The C M Doke Collection of personal letters from M K Gandhi, together with other related materials (1907 - 1970) (DCAS Acc 385)

Abstract

In 1893 MK Gandhi left for South Africa to act in a lawsuit between two Indian trading concerns. He established a legal practice in Durban and in 1894 founded the Natal Indian Congress.

Gandhi was also responsible for the publication of the Indian Opinion newspaper from 1904-1914, and for most of the time he was the newspaper’s editor. He founded the Transvaal British Indian Association through which various protests and grievances were directed at the government on behalf of the Indians. In 1906, Gandhi began to develop the idea of satyagraha (“keeping the truth”). This was the exercise of non-violent non-compliance with an offending law, enduring suffering or imprisonment if necessary but without ceasing to show respect to those who made the law or enforced it.

Gandhi’s resistance campaign reached a climax with protests against the Immigration Law of 1913 which prohibited further immigration by Indians to South Africa. Convinced of the power and nobility of satyagraha, Gandhi left South Africa in June 1914 to immerse himself in the Indian freedom struggle.

The CM Doke Collection of personal letters from MK Gandhi has been entrusted to the Library of the University of South Africa (Unisa) by Dr Eunice Marion van den Aardweg who is the daughter of Professor Clement Martyn Doke and the granddaughter of the well-known Baptist minister and biographer of MK Gandhi, the Reverend Joseph John Doke. The friendship between the Doke and Gandhi families began in February 1908 when Doke offered to care for Gandhi at the Baptist manse after he had been severely assaulted

The correspondence and printed materials in the Scrapbook reflect the friendship between the Gandhi and Doke families which spanned generations and decades.

The materials in the Collection are described individually in the inventory.