Introduction to Mr. M. K.

Gandhi
(1888-1893)
 Important dates in the period

▪ June 1888 Son, Harilal born.

▪ 29 September 1888 Reached Southampton, England

▪ 6 November 1888 Enrolled at the Inner Temple, Inn of Court

▪ 27 May 1891 Called to the Bar.

▪ 28 October 1892 Son, Manilal born.

▪ 25 May 1893 Reached Durban, Natal.

▪ 26 May 1893 Refused to remove his Paghadi left the court.

▪ 31 May 1893 Thrown off the first class carriage of the train at Pietermartizburg Station.
 Aim of this presentation

To give reasons to
▪ Why Gandhiji went to England
▪ What did he do while he was in England
▪ Why he went to South Africa
▪ What prompted him to start civil moment in south Africa

And to give subtle introduction to human side of Peace icon “Gandhi”.

 going to London
▪ Gandhi passed the matriculation examination in 1887.
▪ There are colleges in Bhavnagar and Bombay, and as the former was cheaper, he decided to go there and
join the Samaldas College.
▪ At the end of the first term, He returned home.
▪ Mavji Dave, who was a shrewd and learned Brahman, an old friend and adviser of the Gandhi family said,”I
would far rather that you sent him to England.” about sending Gandhi to england.
▪ Mavji Dave’s son Kevalram said it is very easy to become a barrister.
▪ “He could get the Diwanship for the asking.i would strongly advise you to send Mohandas to England this very
year”.dave said to Gandhi’s elder brother.
▪ Gandhi is very happy about going to England because he is already struggling with the difficult studies at
samaldas.
▪ Whoever helps him or goes to see him off at the dock shall be punishable with a fine of one rupee four annas.
▪ he set off exultantly for Bombay, leaving his wife with a baby of a few months.
▪ Indian Ocean was rough in June and July.
 going to London

