Edited by
E.S. Reddy
and
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE
Ahmedabad - 380,014 1993
Under construction!
PART I - 1914-1918
Editor's note
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Editor's note
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APPENDIX I. THE SMUTS-GANDHI AGREEMENT, JUNE 30, 1914
APPENDIX II. LETTER DATED JULY 7, 1914 FROM GANDHIJI TO E.M. GORGES
APPENDIX III. THE CAPE TOWN AGREEMENT, 1927
I FEEL greatly honoured to be asked to write a Foreword to this book. It appears at precisely the right moment in the history of the struggle against the institutionalised racism known as 'apartheid'. For only now, after nearly a century of oppression by the white minority governments of South Africa and after forty-five years of racist legislation by the National Party, has the process of negotiation to end 'apartheid' begun.
One of the reasons why it has been so difficult to mobilise international opposition to this vicious and evil system based on racism is the lack of any historical perspective against which to judge it. It is as if the sudden "U- turn" (I refuse to call it a conversion) of President de Klerk and his party were simply due to a pragmatic and realistic political decision: a decision based on the obvious fact that South Africa could not re-enter the open market of the world community whilst still practising and upholding a racist ideology. So, to gain essential investment and development capital, 'apartheid' must be ended. The world has been only too ready to interpret all this as a proof of the highmindedness of President de Klerk and the rightness of the policies of those Western powers - particularly Great Britain - who have consistently opposed the imposition of economic, cultural and sporting sanctions on South Africa as the one non-violent means of ending 'apartheid'
It is only a truly historical perspective that can put things straight. And in this immensely important book Enuga Reddy and Gopal Gandhi have put us all in their debt. Here for the first time the true significance of Mohandas Gandhi's sojourn in South Africa has been spelt out. And it is urgent that, at this present time of negotiation for a truly democratic, non-racist society based on human rights and human dignity, Gandhiji's contribution should be recognised and honoured.
How many people in the western world even know that he spent twenty-one years in South Africa? That it was in these years that Gandhiji's concept and technique of non-violent defiance originated? That, as far back as 1906 he decided to defy the humiliating Asiatic Ordinance, whatever the consequences? But, even more significant is the way in which that concept of non-violent resistance to tyranny (in whatever form) has influenced the struggle for freedom across the face of the earth. We have seen it in the civil rights movements, the defiance campaigns, the non-violent rebellion in Eastern Europe - in Czechoslovakia, East Germany and the Soviet Union itself. But most of all, I would dare to affirm, we have seen it in the long years of struggle in South Africa itself. And of this I can speak with some authority since, from 1943 till the present moment, I have been involved in the Anti- Apartheid Movement. Until 1956, when I became a most reluctant exile, I was directly participating in that non.violent struggle. I was present at a momentous gathering, known as 'The Congress of the People' at Kliptown, just outside Johannesburg, in 1955. It was there that, clause by clause, the Freedom Charter was passed and has been ever since the basic political and philosophical and ethical document of the African National Congress. Like the choice of the word 'Congress' the essence of the Freedom Charter is Gandhian. Similarly, in the struggle for liberation itself, non-violence has continued to be the chosen method of resistance to the evil of 'apartheid'. Whilst it is true that after the Sharpeville massacre the 'armed struggle' - strictly defensive, as Nelson Mandela has always defined it - became for the first time since 1912-13 one element in the strategy of liberation, it was never the only or even the predominant way to freedom. The Negotiating Process now begun and the Peace Accord now signed between virtually all the conflicting parties are a proof - if such is needed - that Gandhiji's life and work in South Africa have been triumphant. Shortly before his own death, in May 1947, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Dr. G. M. Naicker, both South African Asians, visited Gandhiji and he told them "The slogan today is no longer merely 'Asia for the Asians' or 'Africa for the Africans' but the unity of all the oppressed races of the earth."
It is impossible, in a brief Foreword, to do justice to this massive and wide-ranging book. But it will surely become the definite account of those twenty-one years in which the influence of Gandhiji was fundamental to the development of the whole freedom struggle. To know that history is to understand the history of the present moment. And to understand its significance for peace, not only in South Africa, but in the world, is an essential duty for all who care about the future of our planet Earth.
