The Making of the Mahatma
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was invited to South Africa in 1893 to settle a case for a wealthy Indian settled there. He expected to return in a few months but instead got involved in the freedom movement and eventually stayed for 21 years. One of two feuding Mohammedan cousins of Indian origin living in Britain seek the assistance of an Indian Barrister to travel to Britain and settle their matter in a court of law. The Barrister travels to Britain, and finds that all Asians are treated as coolies and their status is worse than of servants. Despite being dressed in a suit and a tie, he is thrown out of a first-class train compartment; is asked to remove his cap in a court of law; asked to ride with the driver of the coach; and even shoved out on the footpath for daring to walk close to a bureaucrat's premises; beaten, and abused with no recourse to any justice. His attempts to deal with these issues is met with strong governmental and bureaucratic disapproval and opposition. Notwithstanding this, he settles the dispute between the two cousins out of court and sets about trying to organize the local Asians to assert their rights, and even represents some of them in court. Then he journeys to Durban, South Africa, where yet another struggle is taking place against the native Africans and the emigrant Asian community. This is where this young man summons his wife and three children and decides to garner support of the oppressed community to improve the lot of all people, and where he will find that though the laws are on his side, the people who interpret them, and legislators are opposed to any kind of fair or equal treatment that this young Barrister was requesting. The young Barrister will then re-locate to India to continue his struggle against the British--and he will soon be known and acknowledged by the world as Mahatma Gandhi. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)
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