Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches/Indians and their Employers

by Mohandas K. Gandhi

INDIANS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS

SPEECH AT VERULAM

[One of the most important gatherings held just before Mr. Gandhi left South Africa was the great meeting of indentured Indians and employers at Verulam. In his address, Mr. Gandhi took pains to make the position under the Relief Act absolutely clear to the Indian labourers, and addressed a few earnest words at the close to the European Employers of the neighbourhood]:—

He asked his countrymen to understand that it was wrong for them to consider that the relief that had been obtained had been obtained because he had gone to gaol, or his wife, or those who were immediately near and dear to him. It was because they had had the good sense and courage to give up their own lives and to sacrifice themselves, and in these circumstances he had also to tell them that many causes led to that relief, and one of these was Certainly also the most valuable and unstinted assistance rendered by Mr. Marshall Campbell of Mount Edgecombe. He thought that their thanks and his thanks were due to him for the magnificent work that he did in the Senate whilst the Bill was passing through it. They would now not have to pay the £3 Tax, and the arrears would also be remitted. That did not mean that they were free from their present indentures. They were bound to go through their present indentures faithfully and honestly, but, when those indentures terminated, they were just as free as any other free Indian, and they were entitled, if they would go to the Protector's office, to the same discharge certificate as was granted to those who came before 1895, under Law 25 of 1891. They were not bound to re-indenture nor to return to India. The discharge certificates would be issued to them free of charge. If they wanted, after having gone to India, to return, they could only do so after they had lived for full three years in the Province as free men after serving their indentures. If any of them wished to have assistance for going to India, they could obtain it from the Government if they did not wish to return from India. If, therefore, they wanted to return from India, they would fight shy of that assistance which was given to them by the Government, but would find their own money or borrow it from friends. If they re-indentured, they could come under the same law, namely. Law 25 of 1891. His own advice to them was not to re-indenture, but by all means to serve their present masters under the common law of the country. If ever occasion arose, which he hoped would never happen, they now knew what it was possible for them to do. But he wanted to remind them of this one thing, that Victoria Country, as also the other Districts of Natal, had not been so free from violence on their own part as the Newcastle District had been. He did not care that provocation had been offered to them or how much they had retaliated with their sticks or with stones, or had burned the sugar cane—that was not passive Resistance, and, if he had been in their midst, he would have repudiated them entirely and allowed his own head to be broken rather than permit them to use a single stick against their opponents. And he wanted them to believe him when he told them that Passive Resistance pure and simple was an infinitely finer weapon than all the sticks and gunpowder put together. They might strike work, but they might compel nobody else to strike work, and, if, as a result of their strike, they were sentenced to be imprisoned, whipped, or to both, they must suffer even unto death—that was Passive Resistance, nothing else. Nothing else, and nothing less than that, would satisfy the requirements of Passive Resistance. If, therefore,he was indentured to Mr. Marshall Campbell, or Mr.Sanders, or any friends about there, and if he found that he was being persecuted or not receiving justice, in their case he would not even go to the Protector, he would sit tight and say, "My master, I want justice or I won't work. Give me food if you want to, water if you want to; otherwise, I sit here hungry and thirsty," and he assured them that the hardest, stoniest heart would be melted. Therefore, let that sink deeply into themselves, that whenever they were afraid of any injury being done to them all, that was the sovereign remedy and that alone was the most effective remedy. If they wanted advice and guidance, and many of them had complained that he was going away, and that his advice would not be at their disposal, all he could suggest to them was that, although he was going away,

MR. A. H. WEST, Joint manager Phoenix Settlement and "Indian Opinion."	MR. MAGANLAL K. GHANDI, Joint manager Phoenix Settlement and "Indian Opinion."

Phœnix was not leaving, and, therefore, if they had any difficulty for which they did not wish to pay Mr. Langston or other lawyers, they should go to Phœnix and ask Mr. West or Mr, Chhaganlal Gandhi what was to be done in a particular case. If Mr. West or Mr. Chhaganlal could help them, they would do so free of charge, and if they could not they would send them to Mr. Langston or his other brothers in the law, and he had no doubt that, if they went to Mr. Langston with a certificate from Mr. West that they were too poor, he would render them assistance free of charge. But, if they were called upon to sign any document whatsoever, his advice to them was not to sign it unless they went to Phœnix and got advice. If Phœnix ever failed them and wanted a farthing from them, then they should shun Phœnix.

The scene before him that morning would not easily fade from his memory, even though the distance between him and them might be great. He prayed that God might help them in all the troubles that might be in store for them, and that their conduct might be such that God might find it possible to help them. And to the European friends living in this country he wished to tender his thanks, and he wished also to ask them to forgive him if they had ever considered that during that awful time he was instrumental in bringing about any retaliation at all on the part of his countrymen. He wished to give them, this assurance that he had no part or parcel in it, and that, so far as he knew, not a single leading Indian had asked the men to retaliate. There were times in a man's life when he lost his senses, his self-control, and under a sense of irritation, fancied or real, began to retaliate when the brute nature in him rose, and he only went by the law of "might is right," or the law of retaliation—a tooth for a tooth. If his countrymen had done so, whether under a real sense of wrong or fancied, let them forgive him and let them keep a kind corner in their hearts; and, if there were any employers of indentured labour there present who would take that humble request to them, he did ask them not to think always selfishly, though he knew it was most difficult to eradicate self, and let them consider these indentured Indians not merely as cattle which they had to deal with, but as human beings with the same fine feelings, the same fine sentiments as themselves. Let them credit them to the fullest extent with their weaknesses, as also at least with the possibility of all the virtues. Would they not then treat their Indian employees even as brothers? It was not enough that they were well treated as they well treated their cattle. It was not enough that they looked upon them with a kindly eye merely; but it was necessary that employers should have a much broader view of their own position, that they should think of their employees as fellow human beings and not as Asiatics who had nothing in common with them who were Europeans, and they would also respond to every attention that might be given to them. Then they would have an intelligent interest not merely in the material or physical well-being of their men, but in their moral well-being. They would look after their morality, after their children, after their education, after their sanitation, and, if they were herding together in such a manner that they could not but indulge in hideous immorality, that they would themselves recoil with horror from the very imagination that the men who were for the time being under their control should indulge in these things because they had been placed in these surroundings. Let them not consider that because these men were drawn from the lowest strata of society that they were beyond reclamation. No, they would respond to every moral pressure that might be brought to bear upon them, and they will certainly realise the moral height that it is possible for every human being, no matter who he is, no matter what tinge of colour his skin possesses.

Mr. & Mrs. Gandhi.