Gandhi appreciated Morley's kind words and

sympathy, as well as
those of others, but in his own "Deputation
Notes" penned the next day he
reflected with penetrating political insight that
"we would get no redress
until we acquired strength like the Whites ...
we should realize that our
salvation lies in our own hands."45
The deputation sailed back to Cape Town on
the R.M.S. Briton and
welcoming receptions cheered them there and
in Johannesburg before
year's end. On January 1, 1907, Gandhi
addressed his Natal Indian Congress
in Durban, informing them that "British rule is
essentially just. . . .
But we should not be elated by our success.
Our struggle has just begun.
Now ... we have to explain things to the
politicians here."46 This would
not, of course, be easy.
Two days later Gandhi told Durban's
Mohamedan Association that he
felt certain the reason they succeeded in
turning Britain's government
around was thanks to "the perfect accord that
obtained between Mr. Ally
and myself. . . . We acted with love and in

1
concert. . . . though following
different religions, we remained united in our
struggle. Secondly, truth and
justice were on our side. I believe God is
always near me. He is never away
from me."47 It was his first public profession of
constant proximity to God,
but it would not be his last. Though still
dressed as a British barrister,
Gandhi now began to sound more like a
Mahatma.
The suffragette movement was on in force
during Gandhi's brief visit
to London, and he reported to his community
the reply of Chancellor of
the Exchequer Herbert Asquith to "the women
of Great Britain" that "if
all of them demanded the franchise, it could
not but be granted." Gandhi
told his followers that "under British rule,
justice is often not to be had
without some show of strength, whether of the
pen, of the sword, or of
money. For our part we are to use only the
strength that comes from unity
and truth. That is to say, our bondage in India
can cease this day, if all the
people unite in their demands and are ready to
suffer any hardships that

2
may befall them."48 The remaining forty years
of his life would be spent in
explaining, in reiterating, and in implementing
this passionate, inspired
prescription for winning freedom for the people
of India, or, indeed, for
any enslaved or politically oppressed people.
Gandhi was moved to write about the eight
hundred English women
who marched on Parliament in February,
fearlessly courting imprisonment.
"We believe these women have behaved in a
manly way."49 He was bracing
his community for the struggle ahead, knowing
that though he'd convinced
[ 63 ]
Gandhi's Passion
Britain's Home Government to reject the
Transvaal Colony's ordinance,
that same government had now given the
Transvaal full responsible rule,
which meant they could reintroduce the same
ordinance on their own.
Their deputation's victory thus offered his
community but a brief respite. In
March of 1907 General Louis Botha, who had
fought the British, capturing
Churchill, among others, during the Boer War,
was elected first prime minister

3
of independent Transvaal, and three years
later of the Union of South
Africa. Botha's greatest assistant and
successor was General Jan Smuts,
South Africa's foremost legal mind, statesman
architect of South Africa's
Union, and Gandhi's most brilliant South
African adversary.