▪ A berth was reserved for him by his friends in the same cabin as that of the Junagadh vakil
Sjt. Tryambakrai Mazmudar.
▪ He finally sailed from Bombay on the 4th of September.
▪ He has problem with speaking in English, he had to frame every sentence in his mind, before
he speak, therefore he never took meals at table but always had them in his cabin
▪ Sjt. Mazmudar, He told him that lawyers should have a long tongue, and related that to his
legal experiences.
▪ He had four notes of introduction: to Dr. P. J. Mehta, to Sjt. Dalpatram Shukla, to Prince
Ranjitsinhji and to Dadabhai Naoroji.
 in London (food)
▪ “No one, to my knowledge, lives there without being a meat eater.”
▪ His mind set is that he will go back to India than eat meat in order to remain in England.
▪ He got a ringworm on the boat by using sea water with soap for bathing.
▪ He said to himself that “all philosophers and prophets from Pythagoras and Jesus down
to those of the present age were vegetarians”.
▪ Health was the principal consideration of these experiments to begin with. But later on religion
became the supreme motive.
▪ He was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, with this society he
went to Paris for the first time for a conference on vegetarianism.
 in London (expenses)
▪ By observing English men he decided to take dancing lessons at a class and paid
down £3 as fees for a term.
▪ He thought he should learn to play the violin in order to cultivate an ear for Western
music and spent good amount of money on cloths too.
▪ He saw his expenses going way up so he thought he could learn violin even in India. He was
a student and ought to go on with his studies and thought he came to London not stay but to
qualify himself to join the Inns of Court.
▪ He wrote a similar letter to the dancing teacher saying sorry that he cant continue the
classes and a similar letter to violin teacher too.
▪ He know bar is not difficult to pass and If he really wanted to have the satisfaction of taking a
difficult examination, he thought he should pass the London Matriculation.
 in London (Lying)
▪ Indian married youth used to lie and act as a bachelor, because we have child marriages, a thing practically
unknown in England.
▪ For the British the flirting was more or less innocent. Parents even encouraged it and that sort of association
between young men and young women may even be a necessity there.
▪ He saw that our youths had succumbed to the temptation and chosen a life of untruth for the sake of
companionships which, however innocent in the case of English youths, were for them undesirable.
▪ He himself didn’t hesitate to pass as a bachelor though he was married and the father of a son. He lied about
his marriage.
▪ He met a old lady during his adventure with vegetarian food in a French restaurant and immediately they
become really good friends. In her home he used have conversations with a young lady who stayed with her,
and often they would be left entirely alone together.
▪ He thought this is wrong and wrote a letter to the lady saying “You might think that I should get married and
with that view you have been introducing me to young ladies”.
▪ She said after receiving the letter that, “I have your frank letter. We were both very glad and had a hearty
laugh over it. The untruth you say you have been guilty of is pardonable”.
▪ After that he never hesitated to talk about his marriage wherever necessary.
▪ He called himself, “canker of untruth”.
 in London (religion)
▪ He began reading the Gita.
▪ Though he started reading the Gita. It was only after some years that it became a book of daily
reading.
▪ But He took mental note of the fact that he should read more religious books and acquaint himself
with all the principal religions.
▪ It was in England that he first discovered the futility of mere religious knowledge.(Martin Luther
king)
▪ During the last year i.e. in 1890,there was a Vegetarian Conference at Portsmouth to which he
went with an Indian friend.
▪ There, after dinner they sat down to play a rubber of bridge, in which their landlady joined, thigs
went south quickly and at that time God through the good companion uttered the blessed warning:
'Whence this devil in you, my boy? Be off, quick!’
▪ That is when he felt god for the first time.
 in London(final days)
▪ He passed His examinations, was called to the bar on the of 10th June 1891,and enrolled in
the High Court on the On the 11th and sailed for home on 12th.
▪ But notwithstanding his study, there was no end to his helplessness and fear. He did not feel
himself qualified to practice law. It was easy to be called, but it was difficult to practice at the
bar
▪ Besides, He had learnt nothing at all of Indian law and not the slightest idea of Hindu and
Mahomedan Law
▪ When he was torn with these doubts and anxieties about studying law. He told his difficulties
to some of his friends. One of them suggested that he should seek Dadabhai Naoroji's advice.
▪ Mr. Frederick Pincutt said A vakil should know human nature. He should be able to read a
man's character from his face.
 back in India(Mumbai)
▪ He was waiting to see his mother. He didn’t know that she was no more to receive him home.
▪ The storm in caste over his foreign voyage was still present and it had divided the caste into
two groups, one of which immediately readmitted him, while the other was strict on keeping
him out.
▪ Even some of them have even helped him in his work, without ever expecting him to do
anything for the caste.
▪ He went to Bombay for some time in order to gain experience of the High Court, to study
Indian law and to try to get what briefs he could get.
▪ Whilst in Bombay, He began, on the one hand, his study of Indian law and, on the other, his
experiments in dietetics in which Virchand Gandhi, a friend, joined him. His brother also, for
his part, was trying his best to get me briefs.
▪ He took up his first case of one Mamibai. It was a small cause. He charged like Rs.30 as his
fee. The case was not likely to last longer than a day.
▪ The little establishment of Gandhi was thus closed after a stay of six months in Bombay.
 back in India(back to Rajkot)
▪ He left Bombay and went to Rajkot where He set up his own office.
▪ Even though he began to earn money, he kept up the practice of walking to and from the
office.
▪ Work is Drafting applications and memorials, that brought him in, on an average, Rs 300 a
month.
▪ He immediately saw that Kathiawad was different from England; that an officer on leave was
not the same as an officer on duty.
▪ The sahib got up and said: 'You must go now.’, he tried to pursue legally but didn’t work.
▪ He was thoroughly depressed and his brother clearly saw it. If he could secure some job, he
should be free from this atmosphere of intrigue
▪ A Meman firm from Porbandar wrote to Gandhi’s brother making the following offer: We have
business in South Africa. Ours is a big firm, and we have a big case there in the Court, our
claim being £ 40,000.
▪ 'Not more than a year. We will pay you a first class return fare and a sum of £105, all found.'
 going to South Africa
▪ When starting for South Africa he did not feel the wrench of separation which he had experienced when leaving for
England. This time he only felt the pang of parting with his wife. Another baby had been born to them since Gandhi’s
return from England. (28 October 1892)
▪ 'There is an extra berth in my cabin, which is usually not available for passengers. But I am prepared to give it to you.’
▪ In April 1893 he set forth full of zest to try his luck in South Africa.
▪ He became friends with the captain, but things went undesirable, he thanked God that the sight of the woman had not
moved him in the least.
▪ The port of Natal is Durban, also known as Port Natal.
▪ The Magistrate kept staring at him and asked him to take off his turban, but he refused to do and left the court.

