How did Gandhi win the trust and love of white and Indian South
Africans alike?
Answers
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had landed in South Africa in 1893, a 23 year young barrister, on a one year assignment. A week after his arrival, while going from Durban to Pretoria, he was thrown out of a train, beaten in a stage coach, and faced other occasions of racial discrimination such as were commonly faced by British Indians in South Africa. That journey set the course of his future evolution from Mohandas to Mahatma during his 21 year stay in South Africa.
In 1893, at his initiative, Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was founded in order to safeguard Indian interests and to acquaint Englishmen in South Africa and England and the people and Government of India with the deteriorating condition of Indians in South Africa. Gandhiji had, in fact, returned to India in October 1901 and settled down in Bombay, but had been recalled and in November 1902 resumed his role of providing leadership to the Indians in resisting the growing racial discrimination. On return, he had settled down in Johannesburg and in 1903 helped found the British Indian Association (BIA), to protect the interests of Indians in Transvaal.
For some time, NIC had wanted a newspaper to put forward Indians' grievances, but early attempts in 1896 proved unsuccessful. The postBoer War situation had made the need for a newspaper urgent. Those days even microphone and radio did not exist and the existing press was mostly in the hands of vested interests. Earlier, P.S.Aiyar, a journalist from Madras, did found an Indian newspaper Indian World in 1898 but it was shortlived. In 1901 he started Colonial Indian News but that too appeared irregularly in 1903 and did not survive the year. [R2:51] It was under these circumstances that Gandhiji decided in 1903 to launch the weekly newspaper Indian Opinion in response to the growing need in South Africa to voice effectively the feelings of Indians against racial intolerance of the white regime.
As Gandhiji recorded later in his book, Satyagraha in South Africa, "I believe that a struggle which chiefly relies upon internal strength cannot be wholly carried on without a newspaper it is also my experience that we could not perhaps have educated the local Indian community, nor kept Indians all over the world in touch with the course of events in South Africa in any other way, with the same ease and success as through the Indian Opinion, which therefore was certainly a most useful and potent weapon in our struggle." [CW 29:117]
The Beginnings
Madanjit Vyavaharik, an exschool teacher of Bombay and a political coworker of Gandhiji, had established 'The International Printing Press' at 113 Grey Street, Durban, in 1898. Much of the literature of NIC was printed there. Gandhiji was able to inspire Madanjit with the idea to start a weekly newspaper, the Indian Opinion, and the first issue was out on June 4, 1903, and hit the streets two days later. [Gandhiji has incorrectly mentioned the date as 1904 in his Autobiography (CW 39:228)] As manager, Madanjit had to secure the licence, the type for the different languages, prospective customers and advertisers. Its first editor was Mansukhlal Hiralal Nazar, a journalist from Bombay, known to Gandhiji since 1897, and had volunteered in the Indian Medical Corps under him in the Boer War. Nazar played an important role in strategizing the content and policy of the paper. While he was politically astute and made important interventions, he relied on Gandhiji in Johannesburg to do much of the significant writing. [R1:9 & R2:51]
As Gandhiji wrote in his Autobiography: "Sjt. Mansukhlal Naazar became the first editor. But I had to bear the brunt of the work, having for most of the time to be practically in charge of the journal. Not that Sjt. Mansukhlal could not carry it on but he would never venture to write on intricate South African problems so long as I was there. He had the greatest confidence in my discernment, and therefore threw on me the responsibility of attending to the editorial columns." [CW 39:228]
The first editorial, 'Ourselves' [CW 3:313], unsigned but written by Gandhiji, is notable for its simple language and cogent expression, clear objectives and ethical appeal, and nationalistic fervour tempered with courtesy and harmony. It started with: "We need offer no apology for making an appearance. The Indian community in South Africa is a recognized factor in the body politic, and a newspaper, voicing its feelings, and specially devoted to its cause, would hardly be considered out of place; indeed, we think, it would supply a longfelt want." After explaining the position of Indians in South Africa as loyal subjects of the KingEmperor, it went on to state: "
Question: How did Gandhi win the trust and love of white and Indian South Africans alike?
Answer: He believes himself and follow the steps... Slow run and win the race...