Gandhi’s Education

I don't let my schooling interfere with my education.

 Mark Twain

You are reading this because of something Firoz Ghanty wrote in Forum last December when Madiba passed away: you could come away with the impression that Gandhi didn't give two hoots about the plight of blacks in general and black South Africans in particular. This kind of puzzled me and made me realize that my knowledge of the work of the Mahatma was way too sketchy. So I went to do a little bit of research. To get my schooling out of the way.

Shocking: MK spent 

21 years in South Africa

I always thought he spent very little time in SA. Only a little longer that was really necessary to get thrown off the first class train compartment in Maritzburg. Well at least that’s what it looked like in the Amar Chitra Katha cartoons I read when I was a kid. Or saw in Richard Attenborough’s magnificent motion picture. Man, just writing this makes me want go watch that movie again. More carefully. With Alma Reville-like eyes. So yeah, he spent more than two decades there and we don’t recall him asking for at least the release of our beloved Madiba. If applying his magic to free all black South Africans was too complicated. Let’s see why he went there in the first place.

A shy Mohandas arrives 

on a year-long contract

After he failed to set up a law practice in Mumbai because – thanks Wikipedia – he couldn’t get himself to cross-examine witnesses and got into trouble with the colonial powers writing petitions. So he takes up the offer to defend the rights of wealthy South African Indian Muslims. And sure enough he runs into the wall of apartheid pretty fast: the Maritzburg incident happens within one week of his arrival. He spends the night in that cold train station taking in what had just happened but finally travels by first class the following day after protesting. So he slowly understands what’s going on in South Africa and becomes increasingly good at improving the lot of his Indian clients. But not without initially making statements like “the White race of South Africa should be the predominating race”. Getting rid of misconceptions is rarely a linear process. I guess if he played the eager Mahatma then two things could have happened to him: he might have been eliminated by the brutal regime – which almost happened later on when his actions gained enough traction and got noticed – or sent back to India by disappointed clients. Yeah, but, he could have done more. A lot more. Easier said than done.

Gandhi gets better 

at his trade. A lot better

He’s experimenting with all kinds of things. Including fasting which will produce famous results when he returns to India. And tracking their effects precisely. To edit his lifework. Repeatedly. Events produce different educational benefits. For example the Bambatha rebellion is a better teacher than the Boer War which happened six years earlier. He refines his work. His negotiating and organizational skills improve. MK integrates the different elements of his political action as seamlessly as possible. He sets up a prototype for some of Tolstoy’s ideas a bit like Steve Jobs built a store mockup to get the retail experience absolutely right at a time when competitors were hemorrhaging money in their stores. Satyagraha is shaping up because Gandhi got himself – to use Thomas Edison terminology – a huge pile of junk. Because he’s slowing down so he can go faster. It’s like building the Mac of political transformations.

Still, why didn’t he ask 

for the release of Mandela?

The reason is simple. When Gandhi left South Africa for India in 1914 Mandela was not yet born. Fair enough. But he could have later, couldn’t he? Not really because when Godse fired three shots point-blank into the chest of MG in 1948 Mandela had not yet been sent to jail. That was not going to happen for another fourteen years. It’s usually – but not always – difficult to do anything after your life is taken away. Even for a Mahatma.

Experiencing a 

little bit of apartheid

I shared my initial findings with Filip Fanchette a few months after the Ghanty article had appeared. When he told me a personal story. In 1956 he was traveling to Europe on a ship via the Suez Canal when the crisis broke out. They had no choice but to go southwards around most of Africa. And when they stopped in Cape Town 19-year old Filip went to the post office to try to inform friends of his delay. He goes up a flight of stairs and then arrives on a landing with two additional sets of steps: one for whites and one for non-whites. On experiencing this he freezes completely. Completely. For a long while. Not knowing what to do. Shocked and awed. It’s only after a lady seeing what’s happening shows him where he should go that he unfreezes. But he stays pretty stunned. This event, along with a few others, have informed much of what he was to do afterwards. I talked with him again this week about that event which happened almost 60 years ago. He retold me the story adding that it’s still crystal clear in his mind. To paraphrase Michael Jordan, it’s the wood that gets added to the fire inside of us.

But it’s easier for Madiba

to write about Gandhi

And he does. On a number of times. Like in the first issue of Time magazine in 2000. Where he calls that great teacher of his The Sacred Warrior. And from where I’ve pulled one of the highlighted quotes. Which says it all. Mandela – not yet President – is also there on June 6, 1993 in Maritzburg to unveil a Gandhi Memorial right in the city centre to mark the 100th anniversary of the train incident. In his speech he says “Gandhiji influenced the activities of liberation movements, civil rights movements and religious organisations in all five continents of the world. He impacted on men and women who have achieved significant historical changes in their countries not least amongst whom is Martin Luther King.” Indeed Google will quickly bring up that Dr. King was more than just a fan of MG’s approach to solving political problems. And I guess that you are aware that of the two pictures that Apple Chief Tim Cook has in his office one is of MLK. 

Nelson Mandela adds “Today as we strive to achieve a date for the first democratic elections in this country, the legacy of Gandhiji has an immediate relevance. He negotiated in good faith and without bitterness. But when the oppressor reneged he returned to mass resistance. He combined negotiation and mass action and illustrated that the end result through either means was effective. Gandhi is most revered for his commitment to non-violence and the Congress Movement was strongly influenced by this Gandhian philosophy, it was a philosophy that achieved the mobilisation of millions of South Africans during the 1952 defiance campaign, which established the ANC as a mass based organisation. The ANC and its congress alliance partners worked jointly to protest the pass laws and the racist ideologies of the white political parties.”

South Africa is the

birth place of Satyagraha

Which explains where the centenary of the movement was celebrated in 2006. With former Indian PM Manmohan Singh in attendance. President Mbeki cites Martin Luther King in his speech "If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk." And when Nelson Mandela passed away last year Dr. Singh hailed him as a “True Gandhian”.

So yeah I guess we can say the following about the trade of the birthday boy. Developed in SA. Perfected and used extensively in India. And everywhere else.

© Sanjay Jagatsingh, 2014