Polish envoy highlights Mahatma Gandhi’s life in South Africa as a young man
Aug 10, 2023
Johannesburg [South Africa], August 10 : Adam Burakowski, the Ambassador of Poland to South Africa pointed out Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in Johannesburg where the leader is portrayed from his South Africa days.
“Monument of Mahatma #Gandhi in Gandhi Square in Johannesburg. Gandhi is portrayed as a young man, from his South African years,” Adam Burakowski said on Twitter.
The board adjoining the statue carried a description of Mahatma Gandhi’s days in South Africa as a lawyer in the early 20th century.
“Mohandas K Gandhi was a familiar figure at Johannesburg’s first law courts located on Governemnt Square now renamed Gandhi Square,” it states.
The board also mentions that how MK Gandhi fought against racism both inside and outside the court.
“Continuing the search for truth, which he had begun in South Africa, he plunged into India’s struggle for freedom and came to be hailed by his people as Mahatma, ‘Great Soul’,” it further states.
The board also mentions a quote by MK Gandhi where he recalls his struggling days in South Africa amid widespread racism referring his situation as that of a “Coolie lawyer”.
“I was, with my countymen, in a hopeless minority, not just hopeless minority but a despised minority. If the Europeans of South Africa will forgive me from saying so, we were Coolies. I was an insignificant Coolie lawyer. At that time, we had no Coolie doctors. We had no Coolie lawyers. I was the first in the field. Nevertheless (I was) a Coolie,” the quote stated.
Notably, before joining the freedom struggle in India, MK Gandhi practised as a lawyer in South Africa. During his stay in the country he also raised voice against the racism practised by the British. He also formed ‘Natal Indian Congress’ to fight discrimination against Indians in the Natal Colony, which played a major role in opposing apartheid.
Gandhi returned to India in 1915, and the Indian freedom movement through the means of ‘truth’ and ‘non-violence’.
