Date:01/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/01/stories/2006100122620100.htm

Front Page

Manmohan retraces Mahatma's journey

Harish Khare

"I am awed and humbled to be at the spot where an ordinary young lawyer was transformed into a legend"

A MEMORABLE JOURNEY : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur take a train ride from Pentrich to Pietermaritzburg in South Africa on Saturday. This is the route Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi took on June 7, 1893 when he was thrown out of the train for being a coloured person. — Photo: AFP

DURBAN (SOUTH AFRICA) : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began his three-day journey of rediscovery of the Mahatma by taking the same train ride from the Pentrich railway station to Pietermaritzburg, an eventful journey that brought about the transformation of Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi into a Mahatma.

It was on this Pentrich-Pietermaritzburg route, on June 7, 1893, M.K. Gandhi, then a young lawyer, was thrown out for travelling in a First Class compartment, a privilege denied to all non-whites in the apartheid-ruled South Africa at that time.

Vintage train

The Prime Minister and his official delegation as well as the accompanying media took a vintage steam-engine train on Saturday afternoon. The old train is still in use, though only for tourist pleasure. At the end of the 16-minute journey, the Prime Minister told the media at the Pietermaritzburg station that he "was moved by the experience of being here."

Dr. Singh noted that "all great changes begin in the minds of men. Through this incident [of Gandhi being evicted] was born Gandhiji's resolve to resist injustice and oppression, no matter the personal cost to him. This was to be an idea that eventually brought India its independence and also influenced the course of struggle against oppression all over the world."

The Prime Minister and his family spent a few minutes in the waiting room (which has been converted into a protected area) where Gandhi waited out the night, on June 7, 1893, after having been thrown out of the train.

In his entry for the visitors' book of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall at the railway station, the Prime Minister wrote: "I am awed and humbled to be at the very spot at which began the transformation of an ordinary young lawyer into an extraordinary legend who influenced the destiny of my country. It was here that the Mahatma resolved to dedicate his life to public service and then went to evolve the philosophy that another legend of peace — Nelson Mandela — has described as a key to human survival in the twenty-first century."

Satyagraha centenary

On the Pentrich-Pietermaritzburg journey, Dr. Singh was accompanied by a number of South African dignitaries, including Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, and Joel Sibusiso Ndebele, premier of the Kwazulu-Natal province.

The Prime Minister is visiting South Africa to take part in the centenary celebrations of the Satyagraha.

Dr. Singh's participation in the celebrations here means that for the first time the Prime Minister would not be able to pay homage at the Raj Ghat on October 2.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister will join South African President Thabo Mbeki in a public function to celebrate the centenary of the anti-colonial struggle. In 1906, Inkosi Bhambatha led a revolt against unjust and crippling taxes imposed by the colonial regime; the same year, Gandhi experimented with the "passive resistance movement" that later on got finessed into the Satyagraha strategy.