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DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, September 20 2004: Mahatma Gandhi continues to evoke reverence in South Africa, but his legacy is in danger of fading with some not seeing him as a hero and some simply unaware of his role. Key landmarks in Pietermaritzburg, Durban and Johannesburg have become pilgrimages for every visiting Indian dignitary, but Gandhi’s memory weakens each generation of the 1.2 million-strong Indian community here. “Gandhi is remembered among the Hindus, but due to the apartheid years we have gaps in our history books,” said Ahmed Kathrada, a veteran anti-apartheid leader. The apartheid leaders simply left out of the books not only Gandhi, but prominent South Africans, when it suited them. Kathrada, who spent 26 years in the Robben Island infirmary where Nelson Mandela was also imprisoned, admitted Gandhi’s legacy was in danger of dying out. “But he is remembered among veterans for his struggle against racial apartheid – his contribution was invaluable and no one can dispute it.” Added fellow Robben Islander Laloo Chhiba: “The legacy that Gandhi left behind had a profound impact.” But he preferred silence when asked whether the great leader was still relevant in contemporary South Africa.



Gandhi’s presence is felt most at the Pietermaritzburg railway station where a plaque commemorates the approximate spot where he would have fallen when he was thrown out of a train for occupying a whites-only compartment in 1893. That incident changed young lawyer Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and sowed the seeds of the struggle that was to liberate India decades later in 1947. Gandhi left South Africa in 1914. Today, a train journey from Pentrich Station to Pietermaritzburg recaptures that fateful journey, complete with century-old coaches and a steam engine. Another repository of Gandhi’s memories is at Durban’s Phoenix Settlement, the crucible of his experiments with passive resistance, which celebrates its centenary this year. Many Phoenix settlers, comprising blacks and people of Indian origin, to this day swear by Gandhian principles. But Gandhi’s granddaughter Ela, who grew up in Phoenix, laments the gradual fading of her forebear’s place in South Africa. “Gandhi is not in South African books and there is no mention of his role in school and college curricula.” Perhaps a part of the reason is that Gandhi remains a controversial figure in South Africa. When his statue was unveiled in Johannesburg, some Africans questioned the move, complaining that Gandhi fought only for the Indians and not for the majority blacks. At Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill, the home of South Africa’s Constitutional Court and the site of the notorious Old Fort Prison Complex where Gandhi was jailed several times between 1908 and 1913, guide Rafiq Asmal guardedly admits to the debate, while saying that Gandhi’s passive resistance was one of the most important gifts to the world and his contribution invaluable. But he feels that Gandhi was very “classist,” and that only certain people were allowed to work with him. Standing next to the photographs of a young Gandhi in the prison museum, Asmal is, however, hopeful that his indisputable greatness will survive such controversies.

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