Gandhi’s South African activism opposed equal treatment with Black Africans, not segregation itself.

Evidence

In his search for primitive communism, S.A. Dange would have been better advised to look towards indigenous Adivasi communities rather than towards the ancient Vedic Brahmins and their yagnyas. Gandhi too could have done the same. If anybody was even remotely living out his ideal of frugal village life, of stepping lightly on the earth, it was not the Vedic Hindus, it was the Adivasis. For them, however, Gandhi showed the same level of disdain that he did for Black Africans. Speaking in 1896 at a public meeting in Bombay, he said: “The Santhals of Assam will be as useless in South Africa as the natives of that country.” — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 360 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In order for Gandhi to be a South African hero, it became necessary to rescue him from his past, and rewrite it. Gandhi himself began that project. Some writers of history completed it. Towards the end of Gandhi’s stay in South Africa, the first few biographies had spread the news, and things were moving fast on the messiah front. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 268 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Later Indian anti-apartheid activists broke from Gandhi’s politics, not extended them.; Gandhi showed Adivasis the same disdain he showed Black Africans — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 360; Gandhi’s heroic image required actively rewriting his South African past. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 268 (+1 more)

Related

• Gandhi showed Adivasis the same disdain he showed Black Africans (similarity 0.91)
• Gandhi’s heroic image required actively rewriting his South African past. (similarity 0.88)
• South African Indians joined the anti-apartheid struggle against Gandhi’s politics, not through it (similarity 0.86)
• Gandhi’s Indian reputation retroactively made him a South African Indian hero (similarity 0.86)
• Later Indian anti-apartheid activists broke from Gandhi’s politics, not extended them. (similarity 0.86)
• Gandhi described African and Chinese prisoners as wild and immoral (similarity 0.85)
• Gandhi opposed Indian-African solidarity against South African white rule (similarity 0.84)
• Gandhi’s South African years shaped his views on race and caste. (similarity 0.84)
• Gandhi actively collaborated with white colonizers to suppress Africans (similarity 0.82)
• Gandhi’s later memoirs falsified his contemporary views of Africans. (similarity 0.82)
• Gandhi’s South African outrage was caste and class status, not race itself (similarity 0.82)
• Gandhi’s early political awakening opposed racial equality with Africans, not segregation itself (similarity 0.82)
• Gandhi only belatedly acknowledged Africans as South Africa’s original inhabitants (similarity 0.81)
• Early Gandhi distinguished elite passenger Indians from indentured coolies (similarity 0.81)
• Gandhi’s South African satyagraha served Indian merchant capital, not the poor (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Gandhi showed Adivasis the same disdain he showed Black Africans #complicates (0.70) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 360
• Later Indian anti-apartheid activists broke from Gandhi’s politics, not extended them. #responds-to (0.60)
• Gandhi’s heroic image required actively rewriting his South African past. #complicates (0.50) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 268