When a 24-year-old Indian lawyer arrived in South Africa in 1893 to handle a routine legal case, he had no idea that the next 21 years would transform him into a political leader who would one day liberate a nation. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s experiences with racial discrimination in South Africa awakened his consciousness about social justice and set him on the path to developing his philosophy of non-violent resistance. His struggles against racist legislation in Natal and Transvaal became the training ground where the future Mahatma learned to fight injustice-not through violence, but through truth and moral courage.
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Unifying the community in Pretoria
Gandhi arrived in Durban in May 1893 to represent an Indian merchant named Dada Abdullah in a civil lawsuit. Within a week of his arrival, he embarked on a journey to Pretoria that would change his life forever. At the Pietermaritzburg station, despite holding a valid first-class ticket, he was forcibly ejected from the train because a white passenger objected to sharing a compartment with an Indian. He spent that cold winter night shivering in the waiting room, contemplating whether to return to India or stay and fight.
Gandhi chose to fight. Upon reaching Pretoria, he studied the conditions of Indians living there and was struck by the widespread discrimination they faced. Within a week of his arrival in Pretoria, Gandhi made his first public speech, calling upon the scattered Indian community to unite. He emphasised truthfulness in business dealings and urged Indians to awaken to the oppression they were suffering.
This meeting marked Gandhi’s first step as a community organiser. The Indian population in South Africa was diverse-Gujarati traders, Tamil labourers, Muslim merchants, and Hindu workers-all facing discrimination but never working together effectively. Gandhi recognised that this division weakened their cause. He worked to bridge religious, linguistic, and regional differences, understanding that only a united community could effectively challenge injustice.
The farewell that became a fight: the Franchise Bill
After successfully concluding the lawsuit that had brought him to South Africa, Gandhi prepared to return to India in 1894. At a farewell party organised in his honour, he learned about a proposed bill in the Natal Legislative Assembly that would strip Indians of their voting rights. At that farewell dinner, Gandhi read about the intentions of the Natal Legislative Assembly to disenfranchise Indians and immediately suggested that those present should resist this attack on their rights.
The farewell party transformed into a working committee meeting. The Indian merchants present pleaded with Gandhi to stay and lead their resistance, as they lacked the knowledge and skills to draft petitions and organise protests on their own. Gandhi agreed to extend his stay by a month-a stay that would ultimately last 21 years.
Gandhi enrolled as an advocate at the Supreme Court of Natal, becoming the first Indian to be admitted to practice law there. He then launched a vigorous campaign against the Franchise Amendment Bill. He organised mass petitions, with one remarkable petition collecting ten thousand signatures addressed to Lord Ripon, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Although the bill eventually passed, Gandhi’s campaign succeeded in bringing international attention to the plight of Indians in South Africa, with coverage in both British and Indian newspapers.
To sustain the political mobilisation, Gandhi proposed the formation of the Natal Indian Congress on 22 May 1894, and it was formally established on 22 August 1894. Abdoola Hajee Adam Jhaveri became the inaugural president, while Gandhi served as honorary secretary. The organisation became the primary vehicle for defending Indian rights through petitions, memorials, and other peaceful forms of protest.
Challenging unjust laws: the £3 tax and disenfranchisement
The Natal Government did not stop at political disenfranchisement. In 1894, they proposed an annual tax of £25 on indentured Indians-an amount that was simply impossible for workers who earned around 14 shillings a month. Gandhi put the matter before the Natal Indian Congress for discussion, and it was immediately resolved to organise the necessary opposition.
The background to this tax revealed the colonial mindset. Indian labourers had first come to Natal around 1860 to work on sugar plantations because the local Zulu population was not suited to this form of work. These workers were promised full rights of ownership of land after completing their five-year indentures. However, the Indians proved far more enterprising than expected. They grew vegetables, introduced new crop varieties including mangoes, purchased land, and some even became successful traders. This alarmed white merchants who could not tolerate competition from Indians.