I pray that this book may be read by those who have responsibilities in the government of nations, but, even more, by those in universities and schools who will be the inheritors of the world which is yet to be.
Trevor Huddleston CR
December 1991
Gandhiji left South Africa on July 18, 1914, after spending almost 21 years in that country as an attorney and public worker. He wrote as he sailed toward London:
"I have left South Africa, but not my connection with that country." (Indian Opinion, August 26, 1914).
It was in South Africa that Gandhiji had realised his vocation in life. It was there that he invented and practised satyagraha. It was in South Africa that not only his philisophy of life but his attitude to the social problems of India crystallised.
Gandhiji often asserted that he was an Indian and a South African. He told his prayer meeting in New Delhi on June 28, 1946, that he was born in India but was made in South Africa. (Item 214). He said at another prayer meeting in Poona on July 10, 1946:
"...in a way I belong to South Africa, having passed twenty years of the best part of my life there". (Item 218)
Dr. Y.M. Dadoo and Dr. G.M. Naicker, leaders of the passive resistance movement in South Africa, met Gandhiji on April 11, 1947. He said to them:
"Truly speaking, it was after I went to South Africa that I became what I am now. My love for South Africa and my concern for her problems are no less than for India..." (Item 233)
On January 28, 1948, two days before he was assassinated, he told a prayer meeting in New Delhi: "I have myself lived in South Africa for twenty years and I can therefore say that it is my country." (Item 244). Gandhiji reminisced on South Africa even in his last public speech, at the prayer meeting the day before he was assassinated.
The South African experience left a deep and lasting impression on Gandhiji and influenced the Indian national movement that he was to lead. As he began to lead local and then national struggles in India, Gandhiji often recalled his South African experience as a frame of reference for the direction of the struggles in India.
In South Africa, Gandhiji became convinced of the invincibility of non- violent resistance to evil, if properly led. He developed strong convictions on the need for the elimination of untouchability, Hindu-Muslim unity, national language, prohibition, respect for manual labour, promotion of spinning and cottage industries etc.
He had encouraged the participation of women in the last decisive phase of the struggle in 1913 and was gratified by the way they had acquitted themselves and inspired others. He was so impressed by the heroism of the poor workers that he said in London on August 8, 1914:
"These men and women are the salt of India; on them will be built the Indian nation that is to be."
He continued to follow the situation in South Africa until the end of his life, and to respond to appeals from the Indian community as it faced ever new measures of discrimination and harassment. He wrote and spoke extensively on the plight of Indians in South Africa, built public opinion and promoted public and governmental action in support of their legitimate rights. Towards the end of his life, he gave guidance and support to the Indian passive resistance movement in South Africa (1946-48), which was to inspire all the oppressed people and lead to the emergence of the great national movement of that country.
The time and effort that Gandhiji spent on support to the Indians in South Africa, and his views on developments in South Africa after his departure from that country, are, however, not sufficiently known, as no collection of the relevant speeches, articles and letters has been available.
The present collection is being published on the eve of the centenary of his voyage to South Africa and at a time when we, in India, can look forward to fruitful and friendly relations with a new South Africa. It will, we hope, promote a greater understanding between the peoples of India and South Africa whose national movements have been intimately linked for almost a century.
The struggle for human dignity led by Gandhiji in South Africa may be briefly reviewed here as it had a lasting impact on South Africa and India and forms the background for this volume. A year after he arrived in South Africa as a 23-year-old barrister, Gandhiji decided to devote himself to serving the Indian community which was subjected to discrimination and humiliation by the white rulers. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 and the Transvaal British Indian Association in 1903.
For over a decade, he prepared numerous petitions and memoranda, led deputations to the authorities, wrote letters to the press and tried to promote public understanding and support - in South Africa, as well as in India and Britain - for the cause of the Indians in South Africa. His professsional practice also came to be largely devoted to the same cause.
