Leaving South Africa
July 18, 2023
On July 18, 1914, Gandhi left South Africa for good.
There had been many transformational experiences in the more than two decades since he arrived on the continent. Two of his sons were born there, he received his first jail sentence, the tactic of satyagraha was developed, he founded intentional communities, began experimenting with extended fasting, and he took a vow of celibacy. As Nelson Mandela observed of Gandhi’s time in South Africa, “You gave us Mohandas Gandhi; we returned him to you as Mahatma Gandhi.” (Coincidentally, Mandela was born exactly four years later: July 18, 1918.)
Personal self-improvement aside, Gandhi was able to conclude his time in South Africa thanks to a legislative victory; repeal of the £3 tax. When indentured Indians had worked for five years, they had three choices:
Return to India;
Sign a fresh two-year indenture; or
Pay an annual £3 tax for the privilege of remaining in South Africa.
As Gandhi described the tax in his Autobiography, it applied to the laborer’s wife, any sons over 16, and daughters over 13. A family of four might owe £12 a year, “when the average income of the husband was never more than 14s. a month.” (A shilling was 1/20th of the British pound, so that puts the father’s income at £8.5 annually.) This, Gandhi wrote, “was atrocious and unknown anywhere else in the world.”
Repeal of the tax had always been one of the demands of the satyagraha campaign, and Gandhi had finally generated enough political capital to make it happen. He booked passage on a boat leaving for England on July 18, and embarked on a two-week farewell tour with his wife.
Not everyone was satisfied with the outcome. At a meeting with Muslims on July 15, a speaker complained that “Four points had been put forward, and Mr. Gandhi, according to [the speaker’s] view, had gained only one and a half.” Regardless, it was enough for him to claim victory and close the book on South Africa.
By the time he landed back in India, the entire world would have begun a new chapter. Three weeks earlier, Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated.
Can you think of a project that didn’t finish as completely as you would have liked?