On June 4, 1903, Gandhi launched his first

newspaper, Indian Opinion,

devoted to the Indian community and its
needs. In his first editorial
Gandhi sounded more like an Englishman
than an Indian nationalist, denouncing
"prejudice in the minds of the Colonists .. . and
the unhappy forgetfulness
of the great services India has always
rendered to the Mother
Country ever since Providence brought loyal
Hind under the flag of Britannia."
6 He appealed both to members of the Indian
community and to those
of the "great Anglo-Saxon race" for support of
his paper, created to "promote
harmony and good-will between the different
sections of the one
mighty Empire." In the next issue, however,
Gandhi was more caustic in his
criticism of his imperial brethren.
Gandhi was harshest in his criticism of Lord
Milner for his defense of
the Asiatic Office and the £3 tax on all ex-
indentured Indians and restrictions
on Indian entry to and property rights in
Transvaal, merely "because
the Indian is a coloured man!"7 What angered
him most was that Milner

1
advised the government of India to ship many
more indentured Indians to
South Africa to help develop Transvaal mining,
but insisted that all of them
must be required at the end of their indentures
to return directly to India.
"If you must introduce Indian labour," Gandhi
reprimanded Milner, "be
just, be fair, do unto us as you would be done
by."8 Thus drawing upon his
knowledge of the Bible, Gandhi became the
hero of his community and the
bane of British officialdom from Johannesburg
to Durban.
By the end of June 1903 Gandhi knew that the
public work he'd
started would not end in one year, nor in two.
He wrote to his lawyer
friend, in Rajkot, Haridas Vora, to ask illiterate
"Mrs. Gandhi" if she
would agree to remain there without him for
another "three or four years.
... If she does n o t . . . of course, she must
come here at the end of the year,
and I must be content quietly to settle down in
Johannesburg for ten years
or so." He hoped she would consent to remain
in India, since that would
"enable me to give undivided attention to

2
public work. As she knows, she
had very little of my company in Natal;
probably, she would have less in
Johannesburg. However ... I place myself
absolutely in her hands. If she
must come, then she may make preparations .
. . and leave in ... November."
9