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Gandhi : A Biographical Sketch
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upon landing the mob grabbed him and pelted him with stones, brickbats, and rotten eggs. Others battered, boxed, and lynched him. If it were not for the brave effort of the wife of the Natal Superintendent of Police, Gandhi would have lost his life. Later Gandhi was asked to file charges against the attackers, but he refused to do so indicating that the problem was of widespread poisoning against the Indians by the Natal authorities and not of the public as such. Gandhi acted nicely and with good faith, but the Whites instead of feeling remorseful introduced two additional bills in the Natal Legislative Assembly. One bill aimed at adversely affecting the Indian traders and the other to severely restrict future immigration from India. Gandhi took note of these bills and expanded his Satyagraha struggle.
Gandhi felt that the Satyagraha struggle in South Africa needed a communication channel to properly communicate with the public as well as with the South African government. He established a weekly, Indian Opinion, in 1904. In this magazine, he published true accounts of the ongoing Satyagraha struggle and current conditions of the Indians. Both the Indians and Whites eagerly awaited this publication in order to read the published accounts. Later Gandhi also established two other weekly magazines in India, Navajivan and Young India, to promote the Satyagraha struggle there. Gandhi believed that written word was an important form of communication and the goal of journalism was to provide true accounts of the happenings to the public. Indian Opinion was moved to a new location in 1904, a settlement founded by Gandhi to put Ruskin's ideas of simplicity and self-sufficiency into practice. This settlement was two-and-a-half miles from Phoenix and fourteen miles from Durban and covered one hundred acres of newly purchased land. Gandhi's idea was to retire from the law practice, earn livelihood through manual labor at the settlement, and experience the joy of service to others. Parcels of land were allocated to the inhabitants and living quarters were constructed through self-help measures. Everyone was expected to provide labor and services
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