I have received a letter on behalf of colonial-born Indians of South Africa chiding me for "absolutely forgetting them". The letter says:
"Our only desire is that we should receive only one message from you. I am sure you will not refuse this our last request to you."
I appreciate the affection underlying this rebuke. There is a strong tie binding the colonial-born Indians to me. But there was no special message that I could think of sending to them. The majority of my messages are sent through the weeklies that I am editing. And the pages of Young India and Gujarati and Hindi Navajivan are full of messages to the settlers and their descendants in South Africa. Though I do attend to a great deal of private correspondence, force of circumstances has obliged me to restrict it to its utmost limit and treat these weeklies as a vehicle for correspondence. These weeklies, as a friend once reminded me, are not newspapers but view-papers, for the transmission of my views such as they are. They have also received messages through C. F. Andrews. But these friends want me to send them a special message through the Rt. Hon. Srinivasa Sastri. I know what this request means. The letter reminds me of the days when Gokhale was in South Africa. The colonial-born Indians knew my connection with Gokhale and they rightly expect me to use Srinivasa Sastri as a vehicle for all my thoughts and sentiments. Colonial-born Indians and other friends in South Africa will certainly have their heart`s content through Srinivasa Sastri.
I am writing these notes before meeting him. We shall have discussed the whole of the South African question not only in its relationship to the things that the Union Government can or cannot do, but also to the things that the Indians, including the colonial-born, can and cannot do. But one thing I would say to the latter publicly.
Let them beware of the tendency to cut themselves away from the settlers who were not born there and of asking for special privileges by reason of their own South African birth. Let them remember that they are, and remain, Indians in every sense of the term in spite of their South African birth and that, therefore, their duty is to throw in their lot completely with the former and work with them in every possible way. They will, by so doing, serve themselves and the country. Let them remember the work that they did so selflessly and bravely as members of the Stretcher Bearer Corps in 1899 during the Boer War and during the protracted satyagraha struggle between 1906 and 1914. Never was there then a whisper of their cutting themselves adrift or asking for special privileges. They have a great future before them if they will seize the occasion. They can become a living link between South Africa and India, if they will but represent the best of India and assimilate the best of the Western civilisation that they come in contact with and as it is represented there by the best Englishmen and the best Boers.
Young India, November 25, 1926; Collected Works, Volume 32, pages 82-83
114. A DAY OF PRAYER
C. F. Andrews has sent me the following characteristic cablegram:
"EXECUTIVE DECIDED OBSERVE DECEMBER NINETEENTH DAY PRAYER FORTHCOMING CONFERENCE. CHURCHES COOPERATING. AFTER WIDEST CONSULTING BEST EUROPEAN SENTIMENT FEEL STEP LIKELY MUCH APPRECIATED. ADVISE SAROJINI."(2)
He is an intensely godly man and, therefore, a man of prayer. His politics are guided, coloured and ennobled by his prayers. Prayer with him is no empty formula. It is with him intense and incessant communion with God and waiting upon Him for guidance in his daily work, great and small. No work that is done in His name and dedicated to Him is small. All work when so done assumes equal merit. A scavenger who works in His service shares equal distinction with a king who uses his gifts in His name and as a mere trustee. Unlike as among us very imperfect beings, in His durbar the motive rather than the act itself decides its quality. We infer the intention from the act. He, knowing the intention as much as the act, judges the act according to the intention.
And Andrews, because his intentions are the purest possible, believes that God will ensure his success. He has every reason for his belief. For he has hitherto succeeded where others have failed. No one knows the history of Andrews`s many unseen services. Those the public see are by no means the most significant or fruitful, not to mention contemporary events. Who knows, for instance, how he influenced the many beneficial decisions of Lord Hardinge? Truly with him "left hand knoweth not what the right hand doeth".
This good man has made his own this South African matter to which he was first appointed by Gokhale. He thinks and prays about it intensely. He had prepared me by a previous letter for the cable I have given to the public. He has infected the Indians with his belief in prayer. I know them all and I must own that many have accepted his advice purely as a matter of form or to please him or to make political capital out of the event. But I know that there are some who have endorsed his proposition with absolute sincerity. The sincerity of the few will cover the insincerity or the indifference of the many.
