Page:Masani - Gandhi's story.pdf/37

Rh that is what he is called by most Indians. When Gandhiji wanted to return home, his countrymen in South Africa appealed to him to stay on, for without him they were lost. Gandhiji agreed and decided to go home only to bring his family to South Africa.

While he was in India, trouble broke out again in South Africa and Gandhiji hurried back with his wife and children. Some of the South Africans disliked him, for they knew that if it were not for him the Indians there would never have claimed their rights. When his ship came into Natal, a port in South Africa, a large and furious mob of people tried to prevent him from landing. They threw brickbats and stones at him and injured him very badly. They would have killed him had not a brave English woman come to his rescue. When this woman saw Gandhiji lying on the ground and the people beating him mercilessly, she rushed there and stood before him. With the help of others Gandhiji was then carried to a friend's house nearby. Soon the crowd of hooligans gathered round the house and demanded that Gandhiji should be handed over to them; otherwise they would set the house on fire.

Gandhiji was anxious for the safety of his friends and Kasturbai and his sons who were in this house with him. He agreed to disguise himself as a policeman. The disguise was so clever that when he slipped out of the house nobody was able to recognize him.