Some of the classes which render us the greatest social service, but
which we Hindus have chosen to regard as 'untouchables,' are relegated to remote quarters of a town or a village,
called in Gujarati dhedvado, and the name has acquired a bad odour. Even so in Christian Europe
the Jews were once 'untouchables,' and the quarters that were
assigned to them had the offensive name of 'ghettoes'. In a similar
way today we have become the untouchables of South Africa. It
remains to be seen how far the sacrifice of Andrews and the magic
wand of Sastri succeed in rehabilitating us.
The ancient Jews regarded themselves as the chosen people of God, to
the exclusion of all others, with the result that their descendants
were visited with a strange and even unjust retribution. Almost in a
similar way the Hindus have considered themselves Aryas
or civilized, and a section of their own kith and kin as Anaryas
or untouchables, with the result that a strange, if unjust nemesis
is being visited not only upon the Hindus in South Africa, but the Musalmans and Parsis as well, inasmuch as they belong to the same
country and have the same colour as their Hindu brethren.
The reader will have now realized to some extent the meaning of the
word 'locations' with which I have headed this chapter. In South
Africa we have acquired the odious name of 'coolies'. The word
'coolie' in India means only a porter or hired workman, but in South
Africa it has a contemptuous connotation. It means what a pariah or
an untouchable means to us, and the quarters assigned to the
'coolies' are known as 'coolie locations'. Johannesburg had one such
location, but unlike other places with locations where the Indians
had tenancy rights, here they
acquired their plots on a lease of ninety-nine years. People were densely
packed in the location, the area of which never increased with the
increase in population. Beyond arranging to clean the latrines in
the location in a haphazard way, the Municipality did nothing to
provide any sanitary facilities, much less good roads or lights. It
was hardly likely that it would safeguard its sanitation, when it
was indifferent to the welfare of the residents. These were too
ignorant of the rules of municipal sanitation and hygiene to do
without the help or supervision of the Municipality. If those who
went there had all been Robinson Crusoes, theirs would have been a
different story. But we do not know of a single emigrant colony of
Robinson Crusoes in the world. Usually people migrate abroad in
search of wealth and trade, but the bulk of the Indians who went to
South Africa were ignorant, pauper agriculturists, who needed all
the care and protection that could be given them. The traders and
educated Indians who followed them were very few.
The criminal negligence of the Municipality and the ignorance of the
Indian settlers thus conspired to render the location thoroughly
insanitary. The Municipality, far from doing anything to improve the
condition of the location, used the insanitation, caused by their
own neglect, as a pretext for destroying the location, and for that
purpose obtained from the local legislature authority to dispossess
the settlers. This was the condition of things when I settled in
Johannesburg.
The settlers, having proprietary rights in their land, were
naturally entitled to compensation. A special tribunal was appointed
to try the land acquisition cases. If the tenant was not prepared to
accept the offer of the Municipality, he had a right to appeal to
the tribunal, and if the latter's award exceeded the Municipality's
offer, the Municipality had to bear the costs.
Most of the tenants engaged me as their legal adviser. I had no
desire to make money out of these cases, so I told the tenants that
I should be satisfied with whatever costs the tribunal awarded, in
case they won, and a fee of £10 on every lease, irrespective of the
result of the case. I also told them that I proposed to set apart
half of the money paid by them for the building of a hospital or
similar institution for the poor. This naturally pleased them all.
Out of about seventy cases only one was lost. So the fees amounted to a
fairly big figure. But Indian Opinion was there with its persistent claim and devoured, so far as I can
recollect, a sum of £1,600. I had worked hard for these cases. The
clients always surrounded me. Most of them were originally
indentured labourers from South India. For the redress of their peculiar grievances they had formed
an association of their own, separate from that of the free Indian
merchants and traders. Some of them were open- hearted, liberal men
and had high character. Their leaders were Sjt. Jairamsing, the
president, and Sjt. Badri, who was as good as the president. Both of
them are now no more. They were exceedingly helpful to me. Sjt.
Badri came in very close contact with me and took a prominent part
in Satyagraha. Through these and other friends I came in intimate
contact with numerous Indian settlers from North and South India. I
became more their brother than a mere legal adviser, and shared in
all their private and public sorrows and hardships.
It may be of some interest to know how the Indians used to name me.
Abdulla Sheth refused to address me as Gandhi. None, fortunately,
ever insulted me by calling or regarding me as 'saheb'. Abdulla
Sheth hit upon a fine appellation-'bhai', i.e., brother. Others
followed him and continued to address me as 'bhai' until the moment
I left South Africa. There was a sweet flavour about the name when
it was used by the ex-indentured Indians.