The Green Pamphlet
July 9, 2024
After three years in South Africa, there was plenty to keep Gandhi busy, so he made up his mind to visit India for six months and bring his wife and two boys back with him. He arrived in Kolkata at the end of June, and headed west. Slow service at a drugstore during a 45-minute stop resulted in his failing make it back to the train, and a day to kill waiting for the next one. From this sprung, Gandhi wrote in his Autobiography, “the series of incidents which ultimately led to my being lynched in Natal,” South Africa.1
Gandhi took advantage of the unexpected layover to meet with the editor of The Pioneer. The conversation went well, and the editor agreed to “notice in his paper” anything that Gandhi might write. With an audience secured, Gandhi began writing a description of the South African situation on July 9, 1896, designed to appeal to the Indian public. A month later, 10,000 copies were printed; it became known as the Green Pamphlet for the color of its cover.
The missive takes up 34 pages in the Collected Works, and contains a laundry list of grievances that will remind modern readers of the Jim Crow south. Indians outside their homes after 9pm were subject to arrest unless they had written permission from a White. An Indian was denied a hotel room and had to sleep (in the winter) in a carriage. Whites set Indian stores on fire for fun and shove them off the sidewalks. Complaints to the police are met with laughter. “Just picture a country where you never know you are safe from such assaults, no matter who you are … and you have a picture of the state we are living in Natal,” Gandhi summarizes.2
Indentured Indians, imported for a term of service, were subject to physical abuse. Gandhi related the story of Balasundaram, beaten and bloodied by his master, and how he was able to get the man’s indenture transferred to a preacher. (Interestingly, he embellished his role when retelling the story in his autobiography.) If an indentured man lost the pass he was required to carry at all times, a replacement was an oppressive £3, which Gandhi described as “a system of blackmail.”3
The Pioneer promptly wrote an article about the Green Pamphlet, and a short, exaggerated summary was sent to news services around the globe by Reuter’s. Many Whites of Natal did not appreciate reading how they were being portrayed in the world’s papers. When Gandhi and his family returned at the end of the year, they were waiting for him.
When has an inaccurate reporting of your words caused you trouble?
My Experiments with Truth (M.K. Gandhi, 1927) Part II, Chapter XXV, “In India”
The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (August 14, 1896) p. 363
Ibid, p. 377