The Dutch element of South Africa is religious according to its own lights. In South Africa, therefore, in times of famines or locust visitations, there are days officially appointed for humiliation and prayer. It is then no wonder that Andrews has found the best European sentiment ranging itself round a proposal which has its seat, not in his brain but in his heart. But he is not easily satisfied. He wants an adequate response from India and her public bodies. He wants no resolutions, he does not ask for money, he wants a melting of our hearts. He wants us, if we will, to look Godward. He wants us to seek help from God.
Andrews has become an Indian because he is an Englishman. He wants to rule not by force but by love. And love ever identifies itself with the loved one. He believes that the reputation of European humanity is at stake in South Africa. So much tribulation has been suffered in South Africa that in his opinion, the future of the relations between Asiatic and Coloured races and the European will largely depend upon the deliberations of the forthcoming Conference, which is mainly a result of his efforts. He wants divine blessings on these deliberations and asks our cooperation (in) invoking them. Let no one ask what is prayer and where and who is God. Both prayer and belief in God are supremely acts of faith. Let those, therefore, who have that faith respond to the appeal of this English Indian.
Prayer is a result of realisation of our helplessness and our final reliance upon God to the exclusion of all else. We are surely conscious of our helplessness. On the eve of his departure, the Rt. Hon. Srinivasa Sastri has called the Indian cause which he is going to espouse a "desperate cause". Let us then pray on the 19th if we have faith in God. All Hindus, Mussalmans, Christians, Parsis, Jews and others can join if they will. Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.
Young India, November 25, 1926; Collected Works, Volume 32, pages 86-87
115. THE SOUTH AFRICAN SITUATION
Mr. Andrews cables as follows from Pretoria:
"PRAYER DAY ENDORSED BY DUTCH CHURCH NINETEENTH. HERTZOG RECEIVES DELEGATES(3) SEVENTEENTH. THEN RETIRES. FIRST SESSION TWENTIETH."
The endorsement of the prayer day by the Dutch Reformed Church is a great step towards securing an atmosphere favouring a just solution of the difficult question. The Dutch Church is a most conservative body in South Africa. It has rarely taken a broad view of the Indian or the general colour question as it is called in South Africa. The reception that is to take place on the seventeenth by General Hertzog of the delegates to the Conference is a step in recognition of the tremendous importance of the Conference and of the issues that are to be discussed by the Conference.
I hope that the Indian public will back wholeheartedly the noble effort of this single-minded Englishman. One may thoughtlessly say that it costs nothing to offer prayers and that the pressmen will announce that prayers were offered for the success of the mission at so many places. But in reality it is a most difficult thing that Mr. Andrews has asked us to do. One can give of one`s possessions willingly or unwillingly or even for a show one may give unwilling intellectual assent to a proposition. But there is no such thing as unwilling or showy heart cooperation. And what Mr. Andrews wants is heart cooperation, for, prayer is nothing else but an intense longing of the heart. You may express yourself through the lips; you may express yourself in the private closet or in public; but to be genuine, the expression must come from the deepest recesses of the heart. Let those who can, that is those who believe in the cause of the Indians of South Africa and who believe in God and therefore in prayer, set apart some time on the nineteenth instant for the heart cooperation with the Indian settlers of South Africa and invoke God`s blessings on the deliberations of the Conference.
If there is anybody in India who still does not know what the Indian cause in South Africa is, let him or her understand that the very existence of the Indians in South Africa is at stake. Specifically, the Asiatic Bill that was suspended during the last session of the Union Parliament and which will be subject matter of discussion is a Bill which is so designed as to make it impossible for any self-respecting Indian to remain in South Africa. Let those who do not know the legal position of Indians in South Africa realise that they have practically no political status whatsoever within the Union. They have no rights even of residence in Orangia except as domestic servants. In many parts they cannot become owners of landed property. Throughout South Africa, the trading rights have been considerably curtailed and the administration of the existing legislation regarding trading rights is becoming more and more severe against Indian traders, even against those who are holders of trading licences of long standing. I say nothing about the social barriers that have been erected against them and consequent difficulties about freedom of travelling etc. They have hardly any facility for the education of their children worth the name. The position, therefore, it will be seen, is precarious enough as it is. The Asiatic Bill,(4) if it is passed, will put the finishing touch. The Conference has been brought about after tremendous difficulties to ease the situation and to secure the barest justice for the Indian settler. And it is on this effort that C. F. Andrews seeks to invoke the blessing of God on the nineteenth instant. Let those who believe, in all humility, tender their heart cooperation.
