FORMALLY ADDRESSED AS DESHABHAKTA MAHATMA BY THE INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA
In 1909, after he came out of his third imprisonment in South Africa, Gandhiji was seen as a Mahatma by those like Pranjivan Mehta, who came in intimate contact with him. As we have described in the previous note, Dr. Mehta, after his long interaction with him during July-September 1909, began to refer to him as a Mahatma “who worships this civilisation of ours and considers this country to be a holier land than any other”. By 1914, when Gandhiji left South Africa for India, all of the Indians in South Africa had begun to see him in that light. They addressed him as “Deshabhakta Mahatma” in the formal written addresses they presented to him in the farewell meetings that they organized in his honour in July 1914.
His third imprisonment was indeed the climactic moment in his journey towards becoming a Mahatma who derived his religion from his love for his motherland and commitment to his civilisation. But his work in South Africa was not yet complete in 1909. The Satyagraha that had been rising and ebbing since its advent on September 11, 1907 had not yet reached its goal. The demand of the Indians to be treated as equal and dignified citizens had not yet been met. Gandhiji spent another five years in South Africa before achieving that denouement.
Before that he had to intensify the Satyagraha once again and raise it to a new peak that involved thousands of Satyagrahis, rather than hundreds of the previous phases, and called for the participation of all Indians, including women and also indentured labourers, who had been exempted earlier. The government of the newly established Union of South Africa had sought to implement measures that had agitated both the indentured and free labourers, those who were still serving their contract and those who had completed their indented period.
This last campaign of the Satyagraha in South Africa was waged from September 15, 1913 to January 22, 1914. Kasturba Gandhi, leading a group of women from the Phoenix Ashram, was arrested at the beginning of the campaign. Gandhiji was arrested towards the end, on November 9, when the Satyagrahis were on the Great March from New Castle in Natal to the Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg in the Transvaal. All of the Satyagrahis, who Gandhiji referred to as Pilgrims, were also arrested a day later.
The marching labourers were taken back to the coalmines which were declared as outstation jails. Gandhiji was tried on two separate charges and awarded a total of 12 months of rigorous imprisonment. For this fourth imprisonment in South Africa, he was taken to far off Bloemfontein in Orange Free State, where he could hope to see no Indian.
By that time, however, he and the Satyagraha he was leading had become too well known across the world to be easily suppressed. There was widespread condemnation across the world of the suppression unleashed by the South African government. The Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, could not keep quiet. Ignoring the etiquette between separate constituents of the Empire, he, in a speech delivered on November 24, 1913 at Madras, publicly charged the Government of the Union of South Africa of brutality against Indian migrants to Natal. The Government of India had been sufficiently agitated by the plight of Indian in South Africa and the harsh measures used against the movement of passive resistance led by Gandhiji that it had earlier, in July 1911, decided to legally prohibit the system of sending Indians to South Africa under indent to serve in the mines there. There was thus to be no more girmitiyas (गिरमिटिया), Indian labourers under agreement.
The Government of South Africa had to act to resolve the situation. A Commission to look into the demands of the Indians was appointed on December 11. Gandhiji and his colleagues were released from jails on December 18. A provisional settlement was reached between Gandhiji and General Smuts on January 22, 1914. As per the provisions of the settlement, an “Indians Relief Bill” was drafted in consultation with the Indians and was passed by the Parliament on June 28. It conceded almost all of the demands for which the Satyagraha was initiated in 1907.
The long Satyagraha succeeded in gaining for the Indians their legal rights as equal citizens of the Union of South Africa. Even more importantly, the South Africans and the world, came to recognise them as inheritors and carriers of a great civilisation. As irreconcilable an opponent as General Smuts was moved to inform the new Parliament in February 1911 that the Asiatic people ‘belonged to an ancient civilisation’, who ‘were prepared to suffer in defence of what they considered their rights’ and who could not be treated like ‘barbarians’.
The passing of the Indians Relief Bill brought the Satyagraha to an end. Gandhiji decided to leave for India almost immediately. He was to leave from Cape Town on July 14 for England on the way to India. Before that, several receptions were organised in various towns by the Indians in South Africa. There was also a reception organised by the Europeans and another specifically by Muslims.
The “Indian Opinion” of July 1914, which was published when Gandhiji was already on the sea, carries texts of the printed addresses presented to him in two such receptions. Below, we give a facsimile of the relevant page. The first of these, presented on behalf of the “Gujarati Hindu brethren” in a meeting held on July 9 in Durban, addresses him as “Deshabhakta Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, देशभक्त महात्मा मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी”. The second was presented in a meeting held on July 12 at Verulam, near Durban. According to the report in the Indian Opinion, “this address was in Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil, of which only the Hindi text is reproduced here.” The address begins, “Mahatma Shriyut Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Deshabhakta Mahashaya, महात्मा श्रीयुत मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी, देशभक्त महाशय”.
Thus, on the eve of his departure from South Africa, Gandhiji was formally and publicly being addressed as Deshabhakta Mahatma. His fame as a great Indian patriot firmly anchored in Dharma and committed to his land and his civilisation had spread across the world.
Highlighted Text:
Left Column: મી. ગાંધીને મળેલાં માનપત્રો
Right Column: ગુજરાતી હિંદુભાઇયોનું માનપત્ર, દેશભક્ત મહાત્મા શ્રી મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી,
વેરૂલમમાં મળેલ માનપત્રો, મહાત્મા શ્રીયુત મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, દેશભક્ત મહાશય
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