At that time, Gandhiji had entertained faith in the fairness of the British and in Imperial principles. But it became clear by 1906 that appeals and petitions had proved ineffective and promises had been betrayed. The Transvaal Asiatic Ordinance of 1906, requiring all Indians to register and carry passes, was the last straw. He decided not to submit to this unjust and evil measure. The Indian community in the province took a solemn pledge at a large meeting on July 31, 1906, to defy the law.
The Ordinance was denied Royal assent after an Indian deputation (Gandhiji and Haji Ojer Ali) appealed to the Imperial authorities in London. But self-government was granted to the Transvaal at the beginning of 1907 and it enacted the terms of the Ordinance in the Asiatic Registration Act of 1907.
The first Satyagraha, or the campaign of non-violent defiance, began in July 1907 when that Act came into force. About 150 persons courted imprisonment by defying the Act and picketing registration offices. This initial phase of the campaign ended at the end of January 1908 when General Smuts and Gandhiji reached a provisional settlement under which the Indians would register voluntarily and the Government would repeal the law.
The satyagraha had to be resumed in July 1908 when the Government reneged on the promise to repeal the Act. Over two thousand people, from the small Indian population of less than ten thousand in the Transvaal, as well as some Indians from the Natal, went to prison defying the Registration Act and an immigration law which restricted inter-provincial movement by Indians.
The movement was suspended in 1911 during talks with the government of the newly-established Union of South Africa. But the talks proved fruitless. The Union Government repudiated a promise it made to Gopal Krishna Gokhale, in 1912, to abolish the £3 annual tax which Natal had imposed on indentured labourers who did not re-indenture or return to India at the expiration of their contracts. And in 1913, the Cape Supreme Court declared virtually all Indian marriages invalid, by deciding that only marriages performed under Christian rites and duly registered were valid. The Government ignored appeals by the Indian community for legislation to validate the marriages.
Gandhiji then decided on a resumption of the satyagraha, both in the Transvaal and in Natal. The abolition of the £3 tax and the validation of marriages were added to the demands of the satyagraha.
During this last stage, the movement was joined by workers and women who were directly affected by the £3 tax and the judgment on marriages, and it became a mass movement. People of all religious persuasions - Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians - and of varied occupations - merchants, hawkers, professionals, workers and indentured labourers - came together in this righteous struggle.
"The whole community rose like a surging wave. Without organisation, without propaganda, all - nearly 40,000 - courted imprisonment. Nearly ten thousand were actually imprisoned... A bloodless revolution was effected after strenuous discipline in self-suffering." (Gandhiji in Young India, April 20, 1921; Collected Works, Volume 20, page 15).
Gandhiji and his colleagues were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The strikers were rendered leaderless. The army, police and the employers were ruthless in attempts to coerce the workers and suppress the strike. The striking miners were confined in mine compounds turned into prisons and subjected to cruel assaults. Indentured labourers on sugar plantations were beaten and fired at. Several workers were killed. But the strikers remained firm and disciplined; equally significant, they did not deviate from non- violence. John Dube, the first President-General of the African National Congress, gave a moving eye-witness account of an incident in which 500 strikers at Phoenix would not move despite whipping, beating with sticks and rifle butts, running of horses over the crowd, torture and killing of their leader, and firing. (Raojibhai M. Patel, Gandhijiki Sadhana, 1939).
