the family of Parsee Rustomjee. There
were many editors - Nazar, Hebert Kitchin, Henry Polak,
Albert West, Manilal Gandhi who was the paper's longest
serving editor for 36 years and Sushila Gandhi. There were
many contributors, assistants and acting editors too - Gandhi's
nephews, Chhaganlal and Maganlal Gandhi, Lewis Walter Ritch,
Albert Christopher, Pragji Desai, Surendra Medh, Shantilal
Gandhi, P.R. Pather, Jordan Ngubane, Christopher Gell, Homer
Jack, Arun Gandhi, Sita Gandhi-Dhupelia, Ranjith Nowbath
, Pat Poovalingam and Natoo Babenia. When Indian Opinion
published its last issue on 4 August 1961, Alpha Ngcobo
had served for 41 years after coming to the press as a young
man of twenty years. Perumalsamy Rajoo served for 27 years,
D. Gangabissoon sixteen , S. Ramdhar and R. Baijnath thirteen
years each. They made up the small staff that daily gathered
in the International Printing Press.
Sushila Gandhi above all ended a 34 year old link with the
paper. She had come as a young bride of 20 years in 1927
and began in the press by composing types - each letter
had to be handset - for over 58 years advances in printing
technology were deliberately avoided. Time stood still and
manual labour was favoured over machines. Sushila soon progressed
to writing and editing the Gujarati sections and then took
over after her husband's death. A photograph shows a lone
woman in the printing press working amongst the handful
of men. Indian Opinion provided a place where women could
work as equals and be freed of cultural and traditional
restraints and that was Gandhi's doing and teaching. And
that too is what we celebrate and commemorate today.
