Page 33 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

Ultimately, Gandhi's persistent efforts succeeded, and the case involving a huge

sum of money was settled out of court to the satisfaction of all. The arbitrator's

award went in favour of Sheth Dada Abdullah, but the other party was not in a
position to pay the awarded dues in one installments. If he had to do so, he

would have become bankrupt. Gandhi persuaded Abdullah to permit Tyeb Sheth

to pay the money in installments.

Now that the assignment on which Gandhi had gone to South Africa had ended,

Gandhi prepared to return to India. A farewell meeting was arranged. At the

meeting, as Gandhi was about to speak, his eyes fell on a copy of the Natal
Mercury. It carried a report about the impending passage of a Bill to

disenfranchise all Indians in Natal. Gandhi saw this as the thin end of the

wedge. He said that if the Bill was passed, and the Indians acquiesced in it,

they would be driving the first nail into their own coffin. Everyone felt
concerned, and wanted that the Bill should be opposed. But who was to take

the lead?

Who was to organize public opinion and bring pressure on the legislature? The
younger Indians who were educated could perhaps take up the cause. But they

had other interests. Everyone at the farewell meeting turned to Gandhi. They

told him he was the man who could save the Indian community in the hour of
trial. Gandhi was reluctant. He was anxious to go home. But the persistent

demand of the leading Indians and his own sense of duty made him agree to

postpone his return by a month. He declined to take any remuneration for

public service. He would stay back and serve them for a month. Thus began a
commitment that kept Gandhi in South Africa for two decades.

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