A notable aspect of this phase of the campaign was the active participation of women. Gandhiji's wife Kasturba - who was then in poor health and living on a diet of fruit alone - led the way along with several relatives. Gandhiji wrote in Satyagraha in South Africa:
"I knew that the step of sending women (from Phoenix settlement) to jail was fraught with serious risk. Most of the sisters in Phoenix spoke Gujarati. They had not had the training or experience of the Transvaal sisters. Moreover, most of them were related to me, and might think of going to jail only on account of my influence with them. If afterwards they flinched at the time of actual trial or could not stand the jail, they might be led to apologise, thus not only giving me a deep shock but also causing serious damage to the movement. I decided not to broach the subject to my wife, as she could not say no to any proposal I made, and if she said yes, I would not know what value to attach to her assent, and as I knew that in a serious matter like this the husband should leave the wife to take what step she liked on her own initiative, and should not be offended at all even if she did not take any step whatever. I talked to the other sisters who readily fell in with my proposal and expressed their readiness to go to jail. They assured me that they would complete their term in jail, come what might. My wife overheard my conversation with the sisters, and addressing me, said, 'I am sorry that you are not telling me about this. What defect is there in me which disqualifies me for jail? I also wish to take the path to which you are inviting the others.' I replied, 'there is no question of my distrust in you. I would be only too glad if you went to jail, but it should not appear at all as if you went at my instance. In matters like this every one should act relying solely upon one's own strength and courage. If I asked you, you might be inclined to go just for the sake of complying with my request. And then if you began to tremble in the law court or were terrified by hardships in jail, I could not find fault with you, but how would it stand with me? How could I then harbour you or look the world in the face? It is fears like these which have prevented me from asking you too to court jail.' 'You may have nothing to do with me', she said, 'if being unable to stand jail I secure my release by an apology. If you can endure hardships and so can my boys, why cannot I? I am bound to join the struggle.' 'Then I am bound to admit you to it', said I. 'You know my conditions and you know my temperament. Even now reconsider the matter if you like, and if after mature thought you deliberately come to the conclusion not to join the movement, you are free to withdraw. And you must understand that there is nothing to be ashamed of in changing your decision even now.' 'I have nothing to think about, I am fully determined', she said..."
The women from the Phoenix Settlement and those from the Transvaal were not arrested for several days and they travelled around, encouraging the workers to strike. Kasturba came out of prison emaciated. Valliamma, a 16-year-old girl, insisted on serving her full term in prison despite serious illness and died a few days after release.
Public opinion all over India was aroused. The Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, expressed sympathy with the satyagrahis: the Indian and British Governments intervened and the South African Government was forced to negotiate.
The satyagraha ended with the Smuts-Gandhi agreement of June 30, 1914, under which all the demands of the satyagraha were conceded.
The concept of Satyagraha soon assumed world historic importance.
In a letter to Indians in South Africa, which he wrote on the eve of his departure from that country and signed "the community's indentured labourer", Gandhiji said:
"Though I am leaving for the motherland, I am not likely to forget South Africa. I should like friends who may have occasion to go to India to come and see me there. I do intend, of course, to work in India in regard to the disabilities here..."
He kept his promise.
While he was leading the Indian people in South Africa, their motherland and many of its leaders had lent support. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, in particular, had done much, with a "single-minded and selfless devotion", even to the detriment of his health. Gandhiji, after his return to India, took the mantle of Gokhale. His services proved essential as an anti-Asiatic movement gained strength in South Africa.
Gandhiji had been encouraged by what he saw as a change in attitude of the South African Government during the negotiations in 1914. He understood that the settlement with General Smuts implied that no racial distinction would be made in any legislation affecting the Indian community. With the protection of vested rights, and the promise of generosity in administering existing laws, he hoped for a steady improvement of the position of the resident Indians, especially since the Europeans had no more reason to fear of unrestricted Indian immigration.
The Smuts-Gandhi Agreement had dealt only with certain specific issues which hurt the self-respect of the Indian community and formed the points of the satyagraha. There remained numerous other discriminatory measures and grievances. Gandhiji had made it clear - in his letter of June 30, 1914, which forms part of the agreement - that Indians "could not be expected to rest content until full civil rights had been restored." But he believed that the objective could now be achieved by a process of education of European opinion and the intercession of Indian and British Governments which had participated in the negotiations of 1914. (Item 1).
Gandhiji's hopes for an amelioration of the situation of Indians in South Africa were, however, short-lived. An anti-Asiatic agitation began within a few years after he left South Africa, and he received frequent appeals from the Indian community for help. He tried to do his best, despite his immense preoccupations in India, to publicise the situation, and persuade the Indian Government to act.
He felt rather powerless and despondent after 1920 as he lost faith in the British Imperial professions and became a non-cooperator. As he wrote in Young India of March 20, 1924, he developed "utter distrust of the British Imperial system".
