Mr. Sastri's Work in South Africa

The first thing that seems to have struck Mr. Sastri on his arrival at the Headquarters of the South African Government, was the very deplorable condition of the Indians themselves; and notwithstanding the warmth of the welcome, he could not but feel disappointed at the spirit of discord and disunion which prevailed among the Indians. This was no new experience to him, coming as he did from India; but one presumes, it is that bright optimism which he has always about him, which seems to have carried him through many a crisis, through many a delicate, if not embarrassing situation. And so the first step according to him was the establishment of goodwill and of understanding amongst the diverse Indian communities themselves. Mr. Sastri declared his intention that he was going to stand by the Cape town Agreement to the very letter, and inspite of the popular clamour which wanted him to consider only the beneficial aspects of the said legislation, he stood firm and declared he would do nothing that would either excite the suspicion of the Europeans, or give scope for the slightest misunderstanding: and this he made clear to everyone in South Africa. He used every opportunity to advantage in so laudable a task, and wherever he went he made his position very firm and unequivocal.

There were two things which were decidedly in favour of Mr. Sastri. The first and the foremost was, of course; the personality and the dignity of the man; and secondly the sweet reasonableness and the magic of his speech. These he used to the fullest advantage and at most of the mayorial dinners he pleaded arduously for co-operation between the European and the Indian. Such a policy as he pursued then could not fail of its desired effect; and the newspapers of Africa were the first to take up his cause. It went a long way to evoke in the heart of these oppressed people a response, and a feeling of confidence. They felt that in Mr. Sastri, they had found a worthy exponent of a somewhat forlorn and a lost cause as well. And after all sympathy is one of the biggest factors in the happiness of an individual. Ever since 1914, since the departure of Mahatma Gandhi, no Indian worth the name had shown any concern in South Africa and its affairs, much less, sympathy for their cause. So Mr. Sastri's attitude drew round him the people as nothing else had drawn before.

The very first speech he delivered on the Cape town Agreement was listened to with a great deal of attention and sincerity on the part of the Whites, and in the course of the speech Mr. Sastri suggested the appointment, in the first instance, of a Commission on Education in Natal. It was a moderate and a well conceived demand. But the African publicists were not prepared for even such a mild gesture, corning as it did from an Indian! The Natal Mercury was the first to take up arms; and it suggested too that what mattered most to the Indian population was not so much the need of compulsory education as the need of a cleaner standard of living. But on the other hand, the Natal Advertiser was good enough to see the justice of Mr. Sastri's humble demand and for the first time ushered in the slogan ‘Education First’.

Naturally, therefore, the controversy so created attracted a great deal of public attention. But the Government remained obdurate. There was not much love lost between the Provincial and the Central Governments. The Provincial Government were decidedly at an advantage with their autonomy, and the Central Government could do little either to bring the Provincial Government to its view of thinking and action, or to impose its authority. And the Cape town Agreement seemed to be almost a dead letter. To add to this unpleasant situation, the Cabinet of General Hartzog and the Natal Government were far from having that attitude of co-operation and help, which anyone would have expected them to have between the General Hartzog was much misunderstood and he had no majority behind him.

One can well imagine how delicate, how embarrassing, the position must have been. It was not so much dealing with a set of men who were amenable to good feeling and reason, as it was dealing with a set of diplomats and vested interests; and one speculates whether any other person would have been equal to this stupendous work of clearing up the atmosphere of suspicion and doubt, as Mr. Sastri himself. But it must be said to the credit of this great ‘Brahmin’ of the South that he did it well.

The 22nd of September 1927–it was his birthday too, and on such a day as this a great measure of relief was granted to the South African Indians in the shape of the announcement of the Commission on Education by the Government of Natal. The Natal Witness was the first paper to congratulate Mr. Sastri on this signal achievement, and on the significance of the day.

