began and in colonial Natal there was
reason to be cautious. The owners of Ipepa lo Hlanga chose
to close down after it offended the Natal government with
an article urging people Vukani Bantu! Rise Up you people'.
For the time being Gandhi was anxious not to offend white
officialdom but to secure their support to improve the position
of Indians. The pages of Indian Opinion provide a valuable
historical record of the disabilities that Indians suffered
under. It also provides an invaluable record of the life
of the political life of the Indian community. It represents
an alternate voice to that of newspapers such as the Natal
Mercury which were often hostile to Indian interests. Soon
Gandhi would move from political petitioning to active resistance
and his paper changed too.
One significant moment in the paper's history came in 1904
when Gandhi relocated it to a one hundred acre farm named
Phoenix just 24 kms from Durban. This reflected the influence
of Leo Tolstoy and John Ruskin on Gandhi. Gandhi drew on
Tolstoy's distaste for city life, his praise of agricultural
labour and his renunciation of wealth. From Ruskin he drew
the idea that all labour whether that of the professional
or the manual labourer was equal but also that `the life
of a tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life
worth living.' At Phoenix the press workers were governed
by a new work ethic - they would all have a share in the
land, in the profits if there were any, they would grow
crops to sustain themselves and they would work jointly
to produce Indian Opinion. Thus the history of Indian Opinion
becomes intertwined with Phoenix, Gandhi's first communal
settlement. While at Phoenix the rhythm of life was dictated
by the production of the paper, in India it was the spinning
wheel which was the centre of ashram activity.
Indian Opinion played a very significant role in the early
years of the twentieth century by fostering the idea of
one united Indian community and a national identity. This
was no mean task for Indians were divided by religion, caste,
class, and even Indian regional affiliations. ‘we
are not, and ought not to be, Tamils or Calcutta men, Mohammedans
or Hindus, Brahmins or Banyas, but simply and solely British
Indians'. Indian Opinion especially highlighted the poor
conditions under which indentured labourers worked. Editorials
asked `Is all well on the Estates', cases of harsh treatment
by employers were publicised and the astoundingly high rate
of suicide was pointed out. A campaign to end the system
was launched and editor Henry Polak, a friend of Gandhi's
went to India to mobilise support. Indian Opinion was a
means of bringing news about Indians in the colonies before
the public in India.
Indian Opinion and political activism on the part of its
editors became an established tradition. This is what would,
throughout the 20th century distinguish Indian Opinion from
other newspapers that would arrive on the scene during the
20th century. All but one of its editors spent some time
in jail. This tradition began during the satyagraha campaign
between 1906 and 1913 which began because of attempts to
impose passes on Indians in the Transvaal. The newspaper
came into its own. In 1904 its aims had simply been to educate
whites in South Africa about Indian needs and wants. From
1906 onwards it became a vehicle for challenging state laws
and urging defiance of these when these were clearly unjust.
It is this that elevates this tiny newspaper produced from
a farm to one of world significance for it became linked
with Gandhi's transformation to a mass movement leader and
his philosophy of satyagraha which can be interpreted as
active non-violent resistance. The law was translated into
Gujarati, readers were urged to defy