The one idea that is common to all these three quotations is the ending of inequality in Indian society. (ii) In the first quotation, Gandhiji strived for an India in which there should be no higher or lower class of people and all communities should live in perfect harmony
NCERT QUESTION
Answers
“I have fought against white domination
and I have fought against black
domination. I have cherished the ideal of
a democratic and free society in which all
persons live together in harmony and with
equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I
hope to live for and to achieve. But if
needs be, it is an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.”
This was Nelson Mandela, being
tried for treason by the white South
African government. He and seven
other leaders were sentenced to life
imprisonment in 1964 for daring to
oppose the apartheid regime in his
country. He spent the next 28 years
in South Africa’s most dreaded
prison, Robben Island.
Struggle against apar uggle against apar uggle against apartheid
Apartheid was the name of a system
of racial discrimination unique to
South Africa. The white Europeans
imposed this system on South
Africa. During the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, the trading
companies from Europe occupied it
with arms and force, in the way they
occupied India. But unlike India, a
large number of ‘whites’ had settled
in South Africa and became the
local rulers. The system of
apartheid divided the people and
labelled them on the basis of their
skin colour. The native people of
South Africa are black in colour.
They made up about three-fourth
of the population and were called
‘blacks’. Besides these two groups,
there were people of mixed races
who were called ‘coloured’ and
people who migrated from India.
The white rulers treated all nonwhites as inferiors. The non-whites
did not have voting rights.
The apartheid system was
particularly oppressive for the
blacks. They were forbidden from
living in white areas. They could
work in white areas only if they had
a permit. Trains, buses, taxis,
hotels, hospitals, schools and
colleges, libraries, cinema halls,
theatres, beaches, swimming pools,