Settling in Natal, he was subjected to racism and South … Gandhi’s rough start in South Africa. 1912 March 16 : Commends Gokhale's attempts for abolition of indenture system. Born in India and educated in England, Gandhi traveled to South Africa in early 1893 to practice law under a one-year contract. Except for a few interludes, mainly in India and England, Gandhi's stay in South Africa spanned 21 years. 1912 September 12 : Phoenix Trust is set up. He supported the British war effort in World War I but remained critical of colonial authorities for measures he felt were unjust. In July 1914, Gandhi left South Africa to return to India. Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa in 1895. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Discovery of Satyagraha. South Africa at that time was a British colony. In a remote corner of that Dark Continent the beginning of a great career awaited him. Gandhi agreed and went to South Africa in 1893. He was not yet 45 when he left in July 1914. Gives up European dress and milk and restricts himself to diet of fresh and dried fruit. This consisted mainly of translating accounts written in Gujarati to English. Gandhi Campaigns for Racial Segregation. Key events during Mahatma Gandhi's 21 years in South Africa. This articles traces the development of a philosophy which became uniquely identified with Gandhi, and then looks at his legacy in South Africa, especially his influence in the social, religious, and political spheres. Gandhi had arrived in South Africa in May 1893. A 23-year-old barrister with an unsuccessful career in India, he had accepted aone-year assignment, with a modest salary, to assist the lawyer of an Indian merchant in Natal, hoping to find better prospects in the new land. In 1894, he formed a political organization — the Natal Indian Congress, a precursor to his … He would be embroiled in more civil rights campaigns in South Africa before eventually moving to India in early 1915, where his activism would expand with profound consequences. Gandhi arrived in South Africa at a small town at Port Natal. He actually served seven months and ten days of those sentences. Gandhi encouraged mass defiance of this law, and was himself jailed multiple times for refusing to conform. 1893 Arrives in Durban and is kicked off train in Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move out of the first-class carriage because he … Even though the … Gandhi codified the first comprehensive theory and praxis of nonviolent struggle through the work he began in South Africa and continued throughout his life. 1912 October 22 : Accompanies Gokhale, on tour of South Africa, Laurenco Marques, Mozambique and Zanzibar. The years that Gandhi spent in South Africa have been admirably described by several scholars. During his twenty-one years in South Africa, Gandhi was sentenced to four terms of imprisonment, the first, on January 10, 1908 to two months, the second, on October 7, 1908 to three months, the third, on February 25, also to three months, and the fourth, on November 11, 1913 to nine months hard labour. Upon arriving in South Africa to perform legal work for a group of upper-caste Indians, Gandhi settled in to begin his own activism.