GANDHI'S FIRST CRUSADE

GANDHI’S FIRST CRUSADE,

R.S. FEUERLICHT, 1965.

• This text is an extract from Gandhi’s biography, entitled Gandhi’s first crusade, written by R.S FEUERLICHT in 1965.

• Roberta Strauss FEUERLICHT, is a famous American author of history books, mostly based on war issues or unfair cases of American history (Sacco and Vanzetti, McCarthyism). She also wrote about peacemakers like GANDHI or Martin Luther KING.

• The facts which are related here by the author are partly genuine because they are taken from GANDHI’s biography (whose original version is written in Gujarati, GANDHI’s first language), as they are narrated in the third-person narrative, and deal with Gandhi’s adventures on his trip to India in 1893. They also relate his starting point about his struggle for justice. The questions this extract raises are : Why was Gandhi treated so badly by the local South African Indian authorities and how did he fight against the harsh realities of racism in South Africa ?

• Therefore, in order to answer these questions, my commentary will be twofold. Firstly, we shall narrate and comment on the incident that was to be indelibly printed in GANDHI’s memory. Secondly, we shall analyse GANDHI’s reaction to this disastrous episode and evoke the impact he had both in South Africa and worldwide.

I)   THE INCIDENT :  

1. The train episode :

→  In this text, Roberta Strauss FEUERLICHT relates an incident which occurred in the early days of GANDHI’s South African stay. (It must be borne in mind that in the twenties, South Africa and India were both parts of the British Empire). Indeed, here, the scene takes place in a train station in the city of Durban, a South African town next to the Indian Ocean. The story begins « about a week after Gandhi arrived at Durban » (l.1).

There, Gandhi, a young lawyer had a lot of work, and « his business took him to Pretoria » (l.1-2) to plead for one of his clients, one of those exploited workers of Indian descent in South Africa.

(Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital).

→        So, he got on the train in Durban late in the evening, « dressed in impeccable European clothing » (l.3), meaning that he must have been quite proud of his social status : he wore European clothes on the one hand because he probably respected dress codes in order to look like all the other lawyers, and on the other hand, to show he was capable of integrating the European society. He had certainly been educated in a British law school, where wearing European clothes was considered more respectable, even for people from India.

→ Then, « he bought a first class-ticket » (l.2) because as a lawyer, he certainly considered he was entitled to travelling first class which also meant he could afford to travel first-class. But the problem was that as soon as « the train reached Maritzburg » (l.4), (which is the capital of Natal) at about 9 p.m and stopped for a few minutes to let in new passengers and also to supply (fournir) blankets (couvertures) to those who needed them, Gandhi « was ordered to a lower-class compartment » (l.5), because a « white passenger » (l.4) complained about him. (Here, the scene takes place in winter and winter in the higher regions of South Africa is severely cold).

The white passenger came into GANDHI’s compartment, looked him up and down and sent for officials to have him evicted and sent to the van compartment.

For a few minutes, they tried to talk GANDHI into giving up his seat but they failed. GANDHI reacted by pointing « his first-class ticket » (l.5) and « refused to move » (l.6).

Indeed, as he knew he was within his rights, that his ticket entitled him to travel first-class, he flatly refused to comply. One official threatened to call the police to push him out, but GANDHI wouldn’t budge : he remained unimpressed, and consistently remained polite and non-aggressive.

As a consequence, « a policeman threw him and his luggage off the train, which continued its journey without him » (l.7-8) because GANDHI objected complying to the rules showing his disagreement to the people in charge in the train by refusing to leave. Such an attitude according to which the whites govern and the non-whites just have to obey and follow the rules set by them was considered by GANDHI as purely dictatorial and racist.

Obviously, GANDHI’s main problem was discrimination based on skin colour and no matter how educated he was, he remained for the local South Africans who were racially prejudiced, a second-class citizen, a piece of luggage, an object of scorn and contempt.

→ When he wanted to travel first-class, Gandhi only wanted to claim his rights as a British subject : he was theoretically equal to any white South African. Indeed, South Africa as well as India, was British at the time/belonged to the British Empire (Commonwealth).

→  Eventually, Gandhi was left stranded (isolé) in Maritzburg, cut off from his friends, in a hostile town, in the dead of the night and winter and without any luggage which remained on board the train.

→  One mustn’t forget that at that time, the rules of the train in South Africa were very strict and segregationist. Indeed, non-whites were not allowed to travel first-class. But we can underline that as this rule was not explicitly/expressly written, GANDHI was able to buy a first-class ticket. If there had been a written rule, the employer would not have sold him one.

B)  The night of GANDHI’s promise :  

→  As he was thrown off the train, Gandhi had to spend the night at the station in very difficult and humiliating conditions as it was an « unlit, unheated waiting room » (l.8) where it « was bitterly cold » (l.9-10).

He spent the night in the station because it was certainly too late for him to find a hotel or he might have been afraid of being rejected again. During that night, he didn’t manage to sleep, as he « sat shivering through the endless night » (l.11), because it was cold, and he was afraid of asking for his overcoat. Therefore, he spent the night thinking about the incident. It was a decisive/crucial night for Gandhi because he took the time to think about what he should do. We can say GANDHI had been very courageous to stand such an unbearable situation and that night was a kind of revelation which was going to change the course of events in South Africa concerning the Indians’ living conditions : « by dawn, he had made [a] decision » (l.11) that would change his life : « he would fight for his rights and the rights of all people. » (l.12).

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