Gandhi Before India (98 page)

16.
Secretary for the Interior to Gandhi, letters of 4 and 10 April 1913, S. N. 5750 and 5761, SAAA.

17.
Back in 1910, Lord Selborne had proposed that Indian women in South Africa be given a cash inducement to return to their homeland. ‘It need not require a very large sum to be an inducement to the coolie woman to earn a dowry in this way’, he wrote to the Prime Minister, General Botha, adding, ‘And of course once in India, I take it, she would have no right to return.’ Selborne thought that with these bribes to women ‘the [Indian] question would in time resolve itself.’ (Lord Selborne to General Louis Botha, 3 May
1910, in Box 60, Selborne Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford.) Selborne’s suggestion was not acted upon; three years later, the Searle judgment outlined another way of reducing the numbers of Indians in South Africa – by not allowing their women to come in from India, rather than bribing those already in South Africa to go back.

18.
Extract from
Rand Daily Mail
, 28 April 1914, in File No. 242, Part I, Gokhale Papers, NAI;
CWMG
, XII, pp. 52–3, 59.

19.
Cf. H. S. L. Polak to W. Clark, Member, Commerce and Industry, Government of India, letter of 17 April and telegram of 23 April 1913, in A Proceedings nos. 25–49 for September 1913, Department of Commerce and Industry (Emigration Branch), NAI. Copies of these communications were also sent to the Colonial Office in London.

20.
A. Fischer, Interior Minister, to Lord Gladstone, Governor-General, 22 April 1913, in File 15/388, vol. 895, GG, NASA.

21.
‘Indian Women as Passive Resisters’,
IO
, 10 May 1913; also
CWMG
, XII, p. 65.

22.
‘From the Editor’s Chair’,
IO
, 10 May 1913.

23.
The letters that follow are all from the Kallenbach Papers in the possession of Isa Sarid, Haifa, Israel.

24.
‘Why Mr Gandhi is a Failure’,
AC
, 19 April 1913.

25.
AC
, 24 May 1913. While working-class Tamils in Natal were largely on Gandhi’s side, among educated members of the community Aiyar was not alone in having reservations about his leadership. In June 1913 one Leo R. Gopaul wrote to Kallenbach complaining that despite applying several times, he had not been chosen as one of the six educated Indians allowed into the Transvaal as a result of the provisional settlement of 1911. He thought it was because he had once criticized Gandhi’s
Hind Swaraj
. Kallenbach wrote back that while Gandhi played no part in the decision, preference would naturally be given to those who had courted arrest in past satyagrahas. This Gopaul (like Aiyar) had conspicuously failed to do. Kallenbach told the complainant that a revival of the struggle was imminent, and he might consider courting arrest this time around. Gopaul to Kallenbach, 10 June 1913; Kallenbach to Gopaul, 19 June 1913, both in KP.

26.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 4–7, 45–52.

27.
See
CWMG
, XII, pp. 87–8, 90–91, 101, 574–5.

28.
Governor-General to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 16 June 1913, in CO 879/112/4, NAUK.

29.
Polak to Gokhale, 1 and 22 June, in File No. 242, Part I, Gokhale Papers, NAI.

30.
Gokhale to Legislative Secretary, Government of India, letters of 13 June and 11 July 1913, File 4104, L/P&J/6/1278, APAC/BL.

31.
See Maud Polak to Under
Secretary of State, Colonial Office, 27 February 1913 (with enclosures); Official report of debate in House of Lords, 30 July, 1913, both in File 1398, L/P&J/6/1235, APAC/BL.

32.
Gandhi to Gokhale, 20 June 1913,
CWMG
, XII, pp. 113–15.

33.
Wedderburn to Gandhi, letters of 19 and 26 June 1913, S. N. 5813 and 5817a, SAAA.

34.
Letter of 2 July 1913,
CWMG
, XII, pp. 122–4.

35.
See the correspondence in CO 879/112/4, NAUK.

36.
See File 15/462, vol. 896, GG, NASA.

37.
‘A South African Problem’,
Jewish Chronicle
, 5 September 1913.

38.
See
IO
, 12 July 1913; Jack and Ray Simons,
Class and Colour in South Africa, 1850–1950
(Lusaka: International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1983), pp. 156–9.

