What was the method of mass agitation followed by mahatma gandhi in south africa?
Answers
Gandhi had arrived in South Africa in May 1893. A 23-year-old barrister with an unsuccessful career in India, he had accepted aone-year assignment, with a modest salary, to assist the lawyer of an Indian merchant in Natal, hoping to find better prospects in the new land.
Travelling to Pretoria soon after his arrival in Durban, he was thrown off a train, assaulted by a coachman and denied a hotel room in Johannesburg - all because of his colour. These assaults on his dignity, and the knowledge of the humiliations faced by Indians, did not dishearten him but brought out the best in his personality – a strong sense of duty and an urge to serve humanity. He decided to dedicate himself to public service and settled in South Africa.
That time, there were a little over 50,000 Indians in Natal. Of these, one-third were “indentured labourers” in plantations, mines and railways who had been brought on five-year contracts with the promise of land and rights at the end of indenture. About 30,000 were “free Indians” those who had completed indenture and their children and 5,000 belonged to the trading community.
The Indians contributed greatly to the development of Natal. But around the time of Gandhi’s arrival, the white authorities began to impose measures to deprive Indians of elementary rights. They felt that the existence of “free Indians” would undermine white hegemony. They removed the voting rights of a few Indians who had qualified.