Exhibition at Gandhi’s Phoenix settlement to mark 120 years of his ‘Indian Opinion’ newspaper

An exhibition was launched on June 4 at the Phoenix Settlement to mark the 120th anniversary of the ‘Indian Opinion’ newspaper started by Mahatma Gandhi during his time as a young lawyer in South Africa.

An exhibition was launched on June 4 at the Phoenix Settlement to mark the 120th anniversary of the ‘Indian Opinion’ newspaper started by Mahatma Gandhi during his time as a young lawyer in South Africa.

Gandhi had started the publication as a mass communication mechanism for the Natal Indian Congress, which he had helped establish to fight the oppressive laws of the government at the time.

After Gandhi’s return to India, the ’Indian Opinion’ continued to be published by his son Manilal and his wife Sushila until its final edition in 1962.

With a firm focus on human and civil rights issues, the newspaper served as a vehicle for a large number of Indians who had first come to South Africa as indentured labourers for the sugar cane farms to voice their dissatisfaction with the racial intolerance that they were subjected to.

Ela Gandhi, a granddaughter of the Mahatma and trustee of the Gandhi Development Trust which administers the Settlement, explained how the exhibition showcases not just the newspaper but also the origins of the Phoenix Settlement and Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement.

The exhibition launched at Phoenix Settlement, where Gandhi's, press was housed also marks the 130th anniversary of the incident when Gandhi, on his way to Pretoria from Durban to fight a case for a client, was unceremoniously thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg station in 1893 because he was travelling in a coach reserved for whites only.

The incident sparked his path to Satyagraha and led to the fight against oppression in both South Africa and India.