Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 2.djvu/140

 n Letter’ and the pamphlet; they have taken Reuter’s telegram as an accurate summary of the pamphlet, and are, therefore, proceeding on these lines. If this belief is well founded, then I say that the leaders are doing an injustice to the Colonists as well as the Indians. I will say I have not gone beyond what I did here, and my stating the case in India has not prejudiced it in any way.

In your Indian campaign what attitude did you adopt towards the indentured Indian question?


 * I have said most emphatically, in the pamphlets and elsewhere, that the treatment of the indentured Indians is no worse or better in Natal than they receive in other parts of the world. I have never endeavoured to show that the indentured Indians have been receiving cruel treatment. The question, generally speaking, is not a question of the ill-treatment of Indians, but of the legal disabilities that are placed on them. I have even said in the pamphlet that instances I have quoted show that the treatment that the Indians receive was owing to the prejudice against them, and what I have endeavoured to show is the connection between the prejudice and the laws passed by the Colony to restrict the freedom of the Indian.


 * I have said that the Indians did not approach the Indian Government, the Indian public, or the Home Government, with the view to having any redress against the prejudices of these colonists. I have said that Indians are the most hated beings in South Africa, and that they are being ill-treated; but, for all that we do not ask the Government for redress with regard to these things, but with regard to the legal disabilities that are placed upon the Indians. We protest against the legislation passed by prejudice, and redress has been asked for against them. This, then, is simply a question of toleration on the part of the Indian. The attitude taken up by the Colonists, especially by the demonstration committee, is an attitude of intolerance. It has been said in the papers that there is an organized attempt, under my leadership, to swamp the Colony with Indians. This statement is absolutely false. I have as much to do with having induced these passengers to come here as I have with inducing passengers to come from Europe. No such attempt has ever been made.