Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/253

 indignity and actual hardships. If it were necessary, hundreds of such cases of ill-treatment could be proved to the hilt.

35. It has been also mentioned that the Indians live as parasites, and spend nothing. So far as the Indian labourers and their children are concerned, the objection will not hold water at all, and they are not supposed to be parasites, even by the most prejudiced Europeans. Your Petitioners may be allowed to mention from personal experience that, so far as a majority of the labourers are concerned, they live above their means and have settled with their families. As to the trading Indians, who are the butt of all the prejudice, a little explanation may be necessary. Your Petitioners, who are traders, do not deny, they take pride in acknowledging, that they send remittances to India for those who are dependent upon them, but the remittances are entirely out of proportion to their expenditure. The only reason why they are successful competitors is because they spend less on luxuries than the European traders. But, all the same, they have to pay rents to the European landlords, wages to the Native servants, and to pay Dutch farmers for the animals for meat. The other provisions, such as tea, coffee, etc., are bought in the country.

36. The question, then, really is not whether the Indian is to live in this street or that, but what status he is to occupy throughout South Africa. For, what is done in the Transvaal will also affect the action of the two Colonies. There seems to be a general consensus of opinion that the question will have to be settled on a common basis, modified by local conditions.

37. So far as the feeling has been expressed, it is to degrade the Indian to the position of the Kaffir. But the general feeling, not so strongly expressed but here and there voiced in the newspapers, of the respectable portion of the European community is quite the reverse.

38. The Colony of Natal has been inviting the other South African States to a 'Coolie' Conference.The word 'Coolie' has been used officially and it shows how high the expressed feeling runs against the Indians and what the Conference would do, if it could, with regard to the question. In the case put by the Transvaal Government before the Arbitrator, it is stated that the word 'Coolie' applies to any person coming from Asia.

39. When the feeling runs so high in South Africa against the Indian, when such a feeling owes its origin to interested agitation (as it is hoped, has been sufficiently shown above), when it is known that that feeling is by no means shared by all Europeans, when there is a general scramble for wealth in South Africa, when the