Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in South Africa

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a young man of 24 when he arrived in South Africa in 1893.

Gandhi's work in South Africa dramatically changed him, as he faced the discrimination commonly directed at black South Africans and Indians. One day in court at Durban, the magistrate asked him to remove his turban. In late May or early June 1893, he was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg, in the Transvaal, after refusing to move from the first class to a third class coach while holding a valid first class ticket.May 31, 1893, was the date of the train incident, according to MK Gandhi's grandson Rajmohan Gandhi (2008), (University of California Press), ISBN 9780520255708, p. 60.June 7, 1893, was the date of the train incident, according to the Pietermaritzburg , and a commemorative plaque at Pietermaritzburg (see ; Anonymous (2004, Sep 17) ; and other online sources for plaque) Traveling further on by stagecoach, he suffered other indignities on the journey as well. These incidents have been acknowledged by several biographers as a turning point in his life, his later social activism. It was while witnessing firsthand this racism, that he heard of a bill in the Natal Legislative Assembly curtailing the voting rights of local Indians. When he brought this up with his hosts, they lamented that they did not have the expertise necessary to oppose...
Read More