Reliving history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi retraced Mahatma Gandhi’s train journey on Saturday in South Africa, as he travelled to a railway station where Gandhi was thrown out of a train compartment.
As a tribute to Gandhi’s fight against racial discrimination, Modi travelled 15 kms on a train from Pentrich to Pietermaritzburg, on the second day of his visit to South Africa.
The Prime Minister visited the spot where Gandhi was offloaded from the train by a white man who objected to his presence in the first-class compartment.
On 7 June 1893, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria from Durban, a white man objected to his presence in a first-class carriage, and he was ordered to move to the third-class compartment. This incident has been recorded as the turning point in Gandhi’s life.
Gandhi had a valid first-class ticket and refused to obey the orders, following which he was physically thrown out of the train at Pietermaritzburg station on a winter night.
He had stayed at the station that night in the shivering cold, and the bitter incident had played a major role in Gandhi’s decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination against Indians there.
Modi will also visit the Phoenix Settlement, which is very closely associated with Gandhi.
After talks with South African President Jacob Zuma on Friday, the Prime Minister had paid tribute to Gandhi as well as to Nelson Mandela by visiting the prison cell where they were held.
Watch his address to the Indian diaspora in Johannesburg:
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