▪ He observed that the Indians were divided into different groups. One was that of Musalman merchants, who would call
themselves 'Arabs'. Another was that of Hindu, and yet another of Parsi, clerks. The Hindu clerks were neither here
nor there, unless they cast in their lot with the 'Arabs'. The Parsi clerks would call themselves Persians
▪ Englishmen called them 'coolies' and as the majority of Indians belonged to the laboring class.
▪ Gandhi was hence known as a 'coolie barrister'.
 in south africa
▪ He quickly realized, he had come to South Africa was mainly about accounts.
▪ He purchased a book on book-keeping and studied it.
▪ He left Durban. ON THE WAY TO PRETORIA ,The train reached Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal, at
about 9 p.m. Beddings used to be provided at this station. A fellow white passenger saw as a 'coloured' man.
This disturbed him and called authorities.
▪ The constable came. He took gandhi by the hand and pushed him out, his luggage was also taken out. It
would be cowardice to run back to India without fulfilling my obligation.
▪ He thought that he should try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.
▪ Mr. Abdulla sheth sent local men to console him, they also shared stories of Indians travelling first or second
class had to expect trouble from railway officials and white passengers.
▪ The train reached Charlestown in the morning. There was no railway, in those days, between Charlestown and
Johannesburg, but only a stage-coach.
▪ “The man came down upon me and began heavily to box my ears. He seized me by the arm and tried to drag
me down. I clung to the brass rails of the coachbox and was determined to keep my hold even at the risk of
breaking my wrist bones.”
▪ Another passenger saved him saying, “Don't beat him. He is not to blame. He is right. If he can't stay there, let
him come and sit with us.”
Map
 in South Africa
▪ “That is so. I shall be much obliged if you will give me a ticket. I must reach Pretoria today.”
▪ “If the guard should ask you to shift to the third class, you will not involve me in the affair”.
▪ “If you want to travel with a coolie, what do I care?”
▪ His first step was to call a meeting of all the Indians in Pretoria and to present to them a picture
of their condition in the Transvaal
▪ That is his first public speech in his life.
▪ He laid stress on the necessity of forgetting all distinctions such as Hindus, Musalmans,
Parsis,Christians, Gujaratis, Madrasis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Kachchhis, Suratis and so on.
▪ In the Orange Free State the Indians were deprived of all their rights by a special law enacted
in 1888 or even earlier
▪ A very stringent enactment was passed in the Transvaal in 1885. It was slightly amended in
1886, and it was provided under the amended law that all Indians should pay a poll tax of £3
as fee for entry into the Transvaal.
 in South Africa

▪ The year's stay in Pretoria resulted in most valuable experience in his life. Here it was that he
had opportunities of learning public work and acquired some measure of his capacity for it.
Here it was that the religious spirit within him became a living force, and here too he acquired
a true knowledge of legal practice.
• The picture on the right is of Martin Luther King
jr. visiting mahatma Gandhi’s tomb in Delhi, if
you observe he is removing his shoes following
Hindu customs.

• King first learned about Gandhi's idea of

nonviolence when he was studying to become a
minister, a Christian leader. King connected
Gandhi's words to those of Jesus. In the Bible,
Jesus tells his followers to "love your enemies.“

• To learn more about Gandhi and is philosophies

King came to India in 1959.

• King followed Gandhi and continued his work in

civil rights movement in USA.