Gandhi’s Historical View of South Africa Segregation

Gandhi, a wise man and in particular closely related to the South African segregation policies formed in the country had much to say about this racist element. Gandhi a humble human being with a history of placing the interests of his people first did an admirable job to protect the rights of Indians in South Africa.
 
Janie Smuts, the Prime Minister of South African during the early 1900s, was closely associated with Gandhi, they both shared many views and had their disagreements about segregation. Gandhi fought for the right of the Indian people and his opinion regarding the black South Africans was at times critical but honest.
 
Smuts had a condescending view of Africans; he saw them as immature human beings that needed the

guidance of whites, an attitude that reflected the general perceptions of most non-Africans in his lifetime. Gandhi fought for the Indian people not to be treated at the same level as native Africans. Gandhi believed the white people of South Africa should be and remain the predominating race.

On one, hand, Janie Smuts said the black children of nature do not have the persistence or inner toughness of the European people. They do not have the social and moral incentives to progress. Gandhi, the civil rights activist, remained angry with segregation laws and continued his plight for the Indian community to gain a better standing within the boundaries of South Africa. He equated the intelligence of the Indians to the Whites. After years of struggle, the Indians during the apartheid years gained a more prominent role in society.

Gandhi said his struggle was against the degradation inflicted upon the Indians by the European, whose desire was to humiliate them to the level of the raw native (at the time he used the K word, which is now banned in the country). The raw Africans he said practiced the occupation of hunting with the sole purpose of collecting a number of cattle to buy a wife and continue to live in indolence and nakedness. The Indians, he said, were raised in a more educated manner and comparing them to the raw African was disgraceful. There was, however, a general principle the Indians were more advanced than the savages of South Africa. 

Gandhi fought for the removal of blacks from Indian townships during his stay in South Africa. Black natives according to Gandhi were only one degree removed from an animal. He often used the K name and said they were uneducated, troublesome, dirty, and lived like animals.

Gandhi believed in the purity of races just as much as the South African government at that time did. The Indians, Gandhi said cherishes, more than anything else, the purity of their type.

During 2003, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled in the city of Johannesburg to honor his fight for segregation during the early history of South Africa. The unveiling sparked a trigger of anger among some black communities who remembered the civil rights activist’s hatred of black people. A media report detailing the events of the unveiling received a flurry of comments from indigent readers who attacked his racist's views of blacks, who were lazy savages and barely human. Comment posted, revealed that Gandhi had no love for blacks and ignored their sufferings. The new statue promoted painful recollections of Gandhi’s writings and observations about black people in particular.

During the early years, segregation of different ethnic groups was for the benefit of each ethnic group maintaining purity. A practice during the early years caused the deliberate destruction of institutions by blacks for the use of all races. Hence, Janie Smuts implemented a plan to create two separate institutions with territorial segregation. The new proposal would allow the different cultures to preserve their beliefs and live in purity.

Today, the years of struggle to keep different races confined in segregation have not altered the fact that ethnic and tribal conflicts will remain a part of South Africa. The white South Africans provided and uplifted the black people during the struggle years, by giving them a working infrastructure, education and social advancement. Degrading laws such as passbooks were abolished with time, and as education took precedence in the black townships, it remained an inexhaustible attempt to remove the primitive instinct inherited throughout the ages.

Tribal conflicts between the vast amounts of different ethnic groups are vastly underrated in South Africa. The ongoing black on black violence, xenophobia and savage attacks against their people remind the world of the primitive and uncivilized nature that cannot be removed.

South Africa today is a melting pot of racial conflict more dangerous than in the early 1900s, the savage hatred for white people spirals out of control. Farm murders, rapes and torture continuing to black out the future of the country. There is no justification for the high crime rates in South Africa, other than racial hatred.
The belief that apartheid or segregation was an evil dominant factor to undermine the black people of South Africa was nothing more than a misleading notion. The historical events of ongoing violence and ignorance between the racial divides cannot be blamed for the discrimination between ethnic groups. Racial hatred based on black people blaming the minority white group of citizens for injustices is an overplayed hand to intimidate and gain international support for a nation that will never be able to develop without the Europeans guidance. The world might take a back seat and agree with the black counterparts, by taking advantage of the low IQ levels to gain control over the South African resources that are solely based on greed.

By Laura Oneale

This article was published on SouthAfricaToday

http://southafricatoday.net/south-africa-news/gandhi-historical-view-south-africa-segregation/_truncated