Gandhi had been a Barrister trained in London - an educated elite

• Gandhi had been a Barrister trained in London - an educated elite

• He had volunteered as a stretcher bearer during the Boer War

• He spent some time in South Africa where he came across racist attitudes and ideas in the aftermath of the Treaty of Vereeniging.

• He was outraged at the double standards within the British Empire.
• The British had devolved powers in order to appease the Boers in S. Africa. But these powers were now being used to establish racist divisions

• He used his legal training to challenge the South African parliament’s restrictions of rights for various racial groups.

• He formulated the basis of his Satyagraha (life force) policies that would be so effective in India