INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 5

INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

y MR. GAUDIII HOLDS HIS HAND. PENDING RESULT OF THE ■;.. , inquiry* By Tcltffraph—Press Asiootatioli-GoiijTiijM, , Pretoria, January 22, between the- Indian loader, Mr. Gaudlii, and the Secretary ol the Interior, ■ lias been published, The net result is Uiat Sir. Gandhi premises to await the report of the Oudi-' cial Commission before reviving the passive resistance movement. Although Mr. Gaudhi does not appear. before the Commission, he is willing that Sir Benjamin Robertson, the envoy of the Indian Government, should da so on his behalf. Tho Department of the Interior agrees to liberate boua-fido passive resistors, and await the recommendations of tho Commission, and then to legislate, the Indians to undertake not to press tho charges of brutality and ill-treatment towards the strikers, and tho Government agreeing not to produce negative evidence regarding the charges, but reserving tho right to investigate the occurrences resulting in tho'toss of life in the two. affrays in November. Who is Mr. Gandls-i? His full name is Mohamdas Karamcband Gandhi. Tweutv years ajro a case ill the Natal Courts tonj; him to Month Africa, not in the first place with any idea of- remaining there. The Law. Society opposed his enrolment as an advocate, hut tho Supreme Court of Natal admitted his claim, and Mr. Gandhi, already aware of the outcast condition of llio Indians in tho colony, settled dowji in Durban to practice his profession and to organise his countrymen. He founded (in ISM) the Natal Indian Congress, "which besan its career«witli an agitatio^i—an unsuccessful imitation—against lh« disfranchisement of Asiatic settlers. The two decades of almost unbroken conflict have been full cnouirh of varied incident for Mr. Gandhi. Twice he has had experienca of warfare—in the early stages of the B-opr War, when .lis was at the head of the Indian Ambulance Corns which did rood service 011 the Natal battlefields, and in I9OG. when he organised -a corps of Indian .stretcher-bearers dm-ifi;; the native rebellion in Natal. Twice at least his life has been in danger—once when lie was set upon ill the ►.tree's of Dui-han 611 landing from India (the report having sroi about that he -was introducing skilled Indian labour into tli-e colony), and when lie had. like more famous 'hipei in similar circumstances, to escape in policeman's Serb: and another time when an infuriated T'athan tried to kill him under Hip impression that lip was betrayiiw the Indian caiue to the Transvaal Government.

He is an exnert ill scientific nnjta'idn. Never, writes "S.K.R" in the "Manchester Guardian," was there a popular leader more Hnconiiiromisindy hostile to miiitancv. There is 119 tolerance in him for nn.vtbiii" even remotely resembling violence. Pa«ive resi«tnwMV-<ir, a* he _ prefers to call it. soul force—is bis single weuwm, and he never sanctions - its use unlit t-vcrv conceivable means of ne»o-< tialion awl persuasion has failed. Ten years ago-lie founded p. weekly nap n y, "Endiati Opinion," as the e.nr-iiu of his movement (at first printed in four 1311miage;. n°w in twn—English ,a»d Guj'erati). To begin with, the paper was published in Durban, lmf after n few months Mr. Gand'ji hoiKht an estate of about 1(10 acres, some twelve miles to the north, upon which was p'anlH the Phoenix Settlement, whence "Indian lirm rontiuuoil to bp ifsupil. The'settlement is peopled bv Indians a'sociated with the paper and ethers of Jlr. Gandhi's lielp-r-rs. the leaders anion.; wtwm. in true Indian fa c 'iion. take a vow of pflveyty, . to. a-fc-ejit more than .£3 a month for '{heir services to the journal or to the educational schemes of the .community.

Mr. Gandhi's quality as a leader was tested 'during tho four years' strvt-"<;le with the Transvaal Government (IMG-lfl). when the Indians were (MiHur, nassivelv of course. a?ainst the iinTer-prini- ordinance and other measures for which -General Smuts. \£as in the main 1 responsible. Victory, it-was thought (such' victory as is possible unoii a. basis of avowed celnproinise). had been achieved three years ago: Imt the undertaKii<w made by General Smuts was not ratified.