"... I am able no longer to rely upon verbal or written promises made by persons working under that system and in their capacity as officials or supporters. The history of Indian emigrants to South Africa, East Africa and Fiji is a history of broken promises and of ignominious surrender of their trust by the Imperial Government and the Indian Government, whenever it has been a question of conflicting interests of Europeans against Indians."
He could only try to exert some influence by promoting public agitation in India.
In that siuation, his valued friend, the Reverend C.F. Andrews, proved a great asset. The latter took special interest in the position of Indians overseas. He made several visits to South Africa at critical times and played a significant role in rallying support for the Indian cause from European churchmen, media and liberals. A visit to South Africa in 1924 by Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, another close associate of Gandhiji, was also most helpful. After a round table conference in Cape Town in 1926-27, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, for whom Gandhiji had great respect, was appointed Agent of the Government of India in South Africa; he sought the advice of Gandhiji and helped persuade the South African Government to redress some grievances of the Indians.
Gandhiji warned several times that the weapon of satyagraha had to be kept alive. It was only when the Indian community in South Africa was prepared to suffer and sacrifice that it could mould its own destiny. Mere diplomatic action could only obtain compromises mitigating new discrimiatory measures, accepting what was feasible in the context of white reacist opinion and agitation, but could not prevent a steady deterioration of the legal position of the Indians.
By 1939 a new leadership emerged in South Africa with the conviction that the rights of the Indian community can only be defended by struggle and sacrifice. It pledged to emulate Gandhiji's own experience in South Africa and sacrifice for the honour and dignity of the Indian people. Dr. Yusuf M. Dadoo, who became chairman of a Council of Action in the Transvaal, appealed to Gandhiji for his blessings for a passive resistance campaign.
Gandhiji was impressed by the sincerity Dr. Dadoo. While he advised postponement of passive resistance at that time, pending efforts by the Indian Government for an honourable compromise, he gave moral support to resistance. The passive resistance campaign had to be deferred, however, except for a token satyagraha in 1941, especially by persons who had been associated with Gandhiji and their descendants.
A nation-wide passive resistance was launched in June 1946, under the leadership of Dr. Dadoo in the Transvaal and Dr. G. M. Naicker in Natal, when the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act - the "Ghetto Act" - came into force. Gandhiji lent them guidance and valuable support until the end of his life.
Reference must be made to the attitude of Gandhiji towards Indian-African relations in South Africa, especially on cooperation in the struggle for freedom.
Gandhiji had dedicated himself in South Africa to serving the small Indian community which was being subjected to discriminatory and humiliating measures in breach of undertakings by the British and colonial governments, in violation of acquired rights and in disregard of professions of British Imperial policy. The Transvaal Asiatic Registration Ordinance of 1906 came soon after thousands of Chinese workers were summarily deported from the Transvaal. There was reason to believe that the intention of the authorities was to make the life of the Indians so miserable as to force all Indians, except the indentured labourers, to leave. The Indians were vulnerable.
For Gandhiji, the issue was not only the specific grievances of the Indians but their individual and national self-respect. Many Indian traders had earlier accepted humiliations in order to make money, but that was not acceptable to Gandhiji. The satyagraha was a part of the struggle of India for its dignity, and a moral crusade, though waged on the South African soil.
The satyagraha was, therefore, confined to the Indian community. The small Chinese community, which was also affected by the anti-Asiatic legislation in the Transvaal, carried on a parallel struggle. The grievances of the Asians were, however, of little direct concern to the indigenous Africans and the Coloured people.
Gandhiji recognised that the root cause of the injustice being perpetrated against the Indians was the fact that the authorities in South Africa were reprersentative of white settlers only. But he felt that the Indian settlers or indentured labourers could not change the political system in the country: that was a task for the natives of the soil. He did not at that stage call for full political rights for the Indians, but only for civil rights and for the removal of any "colour bar" in legislation. He made great efforts to inform the white community of the cause of the Indians in order to secure their undestanding and support. He maintained friendly contacts with African leaders, and expressed full sympathy for their aspirations, but neither conceived of a joint struggle for full political rights at that stage.
