Page:Masani - Gandhi's story.pdf/38

34 The South African government wanted to punish the people who had attacked Gandhiji, but Gandhiji asked them not to. He said they did not know what they were doing. In spite of the way he had been treated, Gandhiji spent many years in South Africa uniting the Indians, asking them to help each other and encouraging them to fight side by side for their rights.

He returned to India once after six years and there he met those who then led the Indian people. These men, too, seeing the suffering of their countrymen and the pitiable condition of the country, had formed a body called the Indian National Congress and were trying to persuade the British government to restore the country to its inhabitants. They had watched Gandhiji's work in South Africa with admiration and when he came home they welcomed him in their midst and he became a member of the Congress Party. He did not know then that he was in time to be its leader, and that this very National Congress Party was des tined to become a very powerful organization which would gain India her freedom.

Gandhiji did not stay long in India. The Indians in South Africa needed him once again and he rushed back to them.

Although Gandhiji led a very busy life in South Africa, he always found time to read the holy