39.
Kallenbach to Isabella Fyvie Mayo, 18 August 1913, KP.

40.
Gandhi to E. F. C. Lane, 11 July 1913, copy in KP.

41.
Entry for 12 July 1913, in Hermann Kallenbach’s Diary for 1912–13, S. N. 33996, SAAA.

42.
Gandhi,
An Autobiography
, Part IV, Chapter XXVI.

43.
Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie,
Gandhi’s Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son Manilal
(Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2004), pp. 106–11.

44.
Millie Polak,
Mr Gandhi: The Man
, pp. 142–8.

45.
See Manilal Gandhi, ‘Memories of Gandhiji’,
Indian Review
, March 1952. Manilal had – understandably – got the year slightly wrong. It was 1913, not 1912.

46.
Prabhudas Gandhi,
My Childhood with Gandhiji
, pp. 116–17; Millie Polak,
Mr Gandhi: The Man
, p. 148; Dhupelia-Mesthrie,
Gandhi’s Prisoner?
, p. 110.

47.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 79–81, 102–4, 137, 164–5, etc.

48.
See Ravjibhai Patel,
The Making of the Mahatma
, trans. Abid Shamshi (Ahmedabad: Ravindra R. Patel, 1990),
Chapter IX
(‘The Affectionate Healer’).

49.
CWMG
, XII, p. 164.

50.
Cordes to Gandhi, 11 December 1911, S. N. 5592, SAAA.

51.
Cordes to Gandhi,
c.
July or August 1913, S. N. 5819, SAAA.

52.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 167–75.

53.
Cf.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 183–6, 192–5.

1.
The detailed figures are available in Surendra Bhana and Joy Brain,
Settling Down Roots: Indian Migrants in South Africa, 1860–1911
(Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1990).

2.
Millie G. Polak to V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, 22 July 1912, in V. S. Srinivasa Sastri Papers, 2nd instalment, NMML.

3.
Undated news clipping (
c.
May 1909), entitled ‘A Fresh Development / Indian Women’s Meeting / Desire to be Imprisoned’, in J. J. Doke Papers.

4.
Cf. ‘Native Women’s Brave Stand’,
IO
, 2 August 1913.

5.
Gandhi to Kallenbach, 12 September 1913,
CWMG
, XCVI, p. 142.

6.
Prabhudas Gandhi,
My Childhood with Gandhiji
(Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1957), p. 129.

7.
Report in
NM
, 24 September 1913.

8.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 188–91; Ramadas Gandhi,
Sansmaran,
translated from Gujarati to Hindi by Shankar Joshi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Press, 1970), pp. 59–62.

9.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 196–8, 204–6.

10.
See
CWMG
, XII, pp. 209–10.

11.
CWMG
, XII, p. 215.

12.
Transvaal Leader
, 30 September 1913.

13.
Transvaal Leader
, 1 October 1913. The paper printed three letters alongside Gandhi’s. L. W. Ritch archly noted that ‘the concern of us Europeans should be not with whether their [the Indians’] campaign will succeed or fail, but rather, whether right is or is not on their side.’ Kallenbach, like Gandhi, refuted the slur that the satyagrahis were mercenaries. It was ‘an absolute falsehood that any monetary consideration has been received by them … beyond the mere maintenance for themselves and their families’. The third letter came from some forty merchants ‘throughout the principal towns of the Transvaal’, who stated ‘that we are in full sympathy with the [satyagraha] movement, and that the merchants along with the others are contributing both men and money to the movement.’

14.
NM
, 2 October 1913.

15.
Letter of 17 October 1913,
CWMG
, XII, p. 242.

16.
The conversation took place on Smuts’ farm, on 10 or 11 October, and is reported in H. J. Stanley to H. C. M. Lambert of the Colonial Office, 12 October 1913, in File 15/486A, vol. 897, GG, NASA.

17.
IO
, 15 October 1913.

18.
As reported in
NM
, 13 October 1913.

19.
Reports in
NM
, 17 and 18 October 1913.

20.
AC
, 5 July 1913.

21.
Report in
Transvaal Leader
, 21 October 1913.

22.
See
NM
, issues of 20, 21 and 23 October 1913;
CWMG
, XII, pp. 245–6.

23.
Cf. reports in
NM
, 20 October 1913.

24.
Gandhi, quoted in
Rand Daily Mail
, 23 October 1913.

25.
See
NM
, 24 and 25 October 1913.

26.
See Gillian Berning, ed.,
Gandhi Letters: From Upper House to Lower House, 1906–1914
(Durban: Local History Museum, 1994), photos on pp. 34–6.

27.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 251–3.

