The South African Gandhi : stretcher-bearer of empire / Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Desai, Ashwin, author.

Vahed, Goolam H., 1961- author.

Series:

South Asia in motion.

South Asia in motion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948--Political and social views.

Gandhi.

Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948--Relations with British.

East Indians--South Africa--Politics and government.

East Indians.

South Africa--Race relations--History--19th century.

South Africa.

South Africa--Race relations--History--20th century.

Great Britain--Colonies--Africa--History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (344 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the pantheon of freedom fighters, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. His fame and influence extend far beyond India and are nowhere more significant than in South Africa. "India gave us a Mohandas, we gave them a Mahatma," goes a popular South African refrain. Contemporary South African leaders, including Mandela, have consistently lauded him as being part of the epic battle to defeat the racist white regime. The South African Gandhi focuses on Gandhi's first leadership experiences and the complicated man they reveal—a man who actually supported the British Empire. Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed unveil a man who, throughout his stay on African soil, stayed true to Empire while showing a disdain for Africans. For Gandhi, whites and Indians were bonded by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African. Gandhi's racism was matched by his class prejudice towards the Indian indentured. He persistently claimed that they were ignorant and needed his leadership, and he wrote their resistances and compromises in surviving a brutal labor regime out of history. The South African Gandhi writes the indentured and working class back into history. The authors show that Gandhi never missed an opportunity to show his loyalty to Empire, with a particular penchant for war as a means to do so. He served as an Empire stretcher-bearer in the Boer War while the British occupied South Africa, he demanded guns in the aftermath of the Bhambatha Rebellion, and he toured the villages of India during the First World War as recruiter for the Imperial army. This meticulously researched book punctures the dominant narrative of Gandhi and uncovers an ambiguous figure whose time on African soil was marked by a desire to seek the integration of Indians, minus many basic rights, into the white body politic while simultaneously excluding Africans from his moral compass and political ideals.

Contents:

The remains of empire

Brown over black

The war within

Truth as experiments

Gandhi's lieutenants

Shadow-boxing on the highveld

The Bhambatha Rebellion

The Black Act

Union and its discontents

Hind swaraj

The moderate as messiah

Stalemates and new openings

Women on the march

Border crossings

The Rajah is coming

Striking at the heart of cities

The provisional agreement

The adjudication

Goodbye Mr. Gandhi

Man of peace, man of war

Between leaving and returning.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780804797221

0804797226

OCLC:

1198930270