Once some Indians organised a small meeting in the honour of Mohandas K. Gandhi. He spoke. On that day the words came out of his mouth fluently. There was no trace of any shyness, hesitation or diffidence.
He said, “Being in a foreign land you have become more answerable for your conduct. Because the way you conduct yourself reflects on the crores of our countryman. It becomes a yardstick for the Whites…”
He urged the Indians not to live like worms closed in their own cocoons and advised them to learn the language and customs of the adopted country.
It was simple and sensible advice which went down well with the people.
This was perhaps the beginning of the public life of Mohandas K. Gandhi. (In Maharashtra and Gujarat the name tradition is that the middle name of the person represents the name of the father. For example, in the name Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi the middle part ‘Karamchand’ is the father’s name. In the preceding chapters we have been omitting the middle name to make it easy for the readers of the other parts of the country to relate the person as they are accustomed to. Hence Mohandas Gandhi and Karam Chand Gandhi are the same person just like Sachin Tendulkar and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar refer to the same person.) His own experience and the pitiable conditions of Indians in South Africa who were being forced to live the life of humiliations pained him so much that he decided to raise his voice against it. Otherwise there was no meaning of the education he had got. He would use his knowledge to liberate Indians, he resolved.
