship. According to Gandhi, if Indians did not insist on equal rights before the law, they were admitting to their own inferiority and were willingly giving up their dignity as human beings. He also believed that if white people were allowed to assume they were superior to persons of a darker skin, they became victims of their own prejudice. To quote Gandhi, “It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.” Gandhi discovered his gift of political organization. He wrote petitions and newspaper articles and mobilized volunteers from the Christian as well as the Hindu and Muslim communities.
Several film segments illustrate Gandhi’s personal courage and leadership qualities. In the first incident, he led a public meeting of Indian citizens to protest the South African pass laws. Gandhi refused to back down when British soldiers threatened to arrest him if he would not cease collecting and burning the discriminatory passes which were so hated by the Indian people. When Gandhi ignored the soldiers’ warnings, and insisted that he was within his rights, he was brutally beaten. In a second instance, he demonstrated what Jesus meant by “turning the other cheek.” He and a new acquaintance, Charlie Andrews, an Anglican missionary, were confronted by a group of street bullies who demanded that “sammy” and his friend get off their sidewalk. Gandhi calmly but respectfully stood up to them and was able to demonstrate to Charlie that being willing to take a blow for human dignity can result in preserving one’s dignity without suffering bodily injury.
In a third film segment, striking Indian workers marched to demand their civil rights as citizens of the British Empire. Mounted police decided to charge the marchers in an effort to disperse them. Gandhi, cool under pressure, instructed the marchers to lie down, in the belief that the horses would not trample them if they did so. He proved to be right. The soldiers rode off, and Gandhi’s followers won another round in the human rights fight. Later, in a very moving speech to a large crowd, Gandhi demonstrated his persuasive logic in advocating confrontational nonviolence. “It takes courage to resist and not strike back. It takes courage to risk going to jail. But I say nonviolent resistance is the only practical means at our disposal. It will force the British to see the logic of our demands.” Gandhi knew that if enough Indian workers went to jail and were removed from the workers’ pool, England’s resulting loss in business profits would force the government to negotiate.
While in Africa, Gandhi began to experiment with ideas of the simple life. An important book which influenced him at this time was Ruskin’s Unto This Last. Gandhi set up two communal farms or ashrams while he was there, his purpose being to demonstrate the practicality of communal living, whatever one’s religion or economic status. Everyone was to share labor equally. One incident recorded in the film that students find interesting is Gandhi’s angry outburst at his wife Kasturba for her refusal to clean the outdoor latrines. To caste-conscious Hindus, cleaning outhouses was a job fit only for “Untouchables,” a notion which Gandhi felt that Hindus must reject since it was much like the racial prejudice whites showed toward Indians and Africans. A bitter argument was resolved only when Gandhi humbled himself and admitted that his behavior was indefensible and asked his wife’s forgiveness. Gandhi’s shocking outburst of verbal and physical anger toward his wife pointed out the difficulty of patiently trying to maintain one’s high principles, especially when one’s beliefs were different from those deeply ingrained by ancient cultural norms. Gandhi’s inclusion of India’s lowest caste into his community caused Gandhi criticism throughout his life, but he was committed on principle to their full acceptance and he ultimately named them Harijans (Children of God). Another point of irritation with Kasturba was Gandhi’s practice of giving away or selling his own possessions and hers as well for the support of the ashram.
Cooperation and self-reliance were the basis of Gandhi’s ashrams, and were twin cornerstones in Gandhi’s foundational principles of satyagraha from two Sanskrit words, satya, meaning truth and love, plus agraha, meaning force or firmness. Gandhi believed that all people were brothers and sisters, and that his nonviolent means of resistance to the British would eventually persuade the oppressors to see for themselves the dishonesty and injustice of the colonial system. Meanwhile, the ashrams provided a living laboratory for people from different social, economic and religious backgrounds to learn to understand and respect one other in spite of their differences. One interesting footnote regarding Gandhi’s adherence to his belief in self-reliance: he refused to allow his four sons to attend the local schools for fear of their becoming Westernized, hoping to tutor them himself. Once they were grown, all four resented their father for not allowing them to obtain a formal education as Gandhi himself had .
By examining Gandhi’s words and seeing them illustrated by his actions in the film, students should see Gandhi as someone who had important ideas he needed to try out. Was he always certain as to what to do or what the impact of his actions might be? Clearly there were no guarantees, only a remarkable faith that truth and right would eventually triumph. One had to be patient, but one had to be practical as well. Civil resistance, which Gandhi called ahisma, was a way that people could get involved; it was a practical test of their profession of opposition to the discriminatory conditions. Talk was cheap; would people be willing to “walk Gandhi’s walk” and thereby take a risk? Their courageous actions sent a message to the British and the world: “Enough!”
In 1915 Gandhi helped to negotiate the Indian Relief Bill, which granted important civil rights concessions to South Africa’s Indian community. Upon his signing the bill, Gandhi was called before the Minister of Asiatic Affairs, General Jan Smuts. In a humorous scene in the film, Gandhi, still in his prison uniform, politely refused to leave Smuts’ office until Smuts provided Gandhi with cab fare; Gandhi, a shilling in hand, dignity intact, “sees himself out,” much to the amazement of the British officers in charge. Having won this important victory, Gandhi decided that after twenty years, his movement in South Africa had reached its conclusion. On to India!
