Evening star., 1934-07-12
INDIANS IN AFRICA
REMAIN HOPEFUL
Gandhi. i.Smuts Pact Basis
of Policy of Minority
Rights.

ago Mohandas X. Gandhi and Gen.
Jan Smuts. neither yet famed upon
the world stage where they were soon
to play such different roles, sat down
together in Pretoria and made the
agreement which is still the basis
of South African policy toward the
Indian.
Smuts was minister Of interior in
the new Union of South Africa.
Gandhi, in two decades as a Durham
and Johannesburg lawyer, had shaped
in his fight for Indian equality in
South Africa that policy of passive
resistance which he later was 70
transfer SO effectively to India itself
On behalf of the biggest group of
Indians outside Asia--130, 900 Of them,
brought from India after 1860 as
indentlired labor to the sugar planta-
tions of Natal-Gandhi had under
gone Imprisonment. He had led an
Indian march to the Transvaal TO
protest the law under which, when
an indentured Indian was freed, he
was liable to reindenture unless he
paid SIS a year thereafter for him
self and each member of his family.
Tax Is Abolished.
Gandhi won from Smuts abolition
of this tax. He agreed the question
Of further immigration of indians
was not to be reopened, and the
South African government agreed to
forward socially and educationally
the welfare Of the Indians already
there.
In Natal province, where then, as
now, lived nine-tenths of the Indian
population of South Africa, Gandhi's
countrymen could not vote then, and
cannot now, except under conditions
with which at the last election only
one Indian was able to comply. In
dians could not then own property
in some provinces on an equal basis
with Europeans" and cannot now.
And yet Rev. c. F. Andrews, the
one-time Cambridge don, who met
Ghandi at that Pretoria conference In
June, 1914, became his intimate ano
made eight subsequent trips to South
Africa in the interests of equal In
dian rights, says that today things
are really hopeful compared with 20
| years ago"
Conditions Better.
I'VE have come a long way" he
says. Conditions are immensely bet
| ter. The old indenture system, which
was as bad as slavery in many ways
is gone.
Twenty years ago in Nata
there were $4,000 Europeans and
! 1870, 900 Indians-in addition to ma
| tives far out-numbering both groups
| Today for the first time the Euro
! peans outnumber the Indians. 10000
to 100000. The Europeans by immi'
grafton have increased rapidly. Thus
the fear of an Indian majority is gone
and the question is one Of further
| rights for majority
Eventually the Indians for whom
Or Andrews has become the spokes'
: man in South Africa want citizenship
! throughout the union. for 8 per cent
of the Indian population today wa:
| born in South Africa. Those who wan
to 60 back to India may still do Sc
/ with free passage from the South At
/ rican government, which, however, ha:
| agreed to bring no pressure upon then
! to emigrate But those who return
are not happy.
When Gandhi left South Africa II
1914 after obtaining the Smuts agree
ment, he took no free passage, 81
nothing could prevent his return ex.
cept the fact of his Imprisonment
which can bar any would-be immi'
grant. But DR.. Andrews thinks
Gandhi will never return.
Gandhi More Popular.
He is absorbed in India and mor'
popular there than ever DR.. An
drews says. The British government
must deal with him again sooner ol
later, for 90 per cent of India goe
with him. and 1t is silly for Britain
not to deal with the man who can de-
liver the goods.
Through the struggle Of the In
dians here to maintain their rights
the African native has been helped 4
prevent losing his own position"
Gandhi's son, Manilal, is carrying
on in South Africa his fathers worl
as editor of the Natal newspaper In
dian Opinion. The youth is not TIL
born leader his father Is and his par
is modest. but he keeps the name o
Gandhi in the thick of the fight.