But the tragi-comic nature of the whole struggle carried on for over a quarter of a century is obvious from the fact that the Indian labourers were denied the ordinary rights of British citizens, were treated as little better than helots ; often subjected to the lash, and the sjambok for the paltriest of offences, sent to prison for real or alleged slackness in work, and their economic status was such as would provoke only farcical smiles in civilised countries as well as indignation.
The seriousness of their predicament was enhanced by their being sent to South Africa, under the assur ances from the Home and Indian Governments that in point of treatment they will not be considered " One whit inferior to European settlers " and their rights will be zealously safeguarded. But the flam • boyant promises of Lord Rosebery and Lord Curzon were one thing, and the complete disillusionment of the immigrants, quite another. It was their virtues of thrift, industry and prudence that aroused the bitter antipathy of the labourers and retail shop keepers in South Africa—and not their vices. They saw in these honest, frugal and hard-working Indian labourers their potential rivals.
But the grievous anomalies with which the Indian labourers have been visited in South Africa spring out of the evil system whose hidden menace was either not anticipated by the Government or else quietly ignored under the pressure of powerful interests. That evil system was one of indentured labour. Under this system contracts ratified between employer and employee could not be revoked for seven or ten years, however unsatisfactory the working of the contract might be to the parties involved. It left no scope for revision, amendment or termination. Whatever the diffi culties issuing from the agreement, its revocation was not possible, and, further, its avoidance could be penalised as a criminal offence.
But a still more hideous feature of these business transactions—if such they might be called—was that on the termination of the " indenture " the employers would neither undertake to repatriate the labourer, nor yet allow him to settle down to some business of his own, but would only bully him into indenture again, so that he might again be compelled to work on nominal wages—two or three shillings a week—for an indefinite period, the issue of shop licences being denied him. So the labourers soon discovered that they had not landed on a soil that was flowing with milk and honey, as the Employment Agents canvassing for recruits and unofficially co-operating with the Government had told them before leaving India. The most inhuman feature of this brutal system was the arrangement by which " fags " were added on, on the ground of bad work done. A " slacker " would be told that to
compensate for slowness or slovenliness in to-day's work, he must put in an extra seven days ! ! Thus a labourer would find that slackness in five days' work meant an extra fifty or even five hundred days, while the original contract stood as valid as ever ! No wonder, then, that these " slaves " were put in allotments, refused entrance in public trams and carriages or admission into public parks.
But incredible as all these modes of ill-treatment seem to be, there was apparently no limit to the savageries that might, with impunity, be heaped on the heads of these British subjects of the Empire. It is to be presumed that our Cabinet ministers knew of these unsavoury facts, but either felt their incom petence to interfere with the affairs of the self governing colony or perhaps realised that the sense of solidarity was not sufficiently awakened in Indians to lead them to express resentment at these indig nities. In all probability it was the former idea that was obsessing their minds. But when to add to the above atrocities, certain courts of competent jurisdiction in Durban and elsewhere, found that even properly solemnised and legal marriages contracted by Hindus and Muhammadans could not be recog nised as valid in South Africa because polygamous unions were, at times, resorted to by them, and when on the ground of this plea even monogamous unions were declared to be illicit, for purposes of admission to the colony, the Indian colony of labourers was provoked beyond the utmost limits of endurance.
It was during all these crises that Gandhi preserved his equanimity of mind, took his stand on the citizen ship of the Empire, memorialised the authorities for the redress of their grievances, and when all his resources failed him, organised the passive resistance movement.
He remained leader of the Indians from year the 1893 to 1914, when on the outbreak of war he organised an ambulance corps recruited by Indians resident in London, most of them being students.
It is a welcome sign of the times that owing to Lord Hardinge's bold intervention on behalf of Indians in South Africa, some legislation has been introduced which has swept away the worst forms of the evil. Lord Chelmsford has since announced that indentured labour has already been abolished in the colonies of the Empire, though we do not, at the time of writing, know definitely, whether in actual practice or as a contemplated step, to take effect gradually.
It is also to be hoped that the spirit of camaraderie which the common defence of Empire has fostered among the colonials will make the prevalence of cordial and harmonious relations a normal feature of the meeting of the races within the Empire.