The African Gandhi - extract from Ramachandra Guha's new book, 'Gandhi Before India'

In the third week of December 1896, the S S Courland arrived off the coast of Durban. With it was another ship, the S S Naderi, also coming from India. Between them, the vessels had some 600 Indians on board, Mohandas Gandhi and his family among them. The ships were asked to wait out at sea while the passengers were examined by doctors. There had been an outbreak of plague in the Bombay Presidency, and the authorities were concerned the migrants might be infected with the disease. The etiology of plague was imperfectly understood; it was not yet established that rats and fleas were the disease's main carriers. Some doctors, and more ordinary folk, feared that it could spread through human contact.

As the ships lay moored off the Natal coast, the twelfth annual meeting of the Indian National Congress convened in Calcutta. Gandhi was an absent presence, with his recent lobbying in India informing its deliberations. Among the 24 resolutions passed by the Congress was one recording a 'most solemn protest against the disabilities imposed on Indians in South Africa, and the invidious and humiliating distinctions made between them and European settlers....' Moving the resolution, G Parameshvaram Pillai of Madras observed that while in India, Indians could become members of the Legislative Council, and in England they could win election to the House of Commons, in Natal 'we are driven out of tramcars, we are pushed off footpaths, we are kept out of hotels, we are refused the benefit of the public paths, we are spat upon, we are hissed, we are cursed, we are abused, and we are subjected to a variety of other indignities which no human being can patiently endure.'

On the other side of the Indian Ocean, the mood was very different. Gandhi had become a hate-figure among the whites of Natal, on account of what he was supposed to have said in his travels in India. On the 23rd of December, the Natal Advertiser printed a plea urging swift action against the 'great Gandhi [who] has arrived at the head of the advanced guard of the Indian army of invasion — the army that is to dispossess us of our country and our homes.... We must be up and doing, and make our arrangements so as to be able to give the invaders a fitting reception.'

...The anger against Gandhi and company was compounded by a paranoia about the germs they allegedly carried. The doctors who came aboard the two ships said they could not yet allow them to land; in their view, plague germs took three weeks to incubate, and it was better to wait and watch. The ship's captains were instructed to have the decks washed and cleaned daily with a mixture of water and carbolic acid. Sulphur fires were kept burning day and night to cleanse the passengers and their possessions of any remnants of the dreaded germs.

A rumour reached Durban that the Indians on board would sue the Government of Natal for illegal detention. Swallowing the rumour whole, a local newspaper concluded that Gandhi's 'keen legal instincts have scented a splendid brief to occupy himself immediately on his release from the "durance vile" of the quarantine and purifying effects of the carbolic bath. The large sum of money said to have been subscribed for the purpose would naturally go to Mr Gandhi whether the case was won or lost, and nothing in fact could suit the gentleman better than such an interesting case to devote his attention to immediately he got on shore.'

This representation of Gandhi as a malevolent, money-grubbing lawyer further consolidated the anti-Indian sentiments on shore. On the 4th of January 1897, some 1500 whites gathered for a meeting in Durban's Market Square. As the chairman, a certain Harry Sparks—the owner of a butcher's shop—moved into his chair, it began to rain. He decided to shift the meeting to the Town Hall nearby. Thereupon 'a unanimous and spontaneous move was made in the direction of the municipal hall, the verandahs and space immediately around the main entrance being quickly thronged with a surging crowd of interested and enthusiastic burgesses. Some little time elapsed before the gates were opened, but in the meantime the lights were switched on, and in a few minutes after the gates were thrown open the central hall was thronged from floor to ceiling. The audience when Mr. Sparks resumed the chair must have numbered 2,000...'... read more:

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-29/deep-focus/42501347_1_indian-ocean-germs-plague

Interview with Ramachandra Guha on why he wrote "Gandhi Before India"

In his remarkable new biography, Ramachandra Guha argues that Gandhi's ideas, philosophy and techniques were moulded in England and South Africa — an important formative period in his life that tends to be forgotten. How many of us are familiar with the role played by Pranjivan Mehta, Henry Polak, Thambi Naidoo and Sonja Schlesin in Gandhi's political evolution? Guha, whose research took him to four continents, talks to Namita Devidayal about how both the personal and the political Gandhi were shaped by his years abroad 

What made you decide to write this biography? 
I have been interested in Gandhi all my life. Back in the 1980s, I studied Gandhi's influence on Indian environmentalism. Then I wrote a biography of the maverick anthropologist Verrier Elwin, who was a sort of adopted son of Gandhi's. Writing a history of cricket, I found that although Gandhi had little interest in sport, he deeply shaped its politics and sociology. The man had left his traces on so many aspects of the history of India and the world. So I finally decided to write a full-fledged biography, in two volumes, of which this is the first. 

What were the new discoveries you made while researching this book? 'Gandhi before India' deals with his life in Kathiawar, London, and, above all, South Africa. I found fascinating new material in archives in five countries on his friendships, rivalries, and struggles. Whereas the main secondary characters of Gandhi's Indian years — Nehru, Patel, Jinnah, Ambedkar — are well known, those of his South African years are not. My book showcases such remarkable individuals as the Gujarati jeweller Pranjivan Mehta, the Tamil militant Thambi Naidoo, the Jewish radical Henry Polak, and Gandhi's feminist secretary Sonja Schlesin. Researching their lives and fleshing out their personalities was a thrilling exercise. They all deserve to be far better known, since they shaped Gandhi in his formative years. 

Was there anything in his early life that indicated that he would one day inspire thousands of people to follow him? Among his striking traits, developed when still a young man, were his absolute fearlessness---he faced down mob attacks in 1897 and 1908 (and was badly injured on both occasions) - and his ability to forge friendships across religious and racial boundaries. 

Where did his unshakeable belief in non-violence come from? It developed over time. Both the Jain poet Raychandbhai, who was an early mentor, and the Russian sage Leo Tolstoy, whom Gandhi read closely and corresponded with, encouraged him to privilege non-violence over violence. Moral commitment apart, Gandhi also recognized that with the asymmetry of numbers, wealth and power between Europeans and Indians in South Africa, armed struggle would never work. .. read more:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deep-focus/The-African-Gandhi/articleshow/23235522.cms

See also: 

Gandhi visits the poor people of England in 1931 - Gandhi Video