Now, such a person cannot become a great legal expert. His examination was good, he passed. But when he came to India, in his first case, when he went to the court again the same thing happened as had happened in the prostitute’s house. He simply said, ”My lord ...” and that was all! People waited a few minutes, then again he said, ”My lord ....” And he was trembling so that the justice said, ”You take him and let him relax.”
That was Gandhi’s first and last case in India, in an Indian court. Then he never dared to take any case because just after ”My lord,” he might stop, and that would not make sense. And the reason was simply that he had no experience of meeting people, talking with people, conversing with people. He had become almost like an isolated monk who had lived in a faraway monastery, alone, and then had been brought again to Bombay where he was not at all at ease.
And this man became one of the greatest leaders of the world. In this world things work very strangely. Because Gandhi could not go to the court, he accepted an offer from a friendly Mohammedan family; they had business in South Africa and they needed a legal adviser. He was not to go to the court, he had just to advise the advocate there, to assist him to understand the whole situation of the business in India and in Africa.
So he was just an assistant to the advocate; he was not going to court directly. For this purpose he went to Africa, but on the way two accidents happened which changed not only his life but the whole Indian history, and perhaps made an impact on the whole world.
One was that a friend who had come to see him off at the ship presented him a book, UNTO THIS LAST, by John Ruskin – a book which transformed his whole life. It is a simple book and a small book. It professes – ”Unto this last” means the poorest one – we should consider the poorest one first. And that became his whole philosophy of life: the poorest should be considered first.
In South Africa, while Gandhi was traveling in a first-class compartment, one Englishman entered and said, ”You get out, because no Indian can travel in first class.”
Gandhi said, ”But I have a first-class ticket. The question is not whether I am Indian or European; the question is whether I have a first-class ticket or not. Nowhere is it written who can travel; whoever has a first-class ticket can travel.”
But that Englishman was not going to listen. He pulled the emergency chain and threw Gandhi’s things out. And Gandhi was a thin and weak man; the Englishman threw him out also on the platform and told him, ”now you travel first class.”
The whole night Gandhi remained on that small station’s platform. The stationmaster told him, ”You unnecessarily got into trouble; you should have got down. You seem to be new here. Indians cannot travel first-class. It is not a law but this is how things are.” But the whole night Gandhi spent in a turmoil. It became the very seed of his revolt against the British Empire. That night he decided that this empire has to end.
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