Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/294

 European, the Indian also loves spending his money, only not so recklessly. Every merchant who has amassed a fortune in Bombay has built for himself palatial buildings. The only palatial building in Mombassa has been built by an Indian. Indian merchants have earned much in Zanzibar, and consequently have built palaces, and, in some instances, pleasure houses also. If no Indian has done so in Durban of South Africa it is because he has not earned sufficient to enable him so to do. Sir, if you will only study the question a little more closely (pardon me for so saying), you will find that the Indians spend in this Colony quite as much as they can without coming to grief. To say that those earning well sleep on the floors of their shops is, I venture to say, rather incorrect. If you would undeceive yourself, and if you will leave your editorial chair for a few hours, I would escort you to some Indian stores. Then, perhaps, you would think much less harshly of them than now.

I humbly believe that the Indian question, at any rate for the British Colonies, has a local as well as Imperial significance, and I submit that to lose temper over it, or to shut one’s eyes to actual facts, in order to form preconceived ideas, is not exactly the way to solve it satisfactorily. It behoves responsible persons in the Colony not to widen the gulf between the two communities, but, if possible, to bridge it. Having invited the Indians to the Colony, how can the responsible Colonists curse them? How can they escape the natural consequences of the introduction of the Indian labour?

I am, etc.,

M. K. GANDHI

The Natal Mercury, 5-9-1895

Letter to "The Natal Mercury" (15-9-1895)
DURBAN,