The National Congress and Indians in South Africa – Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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The National Congress and Indians in South Africa – Mahatma Gandhi

 

By the time this issue of Indian Opinion reaches India, preparations for the meeting of this national assembly will have very far advanced. Mr. Lal Mohan Ghose is the President-elect and we have no doubt that his long and able services to the country as well as his unrivalled oratory will attract vast crowds of people. Mr. Lal Mohan Ghose is an old hand at politics; he knows well how to rouse the sympathy of his fellow-countrymen as well as the Government. He has thrilled many an audience in England, and we have no doubt whatsoever that the cause of the British Indians in South Africa will come in for very able treatment at his hands. We are quite aware of the limitations that necessarily circumscribe the work of the great assembly.

It is, at present, only a self-organized advisory council to the Government, but as years go on and it continues, as it has hitherto, to grow in volume, in strength, in wisdom, and moderation, it cannot but command respect and attention from the Government for the views the assembly may place before it. The Indian question in South Africa is one of the few questions which are totally above party politics and about which there is no difference of opinion between the powerful Anglo-Indian element and the Congress. Both, therefore, can work hand in hand and make a unanimous appeal to the Government from the same platform. What is more, the Government does not need coaxing on this particular question because Lord Curzon has more than once said that he viewed the attitude of the Colonies on this question with very strong disfavour.

All, therefore, that is needed is a continued movement in India such as to strengthen His Excellency’s hands in his endeavour to secure justice for British Indians in South Africa. And we hope that the Congress under the presidency of the great patriot will not forget us in South Africa, few though we are compared with the millions in India. Underlying this question of our disabilities is a very great Imperial principle the possibilities of which it is very difficult to fathom. Many distinguished Anglo-Indians have reproached the Indians with want of enterprise and narrow-mindedness because they would not emigrate in sufficiently large numbers in search of adventures. Now it is quite clear that they cannot carry with them their full status as British subjects outside India, there is an impossible barrier against free emigration. As Western education spreads through the land, there will have to be an outlet for the energy of enterprising Indian immigrants. What is to be done with these is by no means a small or an unimportant matter.  

 

Reference:

 

Indian Opinion, 19-11-1903