Our Bapu - Mahatma Gandhi

Our Bapu
wanted to travel by coach from Durban to Pretoria. The conductor would not
allow him to sit inside the coach with the European passengers. As his business
was urgent, he decided to sit outside with the driver. The conductor himself
was inside, and the coach started on its journey. But he soon found out where
Gandhiji was. He would not allow Gandhiji to sit next to the driver who was a
white man. He ordered him to leave his seat and sit at the feet of the driver.
Gandhiji refused to obey this order. The
conductor began to shout and swear at
Gandhiji and he hit him and tried to push him
off the coach. Firmly and courageously
Gandhiji held on to the handle and refused to
be thrown out. For a while the other
passengers looked on and seemed to enjoy the
fun, but they soon began to feel that the conductor was going too far and they
scolded him. So when the conductor saw that even the white men were siding
with Gandhiji, he let him go and allowed him to sit with the driver."
Hari was greatly upset when he heard of this incident, and he began to cry. The
mother tried to console him and said, "Why! My child, you are crying! Surely
you are not so timid. This was a very small incident in Gandhiji's life. Later in
his life he suffered much more for the sake of others. And he never uttered a
word of complaint. When people acted unjustly towards him, he never got
angry with them. He would feel hurt and sad, but he never cried like you." Hari
quickly wiped away his tears with his hand, and the mother continued her
story.
Call for unity among Indians
"When Gandhiji saw that the Indians in Africa had to put up with insults and
suffer at the hands of the whites, he decided that all the Indians there-Hindus,
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Parsis should unite together and appeal to the
government. He brought all his countrymen together, and in 1894 the Indian
National Congress of South Africa was founded. Every Indian, rich or poor, gave
www.mkgandhi.org Page 23