E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesChapter XIVThe Shape Of Things To ComeGANDHI never despaired of the worst reprobate. During the South Africanstruggle, Gandhi learned that one of his close Indian associates was agovernment informer. Later the man openly opposed Gandhi, yet when hebecame ill and impecunious Gandhi visited him and gave him financial aid. Intime, the backslider repented.It was not easy for Gandhi to hold his followers. Government punitive measurescaused many Satyagrahis to abandon the movement. Some resisters weredeported to India with loss of property. Satyagraha put even the strongestcharacter to a withering test. At one time, of the thirteen thousand Indians inthe Transvaal, twenty-five hundred were in jail and six thousand had fled theprovince. Only as self-abnegating, high- minded, determined and indefatigablea leader as Gandhi could have kept the movement alive. The worst setbacks didnot shake his faith in victory. This faith, plus the fact that in and out of jail heshared his followers' hardships and thereby won their love, was the bindingcement of the loyal band which at times dwindled alarmingly. Some resistersserved five prison terms in quick succession, courting a new sentence themoment they finished the old one. They merely left the Transvaal for Natal andimmediately crossed into the Transvaal again. That, under the immigrationban, was their crime.Presently, a bigger danger loomed: a federal Union of South Africa wasprojected; it might, probably would enact anti- Indian legislation like that ofthe Transvaal. Gandhi decided to lobby in London. Generals Botha and Smutswere already there making arrangements for the creation of the Union.Gandhi always set his sights high. This time he won the active support of LordAmpthill, former Governor of Madras and acting Viceroy of India in 1904. Fromhis arrival in England on July 10, 1909, until his return to South Africa inwww.mkgandhi.org Page 116