Gandhi's African Heirs
South Africa, thanks to the activities of Mr. Gandhi in the early years of this century, has become the home of passive resistance as a political technique. In the end Mr. Gandhi's non-violent campaign was successful, but more than once it came near to defeat or to lapsing into violence—which Mr. Gandhi would have regarded as the greatest defeat of all. If in the end Mr. Gandhi won his struggle it was partly because the publicity his cause gained brought him the support of world public opinion, and partly because he had eventually to deal with General Smuts, a statesman whose mind was open to reason. Today a campaign of passive resistance has once more been set in motion in South Africa, but the circumstances are not the same as they were fifty years ago. World public opinion, it is true, is again on the side of the resisters, but most of them have no philosophical reason for_preferring non- violence to violence, nor does Dr. Malan approach the breadth of vision of General Smuts. The theoretical object of the native Africans who are breaking the law and going to gaol for their offence is to protest against what they consider the unconstitutional way in which the Nationalist Government of South Africa is taking away their constitutional rights. In this protest they join with the Union Party, the Torch Commando, the trade unions and the Indians. But it is hard to believe that, even if Dr. Malan went out of power tomorrow and the policy of Apartheid was dropped, relations between Black and White could ever again be the same as before.
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