Young India, December 16, 1926; Collected Works, Volume 32, pages 431-32
116. MESSAGE TO PUBLIC MEETING, WARDHA, DECEMBER 19, 1926
I am glad you are having a prayer meeting in response to the appeal of that good soul Andrews. The problem in South Africa is the problem of the removal of untouchability. The work of the Conference now (being) held in South Africa will have a far-reaching effect not only on Indians but on all Asiatics, Negroes and others. Let us pray to God that He may inspire the members of the Conference with wisdom and that justice may be done.
Bombay Chronicle, December 22, 1926; Collected works, Volume 32, page 437
117. SPEECH AT FORTY-FIRST SESSION OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, GAUHATI, DECEMBER 26, 1926(5)
Gandhiji said that Mr. C. F. Andrews had kept him in touch with the position in South Africa through correspondence. Mr. Andrews had emphasised in his letters that prayers should be held all over for divine guidance of the Round Table Conference. Need for such prayer was paramount. They knew that the Indian Government had no power to force its will on South Africa. The recent Imperial Conference had conceded to the Dominions even greater freedom and independence in the field of imperial relations. They could, therefore, only pray to God to shower His blessings on those engaged in the discussions of the Round Table Conference so that enlightened by the divine blessings, the Conference might concede justice to the Indian settlers in South Africa.
He then drew the attention of the audience to the fact that the untouchability of South Africa, from which their countrymen were suffering, was nothing but a repercussion of Indian untouchability. It therefore behoved them to put their own house in order.
He reminded the South African statesmen that history showed those who having power abused it prepared for their own ruin, and implored them to grant the Indian settlers elementary justice which they desired. They did not ask for favours; in fact they had forgone, for the sake of peace, things they need not have in strict justice.
Report of the Indian National Congress, Forty-first Session, Gauhati (Assam), 1926, pages 51-52; Collected Works, Volume 32, pages 463-64
118. COMPARISON WITH UNTOUCHABILITY
... We who are responsible for Indian untouchability are ourselves victims of it in South Africa. It is a case over again of "the biter bitten". We have sown the wind in India, we are reaping the whirlwind in South Africa.
The Round Table Conference is now sitting to consider whether there is a way out. Andrews is making Herculean efforts to bring about a happy result. He has mobilised the purest forces of South Africa in favour of the cause.
Let us, however, see the difference between the two untouchabilities. The Indian is withering. The axe has been laid at its root. Enlightened public opinion is against it. No one whose opinion carries any weight defends it. The chains that bind the "untouchables" are daily being broken. Law does not countenance it. What there is of it is all due to the persistence of custom. Customs die hard, they long survive the withdrawal of legal sanction, especially if they are ancient. The disappearance of Indian untouchability is now purely a question of time.
The South African species on the other hand is growing into a hardy tree. It is being daily armed with fresh legal sanctions. The legal disabilities of the Indian untouchables of South Africa have grown with every sitting of the Union Parliament since 1915 in spite of the final settlement of 1914. It is spreading in other parts of the British Empire, as was made plain by the Kenya letter printed last week in these columns.
It is against this growing evil that Andrews is fighting almost single-handed in South Africa. Let us hope that his efforts will be crowned with success.
But the very best way of dealing with the evil no doubt is to rid ourselves of it in India. The members of the Union deputation(6) were heard to say more than once that it would be time for Indians to agitate for the removal of the bar in South Africa when they had got rid of it in India. No doubt they forgot or did not know that with us here, there was no legislative bar against the untouchables. But it would ill become us to advance an argument of that nature when we are seeking justice. There is a fine legal maxim which is applicable to our case. Those who seek justice must come with clean hands. The best case therefore that we can prepare against South African untouchability is to put our own house in order. Till then, I suppose, we will have to be content with what palliatives the Round Table Conference secures for us...
Young India, December 30, 1926; Collected Works, Volume 32, pages 475-77
119. SIR HABIBULLAH DEPUTATION
Mr. C. F. Andrews cables:
"ADVISABLE DELEGATION STAY TILL FEBRUARY TO TIDE OVER PROVINCIAL ELECTION AND KEEP ATMOSPHERE CALM."
I do hope that it would be possible for Lord Irwin(7) to comply with Mr. Andrews` advice and permit the deputation to stay in South Africa till the elections are over. The elections in South Africa, as everywhere else, raise not the best thoughts but the worst passions and create bad blood. There is no doubt that the deputation`s will be a restraining influence. But that, of course, from a South African point of view, may be the best reason for sending the deputation away before the elections begin. The candidates may resent the courteous curb that the presence of the deputation must impose upon a free flow of their eloquence.
