Gandhiji in South Africa • In 1895, along with other Indians, Mahatma Gandhi established the Natal Congress to fight against racial discrimination. • His South African campaigns had brought him in contact with various types of Indians: Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Christians; Gujaratis, Tamils and north Indians; and upper-class merchants, lawyers and workers. • This organisation led non-violent protests against the oppressive treatment of the white people towards the native Africans and Indians. • During the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Gandhi gathered around 1,100 Indians and organised the Indian Ambulance Corps for the British but the ethnic discrimination and torture continued on Indians. • English artist John Ruskin's book Unto This Last inspired Gandhi and he set up Phoenix Farm near Durban. Here, Gandhi would train his cadres on non-violent Satyagraha or peaceful restraint. Phoenix Farm is considered the birthplace of Satyagraha. • However, it was at the Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi's second camp in South Africa, where Satyagraha was moulded into a weapon of protest. • In September 1906, Gandhi organised the first Satyagraha campaign to protest against the Transvaal Asiatic ordinance that was constituted against the local Indians. • Again in June 1907, he held Satyagraha against the Black Act. • He also fought against the nullification of non-Christian marriages in 1913. Gandhi organised another peaceful resistance campaign in Transvaal against the oppression that Indian minors were suffering from. He led around 2,000 Indians across the Transvaal border.