The violence was a flippant moment of everyday racism, the sort of thing that occurred as a matter of course in a country that was, at the time, a British colony. Had it happened to anybody else, the act would have been forgotten - like the many other bullying expressions of violence inflicted upon black African and Indian communities by whites living in South Africa at that time. Only it wasn’t forgotten: this act of violence and intolerance was immortalised by the man it helped to shape.Gandhi’s night in the train station is believed to have been his lightbulb moment. Rather than travelling back to India, the young man set up a life in Durban, dedicated not primarily to his career as a lawyer, but to the fight against racial hatred."This act of violence and intolerance was immortalised by the man it helped to shape"
A young Mohandas K. Gandhi in South Africa in 1909. By this time he had already established a reputation as an activist. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Durban seafront at sunset. Photo: Tristan Kennedy
“Living here, we didn’t ever look at people according to status,” Ela tells me. “And we never asked whether you had income.” In her Seventies, Ela still travels widely to spread Gandhi’s message, but when in Durban, she spends as much time at the Settlement as she can.“Living here according to Gandhi taught me a lot of things about life,” Ela explains as we walk through the museum. “Particularly about living a simple life, being conscious of the environment, being conscious of conservation. Status just didn’t matter to us. I feel so blessed that I don’t have those hang ups and stereotypes that other people seem to grow up with because of their early childhood.”"2018 marks the 125th anniversary of the incident, without which history would be very different"
The Durban beach front, with the red-roofed Oyster Box Hotel visible bottom left. Photo: Tristan Kennedy
An iconic photo shows Nelson Mandela voting in South Africa's first fully democratic election in 1994. After he renounced violence, he took on many aspects of Gandhi's teachings about resisting oppression. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Colonial-style interior of Durban's luxurious Oyster Box Hotel, where curry features regularly on the menu, a legacy of the city's longstanding Indian connections. Photo: Courtesy of the Oyster Box Hotel
Gandhi greets supporters in South Africa. Photo: Wikimedia Commons