On May 24, 1893, a 24-year-old lawyer from India named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi reached South Africa as a laywer hired by Dada Abdullah to act on his behalf in a commercial dispute with a family member. Two incidents opened his eyes and ignited sparks on his mission of life. The first incident was when Gandhi visited the Durban courthouse with Abdullah shortly after his arrival to acclimatize himself with the courts in South Africa, the local magistrate asked him to remove the turban he was wearing.
Gandhi refused on the grounds that removing the headgear was a sign of disrespect in India, and left the court. This incident was reported in the local newspaper, the Natal Advertiser, immediately drawing attention to the new arrival and his strong sense of personal dignity.
The second incident was when he was traveling to Pretoria for a court case and, although he had a first-class ticket, the conductor ordered him to move to a third-class compartment based on his race. Gandhi refused on the grounds that he had a valid ticket, and was ejected from the train in Pietermaritzburg. He spent a freezing night in the waiting room at the station, brooding on what had just happened and whether he should return to India.
There is a plaque at the station in Pietermaritzburg that reads: “In the vicinity of this plaque M.K. Gandhi was evicted from a first-class compartment on the night of 7 June 1893. This incident changed the course of his life. He took up the fight against racial oppression. His active non-violence started from that date.”
Those incidents were just the curtain-raisers of a legend who created history. Later on, the world has seen this young barrister turning into a mass leader in South Africa and then the leader, who had shown the world a method of peaceful revolution by non-violence and patience, became India’s father of nation.
Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill’s passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and through this organization, he molded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force.
He returned to India in 1915 to create a history in the freedom struggle movement. Till Gandhiji’s arrival, the Indian National Congress, the political force leading the freedom struggle movement, was just a platform of high-class people of the society, like businessmen and rich people. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru writes in his autobiography that he attended the Patna AICC in 1912 but he felt that it was a creamy-layer affair of Indian society.
After the historic meeting with Gandhiji in 1916, Pandit Nehru started participating in the freedom struggle movement very actively and the rest is history. Gandhiji would give a new direction to Indian National Congress and the freedom struggle movement by incorporating all sections of the society, especially, the working class, middle class, Muslims, people from other backward castes of the society, etc., along with businessmen and upper class of the society. This way the movement became very strong getting support from all Indians and the British Government was forced to consider them, hear them and negotiate with them.
The Quit India resolution put forward by Gandhiji on the evening of Aug. 8 1942 at Gowalia Tank ground in Bombay gathered people from all sections together. They moved to the streets and took part in the strikes and processions. Though the government could arrest all front leaders of the movement, it created a wave in Indians together and the British government understood that freedom for India was going to be unavoidable.
Many times he got arrested, a few times was imprisoned for long duration; but such punishments did not put out the flame in the great fighter; instead, such acts boosted Gandhiji’s energy.
When India was celebrating Independence on Aug. 15, 1947, Gandhiji was in Calcutta fasting for the whole day, praying thanking God and spinning yarn. In fact, he reached there to spend time with the people of Calcutta to put an end to the communal riots that had erupted as a part of partition issues.
Lord Mountbatten, the then governor general, wrote “In Punjab we have 55,000 soldiers and large-scale rioting on our hands. In Bengal our forces consist of one man, and there is no rioting.”
He was bold with his views of secularism, peaceful coexistence among Hindus and Muslims and communal harmony and due to this stand, he became a martyr (could be rated as the first terrorist attack in Independent India) by the bullets of communal extremist Nathuram Vinayak Godse.
Gandhism (teachings or principles of Gandhi) is even now a subject of studies and research in many international universities. Some of the pillars of Gandhism are satya or truth, ahimsa or non violence, (in fact, according to him non-violence and truth are two sides of the same coin; there are three types of non-violence, viz., non-violence of the brave, non-violence based on expediency, non-violence of the coward; where he favors non-violence of the brave), Satyagraha (Clinging to the Truth, Satyagraha is the vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one’s own self) and noncooperation (he was of the opinion that oppression and exploitation were possible only through cooperation).
Noncooperation as per Gandhi had wide ranging definition. It includes stoppage of work, social boycott, picketing, strike, fasting and civil-disobedience. But all these forms of activities are based on ahimsa or non-violence. Civil-disobedience is the most drastic form of Satyagraha. Gandhi called civil-disobedience, “a complete, effective and bloodless substitute of an armed revolt,”
The prime factor of Gandhism was cleanliness. Gandhi said “Sanitation is more important than independence”. He made cleanliness and sanitation an integral part of the Gandhian way of living. His dream was total sanitation for all. Cleanliness is most important for physical well-being and a healthy environment. Gandhi said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
Gandhi’s food habits are always discussed generally. He was a pure vegetarian and he promoted vegetarianism. He even avoided tea and coffee, and took only juices and squashes apart from water. He propagated that we should consider food as energy, even a medicine that is required to keep our body healthy and fit for work. Hence, we should take only that which is required, in minimum quantity. We should not eat to appease our taste buds.
His commitment to non-violence can be seen from the history by Chauri-Chaura Police Station incident. The incident occurred at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of the United Province, British India on Feb. 4, 1922, when a large group of protesters participating in the non-cooperation movement clashed with police, who opened fire. In retaliation the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, killing all of its occupants.
The incident led to the deaths of three civilians and 22 or 23 policemen. Appalled at the outrage, Gandhi went on a five-day fast as penance for what he perceived as his culpability in the bloodshed. In reflection, Gandhi felt that he had acted too hastily in encouraging people to revolt against the British Raj without sufficiently emphasizing the importance of ahimsa (non-violence) and without adequately training the people to exercise restraint in the face of attack. As per Gandhi’s advice, Indian National Congress halted the non-cooperation movement on the national level.
Even after 68 years after his martyrdom, Gandhi’s principles and teachings have got so much relevance in this world where we are passing through an extremely critical phase of terrorism and violence.
Just reflect on his saying: “An eye for an eye will leave everyone blind”
Mohamed Iqbal is chairman, managing committee, International Indian School – Jeddah