28.
Report in File 1389, L/P&J/6/1306, APAC/BL.

29.
See Governor
-General of South Africa to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 30 October 1913; clipping from the
Transvaal Leader
, 29 October 1913, both in L/PJ/6/1283, APAC/BL.

30.
Note by W. H. Clark, Member, Commerce and Industry, Government of India, dated 20 March 1913, in File 1398, L/P&J/6/1235, APAC/BL.

31.
Clipping from the
Transvaal Leader
, 30 October 1913, ibid. See also
AC
, issues of 27 September, 8, 15 and 22 November 1913, etc.

32.
M. K. Gandhi, ‘The Last Satyagraha Campaign: My Experience’,
CWMG
, XII, pp. 508–19.

33.
H. S. L. Polak, ‘Passive Resistance Movement in South Africa’, typescript composed
c.
1908–12, Mss. Afr. R. 125, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, p. 103.

34.
NM
, 27 October 1913.

35.
Reports in
Rand Daily Mail
, 30 October 1910;
IO
, 5 November 1913.

36.
Reports in
NM
, 30 and 31 October 1913.

37.
Telegram dated 30 October 1913, in File No. 427, Gokhale Papers, NAI.

38.
NM
, 1 and 4 November 1913.

39.
NA
, 10 November 1913.

40.
Times of Natal
, 7 November 1913.

41.
Governor-General of South Africa to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 6 November 1913, in CO 879/112/4, NAUK.

42.
NM
, 8 November 1913.

43.
Transvaal Leader
, 8 November 1913.

44.
NA
, 9 November 1911.

45.
Montford Chamney, ‘Mahatma Ghandi [
sic
] in the Transvaal’, typescript dated
c.
1935, Mss Eur. C. 859, APAC/BL.

46.
M. K. Gandhi to the Resident Magistrate, Heidelburg, 10 November 1913, in File 4/572/13, vol. 181, JUS, NASA (this letter is not in
CWMG
).

47.
NA
, 12 and 14 November 1913.

48.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 263–4.

49.
CWMG
, XII, pp. 266–8; File 15/228, vol. 897, GG, NASA.

50.
See H. S. L. Polak, ‘A South African Reminiscence’,
Indian Review
, October 1926.

51.
Polak to Ampthill, 12 November 1913, written from Volksrust Prison, in CO 879/112/4, NAUK.

52.
The letter is reproduced in its entirety in Isa Sarid and Christian Bartolf,
Hermann Kallenbach: Mahatma Gandhi’s Friend in South Africa
(Berlin: Gandhi Informations Zentrum, 1997), pp. 34–61 (quote from p. 37).

53.
‘The Leaders Sentenced’,
IO
, 26 November 1913.

54.
Gandhi to Millie Polak, 12 November 1913,
CWMG
, XCVI, p. 155.

55.
Letter from Ritch in
Rand Daily Mail
, 21 October 1913.

56.
Letter from Ritch in
Transvaal Leader
, 31 December 1913.

57.
See Percy Binns, Magistrate’s Office, Durban, to E. Gorges, Department of the Interior, 1 December 1913, in Natal Government Records (on microfilm), Reel 5 (Accession No. 2178), NMML.

58.
Cf. press reports quoted
in
IO
, 19 November 1913.

59.
See Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed,
Inside Indenture: A South African Story,
1860–1914 (Durban: Madiba Publishers, 2007)
,
pp. 147–57.

60.
Maureen Swan, ‘The 1913 Natal Indian Strike’,
Journal of Southern African Studies
, 10:2 (1984).

61.
Desai and Vahed,
Inside Indenture,
pp. 376–85.

62.
Cf. correspondence in File 15/516, vol. 897, GG, NASA.

63.
Reports in
NA
, 14, 15 and 16 November 1913; in
NM
, 14 November 1913.

64.
NM
, 17 November 1913.

65.
See enclosure no. 8 to Governor-General of South Africa to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 20 November 1913, in CO 879/112/4, NAUK.

66.
Reports in
NM
, 18 November 1913.

67.
‘Report on the Indian Strike in the Division of Durban’, dated 3 December 1913, in File 4/572/13, vol. 203, JUS, NASA.

68.
Telegrams from General Lukin to ‘Defence, Pretoria’, dated 21, 25 and 27 November, ibid.

69.
See Heather Hughes,
First President: A Life of John L. Dube, Founding President of the ANC
(Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana, 2011), pp. 178–9.