In which year did Mahatma Gandhi sail to South Africa as the lawyer of an Indian merchant firm?
- A.1888
- B.1891
- C.1893
- D.1896
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, 1893. Gandhi left for South Africa in 1893 to appear for Dada Abdullah and Company, a Gujarati merchant firm of Durban, in a commercial dispute, and the one year engagement stretched into a stay of twenty-one years. Option A is wrong because 1888 is the year he sailed to London to study law at the Inner Temple. Option B is wrong because 1891 is the year he returned to India after being called to the bar and tried without success to build a practice in Rajkot and Bombay. Option D is wrong because 1896 is the year he came briefly to India to bring his family back to South Africa and to publicise the condition of Indians there through the pamphlet known as the Green Pamphlet. The train incident at Pietermaritzburg, when he was thrown out of a first class compartment, took place soon after he landed in 1893.
Read the full article: Gandhi in South Africa and the Early Satyagrahas
Practice Questions
View allThe Natal Indian Congress was founded by Mahatma Gandhi in which year?
- A.1894
- B.1903
- C.1906
- D.1913
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The Natal Indian Congress, founded in 1894, was the first political organisation of Indians in South Africa and it was created to oppose a bill that sought to take away the right of Indians to vote in Natal.
Read the full explanation →Which newspaper was started by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa?
- A.Young India
- B.Harijan
- C.Indian Opinion
- D.Navajivan
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Gandhi started the weekly Indian Opinion in 1903 in South Africa, and it was printed at the Phoenix Settlement in English and Gujarati, carrying the arguments of the Indian community against discriminatory laws.
Read the full explanation →Tolstoy Farm, set up by Gandhi in 1910, was established on land donated by which of his friends?
- A.Hermann Kallenbach
- B.Henry Polak
- C.C. F. Andrews
- D.Sonja Schlesin
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Tolstoy Farm was founded in 1910 near Johannesburg on land given by Hermann Kallenbach, a German-born architect and close friend of Gandhi, and it housed the families of satyagrahis who had gone to jail, training them in manual labour and self-discipline.
Read the full explanation →Which book inspired Gandhi to found the Phoenix Settlement and was translated by him into Gujarati as Sarvodaya?
- A.The Kingdom of God is Within You
- B.Unto This Last
- C.Civil Disobedience
- D.Walden
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Gandhi read John Ruskin's Unto This Last on a train journey in South Africa in 1904, and the idea that the good of the individual lies in the good of all led him at once to found the Phoenix Settlement near Durban; he later rendered the book into Gujarati under…
Read the full explanation →Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa for good on which date?
- A.2 October 1914
- B.9 January 1915
- C.25 May 1915
- D.6 April 1917
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Gandhi landed at Bombay on 9 January 1915, and the Government of India now observes that date as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to mark the contribution of the overseas Indian community.
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