I start deliberately with Nazar, the
first editor, and Madanjit the actual owner, to illustrate
the point that there were many dedicated workers who made
Indian Opinion a possibility. It was Nazar, in fact, who
would set a high standard for those who would succeed him
in the editor's chair. There was no question of taking money
for his work, it was all for a `cause'. However there is
no doubt that the main figure in the production of the paper
was the thirty-four year old lawyer whose office was based
in Rissik Street in Johannesburg. Nazar would suggest various
lead articles but lest Gandhi should not understand he clarified
the position. He expected these to be written by Gandhi.
Over the years, Gandhi would direct the policy of Indian
Opinion from Johannesburg, write articles, give direction
and above all divert his earnings from his prospering practice
to help sustain the paper. And over the years there were
many dedicated workers and editors.
My task this evening is to explain what is the significance
of this journal which by its second year had 887 subscribers.
Over its entire 58 years existence its subscribers averaged
at about 2000. The highest number in any one year was 3500.
Compare this with the Guardian which in the 1930s began
with a circulation of 1000 but grew rapidly over the years
to top 50 000 by the mid-1940s. When Indian Opinion was
reaching its dying days in 1961, the Guardian now published
as New Age had a circulation of 20 000. The significance
of Indian Opinion lies not in its size (which may be explained
only partly in terms of the size of the Indian population)
but in its content.
Indian Opinion was also not the first Indian newspaper in
Natal. It had been preceded by a short-lived Indian World
in 1898 and in May 1901 P.S Aiyar a Tamil journalist began
a Tamil-English weekly Colonial Indian News. Aiyar's ventures
reflected the precariousness of such undertakings as this
too lasted for just a few years. Africans in colonial Natal
had also been publishing newspapers for some time. There
had been Inkanyiso yase Natal, Ipepa lo Hlanga and in April
1903 John Dube began his Ilanga lase Natal. In the eastern
Cape where black journalism had an even longer history there
was Imvo Zabantsundu run by John Tengo Jabavu and the more
radical paper Izwi Labantu published by Walter Rubusana
and Alan Soga from East London. Indian Opinion was launched
at a time when just after the South African War all blacks
felt disappointed with British rule and were concerned about
the failure of the new order to bring about improvements
in their political, social and economic status. The years
after the war were marked by a proliferation of papers.
Sol Plaatje. One of our most talented elites of the time
began a Tswana-English weekly that served the northern Cape
and Free State. Later, in 1909, in Cape Town Dr Abduraham
would start the APO. These were just a few of the many papers
emerging. The important point I would like to make is that
Gandhi belongs to this generation of rising black journalists
and editors who were all committed to improving the position
of black people especially at a time when whites were moving
towards forming a Union of South Africa within which blacks
had such limited rights. Indian Opinion marked Gandhi's
apprenticeship as a journalist. In India he would go on
to publishing many other journals, Young India, Navjivan,
Harijan and his experience with Indian Opinion would prove
crucial.
Indian Opinion began its life by adopting a very moderate
tone. The editor proclaimed `we have unfailing faith in
British justice'. It was by `well-sustained continuous and
temperate constitutional effort that Indians would seek
redress'. That is how the paper
