Modi retraces Gandhi's train journey

Reliving Mahatma Gandhi’s historic train journey, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday travelled to the railway station where the Father of the Nation was thrown out of a train compartment.

The incident had proved to be a turning point in Gandhi’s fight against racial discrimination in South Africa.

On the second day of his South Africa visit, Modi boarded a wood-panelled carriage at Pentrich and travelled to Pietermaritzburg railway station where a young Gandhi was ejected from a train in 1893 for refusing to obey an order to move from a first-class compartment to a third-class one because of his race.

"This is the place where the seed was laid for Mohandas (Karamchand Gandhi) to start the journey of the Mahatma," Modi told reporters at the Pietermaritzburg railway station.

Paying a glowing tribute to Gandhi, the prime minister said the visit to South Africa was like a pilgrimage as he was visiting places linked to India's history and life of the Father of the Nation. "My visit to South Africa has become like a pilgrimage as I have got the opportunity to visit all the three places that are significant to Indian history and Mahatma Gandhi's life," said Modi.

Modi also visited the spot where Gandhi was offloaded at Pietermaritzburg. Writing in the visitors' book at the station, Modi said the incident at Pietermaritzburg had altered the course of India's history. The prime minister also inaugurated an exhibition at the waiting hall of the railway station where Gandhi had spent the night after being thrown out of the train.

On the fateful winter night, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria from Durban, a white man objected to his presence in a first-class carriage, and he was ordered to move to the third-class compartment.

Gandhi had a valid first-class ticket and refused to obey the orders following which he was thrown out of the train at Pietermaritzburg station on a winter night. He had stayed at the station that night in shivering cold.