Gandhi (right) with brother
Quotes directly from Mahatma Gandhi from The Collected Works of
Mahatma Gandhi. They are taken from his writings and statements
during the years he spent working as an attorney in South Africa, before he
went back to India in 1915 to fight for independence. Note: “Kaffir” is an offensive term in South
Africa considered on par with “n*gger” in the U.S., though in Gandhi’s time
some historians claim it was considered more neutral.
Indians Dragged
Down to the Kaffirs
Before
Dec. 19, 1894: “A general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the
Indians are little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa.
Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that
the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir.”
Kaffirs Pass Their
Lives in ‘Indolence and Nakedness’
Sept.
26, 1896: “Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be
inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of
the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to
collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life
in indolence and nakedness.”
Kaffirs Would Not
Work
Oct.
26, 1896: “There is a bye-law in Durban which requires registration of coloured
servants. This rule may be, and perhaps is, necessary for the Kaffirs who would
not work, but absolutely useless with regard to the Indians. But the policy is
to class the Indian with the Kaffir whenever possible.”
Indians
‘Infinitely Superior’ to the Kaffirs
Before
May 27, 1899: “Your Petitioner has seen the Location intended to be used by the
Indians. It would place them, who are undoubtedly infinitely superior to the
Kaffirs, in close proximity to the latter.”
Indians Shouldn’t
Be Taxed Like Kaffirs
May
24, 1903: “The £3 tax is merely a penalty for wearing the brown skin and it
would appear that, whereas Kaffirs are taxed because they do not work at all or
sufficiently, we are to be taxed evidently because we work too much, the only
thing in common between the two being the absence of the white skin.”
Indians Forced to
Live with Too Many Kaffirs
Feb.
11, 1904: “I venture to write you regarding the shocking state of the Indian
Location. The rooms appear to be overcrowded beyond description. The sanitary
service is very irregular, and many of the residents of the Location have been
to my office to complain that the sanitary condition is far worse than before.
There is, too, a very large Kaffir population in the Location for which really
there is no warrant.”
Calamity Coming
for Johannesburg
Feb.
15, 1904: “I feel convinced that every minute wasted over the matter merely
hastens a calamity for Johannesburg and that through absolutely no fault of the
British Indians. Why, of all places in Johannesburg, the Indian Location should
be chosen for dumping down all the kaffirs of the town passes my
comprehension.”
No Mixing Kaffirs
With Indians
Feb.
15, 1904: “Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the
Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I
must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian
population and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my
countrymen.”
Kaffirs Less
Advanced
Sept.
9, 1906: “Even the half-castes and Kaffirs, who are less advanced than we, have
resisted the Government. The pass law applies to them as well, but they do not
take out passes.”
Even a Kaffir
Policeman Can Accost Indians?
June
4, 1907: “Are we supposed to be thieves or free-booters that even a Kaffir
policeman can accost and detain us wherever we happen to be going?”
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