In the pantheon of global liberation heroes, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. Leaders like Mandela have lauded him as being part of the epic battle to defeat the racist white regime and prepare the way for a non-racial country. A popular sentiment in South Africa goes: India gave us Mohandas, and we returned him to you as Mahatma.

Against this background, The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empireunravels the complex story of a man who, throughout his stay on African soil (1893-1914), remained true to Empire while expressing disdain for Africans. For Gandhi, whites and Indians were bonded by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African. His racism was matched by his class (and caste) prejudice towards the Indian indentured. He persistently claimed that they were ignorant and needed his leadership, and wrote their struggles out of history-struggles this book documents.