Introduction

     I came to South Africa conditioned by a concern with discerning the influence of Gandhi on the national liberation struggle in the country. Since I was from India, Gandhi was my primary link in interpreting the rest of the world, as I discovered his influence in all major social movements. I had discovered that social movements shared a deep and overarching concern with the instrument of Satyagraha or “Home of Truth” and was eager to explore its intellectual influence as a tool of liberation struggle. Gandhi had explored his life by examining his “experiments” with Truth in his autobiography, which also shares the same name. Rather than documenting his life, he decided to examine his life as a series of experiments with Truth. Since one of his main sojourns was in South Africa, I was very eager to discover the influence of non-violence on the freedom struggle. So it was with trepidation (at what I might expect) and fascination that I embarked on what was to be the most wonderful trip of my life to South Africa.