"I began to think of my duty."

June 1, 2023

Gandhi began his day in the dark, unheated waiting room at the Maritzburg railway station in South Africa, where he’d been thrown off the train the previous evening after refusing to vacate the first-class compartment reserved by unwritten rule for whites only. It was the 23-year-old’s first act of civil disobedience; he had maintained the moral high ground, but now came voluntary suffering.

Gandhi pondered what to do. He declined to ask permission to retrieve his overcoat from his luggage, preferring shivering to supplication. Finally, sometime after midnight, he wrote in his autobiography that:

I began to think of my duty… It would be cowardice to run back to India without fulfilling my obligation. The hardship to which I was subjected was superficial – only a symptom of the deep disease of colour prejudice. I should try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process. Redress for wrongs I should seek only to the extent that would be necessary for the removal of the colour prejudice.

In the morning, Gandhi sent a long telegram of protest to the railroad company and notified Dada Abdulla as well. Back in Durban, his employer had insisted that Gandhi make a reservation for bedding on the train, but Gandhi refused with the same obstinacy that he would later demonstrate to India’s British rulers. If Abdulla’s response to Gandhi’s telegram included the phrase “I told you so,” there is no record of it.

When the evening train arrived, Gandhi boarded and took his rightful place in first class, but not without making a concession of his own. He spent the extra five shilling to purchase bedding for the night, and slept as the train steamed north. Whatever peace he felt would be shattered by violence the following day.

When have you had to make a compromise from a previously held position in order to move forward?