Gandhiji foresaw already, according to his first biographer, the Reverend J. J. Doke, the coming confrontation between the African people and the whites. He said:
"When the moment of collision comes, if, instead of the old ways of massacre, assegai and fire, the Natives adopt the policy of Passive Resistance, it will be a grand change for the Colony ..."
After his return to India in 1914, when Gandhiji devoted much of his time to mobilise Indian public opinion in support of the Indians in South Africa, he repeatedly stressed that the Indians should maintain amicable relations with the Africans and should not press any claims if they conflicted with the interests of the African majority, they should not be pressed. That message was also carried to South Africa by his associates, the Reverend C. F. Andrews and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu.
In 1928, commenting on a report that some Indians in South Africa favoured separation from Africans in education, Gandhiji wrote in Young India on April 5, 1928:
"Indians have too much in common with the Africans to think of isolating themselves from them. They cannot exist in South Africa for any length of time without the active sympathy and friendship of the Africans. I am not aware of the general body of the Indians having ever adopted an air of superiority towards their African brethren, and it would be a tragedy if any such movement were to gain ground among the Indian settlers of South Africa."
Gandhiji was cautious in responding to suggestions by militant Indian leaders in the 1930s for a united struggle by African, Coloured and Indian people. He did not receive timely information when a Non-European United Front was formed in Cape Town in 1939, and came under criticism for expressing reservations about an Indo-African united front. But his reasoning was significant.
He told the Reverend S. S. Tema, a member of the African National Congress, in an interview on January 1, 1939:
"The Indians are a microscopic minority. They can never be a menace to the white population. You, on the other hand, are the sons of the soil who are being robbed of your inheritance. You are bound to resist that. Yours is a far bigger issue. It ought not to be mixed up with that of the Indian. This does not preclude the establishment of the friendliest relations between the two races."
As sentiment for unity grew among the Africans and Indians, Gandhiji revised his views. He showed no hesitation in supporting Dr. Yusuf M. Dadoo, a leader of NEUF, in his efforts to build unity of Indians and Africans in resistance to unjust laws, warning only that the movement should remain strictly non-violent.
In July 1946, when white gangsters were brutally attacking Indian passive resisters in Durban, Gandhiji told the All India Congress Committee that he would not shed a single tear if all the Indian satyagrahis were wiped out, for they would thereby point the way to the Africans and vindicate the honour of India. (Harijan, July 21, l946).
In May 1947, when Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and Dr. G. M. Naicker, the Presidents of the Transvaal and Natal Indian Congresses, visited him in India after signing a pact of cooperation with the African National Congress, he gave them a message in which he said:
"Political cooperation among all exploited races in South Africa can only result in mutual good if wisely directed."
This book consists of speeches and writings of Gandhiji on South Africa since he left that country in July 1914. Casual references or reminiscences are omitted, as is most personal and family correspondence of the period.
His books, Satyagraha in South Africa and The Story of My Experiments with Truth, both written during this period, are not included as they are easily available.
Most of the items in this book are from the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, the invaluable collection published by the Government of India. A number of items, which had not been included in the Collected Works or were hitherto unpublished, were found in the process of research for the preparation of this book.
We wish to acknowledge with gratitude the valuable assistance we have received in the preparation of this volume from many institutions and individuals.
We need to make special mention of the National Archives of India, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the Office of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, and the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in New Delhi; the University of Witwatersrand Library, Johannesburg; the Yale University Library, New Haven, USA; and the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, London.
We wish to express our great appreciation in particular to: Mr. Haridev Sharma, Mr. Nikhil Chakravartty, Mr. Vasudevan, Mr. Mahendra Desai, Mr. T. G. Ramamurthi, Mrs. Uma Iyengar and Mr. M. C. Selvaraj in New Delhi; to Mr. Shafiur Rahman in Manchester; to Mrs. Anne M. Cunningham in Johannesburg; and to Mr. J. M. Crossey in New Haven, USA.
Finally, it is with great pleasure that we thank Archbishop Trevor Huddleston for contributing a foreword to this volume. His efforts for half a century, in South Africa and abroad, to promote effective non-violent action for the eradication of apartheid carry forward the legacy of Gandhiji.
E. S. Reddy
Gopalkrishna Gandhi