ABSTRACT
Indian traders began going to Transvaal in South Africa in 1881 and soon became successful in their various trades. Gandhi arrived in South Africa and soon found himself leading a people who were not politically aware and nor could their community be called homogeneous; they were drawn to each other by the need to earn their livelihood and the fact that they belonged to a common culture. The colonial-born Indians had been converted to Christianity, and this had put them under the complete influence of the white clergy who were a part of the establishment. Gandhi had foreseen this problem from the start. Gandhi’s faith in his inner voice was the beacon which guided him all the time. Gandhi’s insistence on keeping the struggle limited and precise in scope, and his appeal to reason, won the minds of many and hearts of quite a few Europeans, who became his allies.