Young India, December 30, 1926; Collected Works, Volume 32, page 477
120. SIR HABIBULLAH DEPUTATION - II
I tender heartiest welcome to Sir Habibullah deputation on its return home. The public have not yet sufficient knowledge for forming a definite opinion about the results of the deputation. One thing is however certain that they have by their tact, ability and cohesion contributed not a little to the peaceful atmosphere that reigned supreme whilst the Round Table Conference was going on. One can only hope that the atmosphere will be reflected in the result of their deliberations. Not much importance need be attached to the cablegram from South Africa attributing the opinion on the part of a section of the Indian settlers, rejecting the conclusions of the Round Table Conference. It is as yet too early. The opinion can only be based upon conjecture, for nobody knows what the conclusions are. We are therefore bound to suspend judgment till we have the full text before us of the agreement said to have been arrived at between the parties. The ever vigilant Mr. Andrews is there to watch Indian interests.
In this connection an Indian settler sends me the following appropriate reflections on the deliberations:(8)
"Recent messages from South Africa through Reuter`s agency and Mr. C. F. Andrews suggest that with the enhanced status acquired by the Union of South Africa... she has begun to view the Indian question... in a more generous spirit...
"The Round Table Conference too according to the Hon. Mr. Sastri(9) has terminated successfully and Mr. Sastri has expressed his thorough satisfaction with the agreement arrived at between the Union and the Indian Government delegates... We can only wish that his high hopes may be fulfilled. Mr. Sastri has further advised the Indian settlers: 'If you, our people from India, play the game, it will not be long before you get your due... even in the measure that you expect.` Mr. Sastri has thus given the Indian settlers the hope that they would even be granted full civic rights. Whether Indians are given full civic rights or not, even if the present policy of persecuting and driving Indians from pillar to post is abandoned and they are allowed to earn an honest livelihood undisturbed and unmolested - the labour of the Conference will not have been in vain.
"It were well to give the advice to play the game to the Union Government. Even while we are given the hope of a satisfactory settlement of the Indian question and while we are being told that a change of heart has taken place, we find that the policy of depriving Indians of their means of livelihood and ousting them is being persistently pursued by the provincial governments with the sanction of the Union Government.
"The Town Council of Pietermaritzburg is clearing what it has chosen to term the European locality of every single Indian trader by refusing to grant him a renewal of his licence. Many old established firms have thus already had to close down their businesses in those places without any compensation whatsoever. From a report published in Indian Opinion dated December 31, we find that several tailors, shoemakers and barbers who were carrying on their respective occupations for the last ten, fifteen and twenty years have been refused licences on the only ground that they were Indians, and on appeal the decision of the Licensing Officer was upheld by the Town Council in every case. That this should happen just when the Conference was deliberating is not a little surprising and it is a glaring illustration of who has not been playing the game."
Young India, February 10, 1927; Collected Works, Volume 33, pages 63-64
121. HONOURABLE COMPROMISE
Sir Mahomed Habibullah and his colleagues are to be congratulated upon having secured a settlement that is honourable to both parties. It is not the best that could be conceived, but it is the best that was possible. I doubt if any other deputation could have done more. The Class Areas Bill, which brought about the Conference and round which the battle raged, is dead and gone. The Rt. Hon. Srinivasa Sastri, who when the deputation sailed for South Africa was of all members the most communicative and had warned us not to expect much, did not conceal at the end of the labours of the Conference his satisfaction at the result. A perusal of the settlement warrants the satisfaction.
But like all compromises this one is not without its danger points. The dropping of the Class Areas Bill is balanced by repatriation, re-emerging as re-emigration. If the name is more dignified, it is also more dangerous. Repatriation could only be to India. Re- emigration can be to any country. The following sentence in the settlement clearly points to that interpretation: "The Union Government therefore will organise a scheme of assisted emigration to India or other countries where Western standards are not required." This assisted emigration to other countries I hold to be dangerous, for there is no knowing what may happen to the poor ignorant men going to an unknown land, where they would be utter strangers. Such countries as would have taken them would only be either Fiji or British Guiana. Neither has a good name in India. It is decidedly a disadvantage to have been party to assisted emigration to any other part of the world.
The good point about this assisted emigration is that whereas before the settlement the repatriates lost their domicile, the re-emigrants now retain it and lose it only if they absent themselves so long as to warrant the inference that there is no intention on their part to return to South Africa. How many assisted emigrants can hope to refund the assistance in money they might have received or how many can hope to return with their families is a different question. The non-forfeiture clause is clearly designed not so much to guarantee a substantial right as not to hurt national self-respect.
