From Support to Satyagraha: The Transformative Impact of Boer War on Gandhi and the Indian Freedom Struggle

Abstract

Gandhi’s experience during the Second Boer War was radically transformative, from espousing the British cause early on to complete disillusionment with the British Empire. Setting up the Indian Ambulance Corps to assist British soldiers was Gandhi’s first experience of organising a mass movement. The racist legislation after the war and the treatment of Indians at the hands of the British exposed Gandhi to the deeply racial character of British imperialism. The events that unfolded during the war and the post-war laid the groundwork for the evolution of Satyagraha, which later became the principal mode of protest against the British.