Durban, Mar 26: India sent Gandhi to South Africa and South Africa sent back to India a Mahatma. This is often quoted by South Africans to reflect the strong bonding the two nations share. And the place that transformed India' Father of the Nation is not far from this city.
It was in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province, some 80 km from here, where the infamous incident took place in 1893 when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a "brown-skinned" youth, was thrown out of a first class compartment at the instance of a European despite holding a valid ticket.
That incident made Gandhi think of his rights and duties as a human and to brush aside his own hardship as a mere a symptom of the deep disease of colour prejudice. On that date began his resolve to indulge in active non-violence as a form of protest.
