Our Bapu - Mahatma Gandhi

Our Bapu
07. BRAVING INJUSTICE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Assault on Gandhi
"During his stay in India, Gandhiji had been trying to tell people of the
hardships which the Indians in South Africa suffer at the hands of the white
people. The white men therefore strongly disliked Gandhiji's activities. And the
South African newspapers gave a very wrong and misleading account of what he
was trying to do. So the whites became indignant with him. If they could have
had their way, they would have done away with him. But the hand of God was
with Gandhiji, and he was not afraid. He had hardly come down from the ship,
when he was surrounded by a group of European boys and ruffians. They threw
stones and rotten eggs at him and kicked him and handled him roughly. Poor
Gandhiji could hardly do anything to defend himself. Luckily the wife of one of
his European friends was passing that way. She ran through the crowd and came
and stood in front of him. Seeing a white woman protect him, the crowd of
hooligans gradually melted away, and she took him to the house of his friend
Rustomji. In the evening, however, Rustomji's house was surrounded by a white
mob, who shouted and yelled and threatened to hang Gandhiji on the sour
apple tree. The crowd looked mad and murderous and Gandhiji's life was in real
danger. It was with the greatest difficulty that his friends managed to rescue
him and take him to a place of safety.
fierce.
Gandhiji could have easily got those
hooligans punished. But he had not
forgotten the lesson of love and
forgiveness which his father had taught
him. He showed no desire to avenge
himself on the white people. This had a
great effect on the whites. Their
hatred for the Indians became less
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