Gandhi was not racist

by Letters Editor · January 13, 2010

As Dr Mbuyiseni Mtshali (December 9) was dismayed by Fr Noel Peter’s views on Gandhiji, I too am dismayed by his letter.

I think one of the corner stones of science is to conduct thorough research before arriving at a conclusion. The first part of Dr Mtshali’s letter makes comments and gives personal opinions without any substantiation.

The first supported allegation he makes is that Gandhiji believed in Varna (Varnashram is the correct term). Yes he did, but Dr Mtshali fails to understand the Hindu concept and confuses it with untouchability. Varnashram does not promote hierarchical relationships and has absolutely nothing to do with untouchability. Moreover, Dr Mtshali has chosen to ignore Gandhiji’s life’s work, which was to rid India of the caste system.

The second allegation is that Gandhiji chose to live in a well established area and not with the poor when he arrived in South Africa. That again is absolutely true. When he first arrived in South Africa, he also dressed fashionably and travelled first class. It did not take many years before he discarded all that and went to live in the rural area of Inanda as a neighbour of an African religious community (the Nkosi Shembe village) and of Dr Langalibelele John Dube, founder of the African National Congress, with both of whom he had a very close relationship.

He also travelled only third class for the rest of his life and never wore fashionable clothes, even on his visit to the queen. This was all part of Gandhiji’s transformation, not an indication of hypocrisy as Dr Mtshali would have us believe.

Dr Mtshali also imputes that Gandhiji wrote an article in the Indian Opinion of September 4, 1904 about living with African people or mixing with African people. I tried to find the article but there was no edition of September 4, 1904.

While Gandhiji had suggested that the newspaper Indian Opinion should be published and certainly wrote articles in the paper, Mansukhlal Nazar was the editor, and Madanjit was the publisher. Articles in the newspaper had no names of authors attached to them, so we cannot be sure which of them were written by Gandhiji.

Dr Mtshali quoted another paragraph from the Indian Opinion imputed to Gandhiji, published on March 25, 1905. I looked it up and found that there are statements in Dr Mtshali’s quotation that are not in the article. While there was an article on the issue of gun control, it says the following: Since distinctions are made between one class and another, justice will never be done to the Asiatic unless he is treated as apart from the Native. The Native question is a big question in South Africa. The Native population is very large. The Native civilisation is totally different from the Asiatic or the European. The Native being the son of the soil has a right to fair treatment- Note the difference in tone as well as meaning from Dr Mtshali’s quote.

I have also read a number of books written by Gandhiji and have never come across a reference that he may have made to the African people as Kaffirs. When Gandhi wrote in Gujarati, he did use this word as the Gujarati community would not have understood any other term: this was the commonly used terminology at the time. Translations of Gandhi’s articles from Gujarati into English would contain such terminology.

Gandhiji is one of the most researched and written about persons. I myself have not read all the books written about and by him. Of the thousands of books, there are a handful which have labelled him as racist, elitist and a supporter of the caste system. These authors not only make nasty remarks, but go out of their way to actually propagate their viewpoint through various media, including hacking into other people’s websites as well as misquoting Indian Opinion.

Dr Mtshali refers to the title Indian Opinion as being racist, but perhaps he should also refer to the newspaper published during those times known as Imvo Zabantzundu, which means Bantu Opinion. Would this be called a racist newspaper?

Research has been done by thousands of scholars whose findings and work clearly demonstrate that Gandhiji was certainly no racist, no elitist, no supporter of the caste system. These books clearly indicate his campaigns against the caste system, his life among the poorest of the poor in the villages of India and South Africa with very few basic possessions and no luxuries such as running water, electricity, or sewerage.

About the Bambatha Uprising, Dr Mtshali refers to the army uniform and sergeant-major status given to Gandhiji, but he does not mention that Gandhiji and his ambulance corps were instrumental in rescuing the wounded Zulu citizens who would otherwise have been left to die during this uprising. The ambulance corps certainly did not kill anyone, as the article imputes, nor were they responsible for the carnage. Dr Mtshali needs to find evidence to make such brash remarks.

Gandhiji always said that the pen is a powerful instrument and should be used with the utmost respect. In support of this I would like to respectfully suggest that Dr Mtshali reads just one book, Gandhiji’s My Experiments with Truth. Maybe he will have as much respect for him as Fr Noel Peters OMI has.

Ela Gandhi, Durban