But it was one thing to appoint a Commission and another to get into working order with the co-operation ofall parties concerned. A small deputation consisting ofDr. Kitchlew (the Deputy Director of Public Instruction in the U. P.), and Miss Corrie Gordon, an Inspectress of Schools in the Madras Presidency, was specially sent from India to aid Mr. Sastri in his new scheme. Dr. Kitchlew proved a valuable asset and Miss Gordon drew up a scheme of education for the Indian girls and a Training College as well. Of all provinces in South Africa, Natal is the one which is thickly populated and where the majority of Indians have been living. Of the 1,00,000, of men and women and children, it was found about 9,500 children attended the schools: and of the 9,500 nearly 7,500 were either in the elementary or primary classes. Such a thing as higher or university education was unknown! There was one

Indian boy studying for the matriculation examination and none at all in the university classes: and of course the number of children that were never sent to school was something phenomenal. So much about the children.

The teachers and the schools were not less exempt from neglect. There were 52 schools for the whole of the Indian population out of which 43 were conducted by private individuals. The teachers had little or no training in the theory and practice of education. But all the same, the Provincial Government received from the Central Government £ 5.5sh. for each boy as grant-in-aid and one knows too well how the money went. In the year under question (1927), the Government of Natal obtained £ 40,000, towards the cost of educating the Indian! And it is a fact worth remembering that even out of this sum only £ 28,000 was utilised for the said purpose. The rest of the £ 12,000 went to the maintenance and education of the European children. This glaring injustice was at once brought before the newly-appointed Commission by Mr. Sastri and he took the first opportunity of impressing on the Natal Government the moral obligation of allotting the whole sum. He insisted too on the introduction of compulsory elementary education and the establishment of Training Colleges allover the land.

But this was not all. It was a disastrous plan to rely eternally upon the goodwill of a Government which had its likes and dislikes, not to say prejudices. So Mr. Sastri induced his countrymen to have the control and the establishment of educational institutions on their own account. The plan was quite successful. In less than a year, a sum of £ 20,000 was subscribed by the Indians and a Training College, later named after that illustrious worker, was also established at Durban.

One cannot forget in the chronicling of these events the wonderful result of the lectures of Mr. Sastri at the universities in South Africa. He spoke in many places, and often as he spoke on the philosophy, on the culture, and the ancient literature of the country he loved and served so well, there were many in that crowd of listeners who felt a little touched, and who could not but admire the eloquent appeal of that dignified person. And many of them wondered too how a man, whose skin was perhaps as dark as the coolies that worked in the Rand or in estates in Kenya, could speak in the very tongue they (the Whites) spoke. For the first time in their lives, they knew of a greater, nobler, India. For the first time in their lives, they knew that India, not 3000 miles from Cape town was not a nation of coolies and ‘niggers’. To this new awakening in the minds of the Whites, Mr. Sastri brought a new vision as it were and spoke to them simply and straightly of a justice, of an equity which they had neglected to give to that oppressed race. The magic of his words, more than anything else, brought Mr. Sastri the thanks of many an Indian, for, for the first time in South Africa the White man paused ere he contradicted an educated Indian, and it is interesting to remember that Mr. Sastri eclipsed even General Smuts in his oratory and beauty of speech.

After the educational facilities were provided for, came the question of public health. Yet another Commission was the result of his endeavour. Then came the work of social organisation, and the formation of Trade Unions amongst the workers, all of which Mr. Sastri with his ever willing colleagues organised in an efficient manner. The next important phase of his work was the satisfactory working of the two Ordinances, the ‘Assisted Emigration Act’ and the ‘Condonation Act’. It is impossible in the course of this brief resume to give all the details but it has been the object of the writer to point out that Mr. Sastri's work was no less important than the work of some of our bigger political workers of the land. It remains a melancholy fact that amidst the thunder and lightning of a political war-cry amidst the fights ‘within the Congress’ and ‘without the Congress’, the work of a man like Mr. Sastri is often left unnoticed. This is neither the time nor the place for a homily–but work of the type that Mr. Sastri has done will stand for all time to come. "It is not the life that matters", said Hugh Walpole, "it is the courage you bring to it." How true it is of Mr. Sastri!

From the post of a lonely schoolmaster, then to the Presidentship of the Servants of India Society, and then the accredited Agent of the Indian Government in South Africa is a long jump indeed: but it has been a magnificent career, and the story of his life and courage is an unparalleled page in the history of modern India; and only to such a man as he, could General Smuts have said during the Flag controversy:

"South Africa having made a solemn agreement with mighty India, could not lightly repudiate that Agreement."

(With acknowledgments to the Dyan Prakash, Poona.)