The annexure, containing a summary of "conclusions and recommendations reached by the Round Table Conference on the Indian question in South Africa", is a remarkable document betraying in every paragraph a heroic attempt to reconcile conflicting interests and sentiments. The industrious reader will have no difficulty in discovering hopeful paragraphs. I shall therefore content myself with drawing attention to a paragraph that is fraught with grave danger. The Union Government is "to take special steps under the Public Health Act for an investigation into the sanitary and housing conditions in and around Durban, which will include the question of the limitations of sale of municipal lands subject to restrictive conditions". I do not know what is aimed at in this paragraph, but my suspecting mind - and suspicion is based upon previous bitter experience of interpretations, warranted and unwarranted, that a strong party places upon agreements with a weak party to the latter`s disadvantage - conjures up all kinds of frightful consequences arising from this proposed committee and limitation. Already the Durban Corporation has been invested with powers which it has utilised for the suppression of its Indian citizens. So far as I know a committee can bring to light nothing that is not known to the Corporation or the Government. The appointment of an advisory committee of Indians may be simple padding. The Health Committee may bring in a hysterical report, as a previous committee to my knowledge has done, and limitations may be put upon the purchase of municipal lands by Indians which may cramp the Indian community residing in Durban. Nor do I like the paragraph which seems to imply that provincial governments are at liberty to take any action they might against the Indian settlers without reference to the Central Government.
But the compromise is acceptable in spite of the dangers referred to by me, not so much for what has been actually achieved as for the almost sudden transformation of the atmosphere in South Africa from one of remorseless hostility towards Indians to that of a generous toleration and from complete social ostracism to that of admission of Indians to social functions. Mr. Andrews sends me a glowing account of the utmost cordiality with which the Indian members of the deputation were received alike by the Government and the people, how local Indians were able to gain entry to the most fashionable hotel in Cape Town without any let or hindrance and how the Europeans in South Africa were flocking to him to know all about the Indian deputation and the Indian question. If this atmosphere of goodwill and sociability is kept up and encouraged, the settlement can be used as a solid foundation for erecting a beautiful temple of freedom for the Indian settlers in South Africa. But the success of the settlement very largely depends upon the selection of the Consul or Commissioner who will be selected to represent the Government of India. He must be a person of eminence, great ability and great strength of character, and in my opinion, he must be an Indian. The very fact of his being an Indian will strike the imagination of the European population and raise the Indian settlers in European estimation. He will reach the heart of Indians in a way no Englishman, not even perhaps Mr. Andrews, can, and if a man can be selected who will command the equal esteem of the Union Government we need not fear the future. Such a man in my humble opinion is Mr. Srinivasa Sastri. I cannot conclude this hasty survey of the settlement without placing on record my deepest conviction that the happy result is predominantly due to the ceaseless and prayerful labours of that godly self-effacing Englishman, Charlie Andrews.
Young India, February 24, 1927; Collected Works, Volume 33, pages 117-19
1. Indians born in South Africa were known as "colonial-born Indians".
2 The executive of the South African Indian Congress decided to observe December 19, 1926, as a day of prayer, to coincide with the Round Table Conference.
The Reverend Andrews suggested advising Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, President of the Indian National Congress and former President of the South African Indian Congress.
3 Delegates to the Round Table Conference
4 Areas Reservation and Immigration and Registration (Further Provision) Bill
5 Gandhiji addressed the Congress in Hindi while moving the following resolution:
"This Congress welcomes the Round Table Conference now sitting in South Africa to deliberate upon the best method of dealing with the question of the status of Indian settlers in that sub-continent and prays for divine blessing and guidance upon its deliberations.
"This Congress once more tenders its thanks to that good Englishman, Mr. C. F. Andrews, who has been chiefly instrumental in preparing in South Africa a calm atmosphere suitable for the holding of the Conference.
"This Congress authorises the President to cable the text of the resolution to General Hertzog, Sir M. Habibullah and Mr. C. F. Andrews."
The resolution was seconded by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and passed unanimously.
General Hertzog was Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa and Sir M. Habibullah leader of the Indian delegation to the Round Table Conference.
6. The Parliamentary delegation from South Africa headed by F. W. Beyers, which arrived in India on a three-week visit at the invitation of the Government of India. Please see item 107 above.