The Indian Immigration Law of 1895 stipulated that all non-indentured Indian males over sixteen and females over thirteen had to pay an annual tax of £3-an amount simply unaffordable to most workers. This forced many to either re-indenture themselves or return to India. The Viceroy Lord Elgin had reduced the proposed £25 to £3, but even this reduced amount was crushing. A family of four faced an annual tax of £12 when the husband’s income rarely exceeded 14 shillings monthly.
Gandhi also fought against the 1897 Immigration Restriction Act and arbitrary denials of trading licenses. The strategy during this period-which historians call Gandhi’s “moderate phase”-relied on constitutional methods: sending petitions and memorials to colonial authorities, making representations to the British Parliament, and generating press coverage. Gandhi believed that informing authorities about injustices would prompt corrective action, since Indians were, after all, British subjects entitled to certain rights.
The Green Pamphlet and a brutal attack
In 1896, Gandhi returned to India to bring his family back to South Africa. During his visit, he wrote a pamphlet titled “The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa”-which became known as the “Green Pamphlet”. In it, he documented the conditions faced by Indian indentured labourers and the various forms of discrimination they endured. He also addressed several public meetings across India, speaking about the human rights situation in South Africa.
On 14 September 1896, Reuters sent a misleading report on the pamphlet, distorting its contents to inflame white opinion in Natal. The report suggested that Gandhi had been making inflammatory speeches against Europeans in India. This triggered intense anger among the white population. Europeans in Durban formed the European Protection Committee in response, and mass meetings were held condemning Gandhi.
When Gandhi returned to Durban in January 1897 aboard the S.S. Courland with his family and other Indian passengers, they faced a hostile reception. The white agitators alleged that Gandhi had maligned and lowered the fair name of whites in Natal and was now flooding the colony with undesirable Indian settlers. The ships were kept in quarantine for an extended period.
After finally receiving assurance that it was safe to disembark, Gandhi landed. At the Ship Hotel in West Street he was assaulted, and worse could have befallen him had it not been for the timely arrival of Mrs. Alexander, the wife of the Chief Constable. She protected Gandhi from the missiles being hurled at him and shamed the mob into retreating. Later, when Gandhi was lodged in a house on Field Street, a baying mob surrounded the building. Chief Constable Alexander had to smuggle Gandhi out dressed as an Indian constable to save his life.
The colonial government, embarrassed by the incident, offered to prosecute Gandhi’s attackers. In a decision that demonstrated his emerging philosophy, Gandhi refused to press charges, stating that the attackers were young and had been confused by false news reports. This act of forgiveness won him widespread respect and admiration, establishing his reputation as a principled leader who practiced what he preached.
The foundations of a freedom fighter
Gandhi’s South African experiences laid the groundwork for everything that followed. He learned to unite diverse communities around common causes. He developed skills in legal advocacy, petition writing, and mass mobilisation. He discovered the power of the press in shaping public opinion. Most importantly, he began to understand that principled non-violent resistance could be more powerful than physical force.
The struggles against the £3 tax would continue for two more decades before finally succeeding in 1914, following the famous Satyagraha campaigns that saw thousands imprisoned. The lessons Gandhi learned in confronting racial discrimination in South Africa-patience, persistence, moral courage, and faith in truth-would later guide India’s independence movement and inspire civil rights struggles around the world.
What do you think? How did Gandhi’s decision to forgive his attackers rather than prosecute them shape his later philosophy of non-violence? In what ways do the struggles of Indians in colonial South Africa mirror struggles for civil rights in other parts of the world?
References
- https://sahistory.org.za/article/mohandas-karamchand-gandhi-mahatma-gandhi-timeline-1890-1899
- https://sahistory.org.za/article/natal-indian-congress-nic
- https://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/about-gandhi/gandhi-in-safrica.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_Indian_Congress
- https://www.mkgandhi.org/autobio/chap46.php
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2019.1608002
- https://selfstudyhistory.com/2015/01/29/rise-of-gandhi-and-early-activism/
- https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/attackongandhi.php
- https://zeenews.india.com/india/when-mahatma-gandhi-survived-a-lynch-mob-in-south-africa-2237519.html
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