Rustomjee Jivanji Ghorkhodu (1861 – 14 November 1924), commonly known as Parsee Rustomjee, and by various orthographic variations including Parsi Rustomji and affectionately referred to as Kakaji,
was an
Indian-South African philanthropist and businessman, well known for his close mentorship, guidance and financial sponsorship of
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
during
his time in South Africa from 1893 to 1914.
Rustomjee was the largest South African contributor to the
satyagraha (non-violent resistance). His various philanthropic deeds include establishing the Indian hospital in Durban; the M. K. Gandhi Library and Parsee Rustomjee Hall; Parsee Rustomjee Orphanage; M. K. Gandhi Tamil School; an orphanage connected with the mosque at Umgeni; an Indian orphanage of the Roman Catholic Church; and part of the cost of a Methodist day school. He also supported several projects of Gandhi in India.
There is a
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
in
Merebank, KwaZulu-Natal bearing his name.
Early life
Rustomjee was born in India in 1861 to an Orthodox
Parsi
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
family. His surname Ghorkhodu translates from
Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
as 'grave-digger' indicating it was potentially the profession of an ancestor which is surprising due to
Zoroastrian funerary customs which explicitly forbid burial practices. It has also been proposed that his ancestral surname Ghorkhodu is allegorical, owing to Parsi humour.
Rustomjee arrived in
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
aged seventeen. Initially he worked for an
aerated water
Aerated water is, correctly speaking, water to which air is added.
The term is, however, frequently applied to carbonated water.
Purpose of aeration
Sulfur compounds dissolved in water are not necessarily dangerous, but can give the water a b ...
company but later became an influential businessmen and political leader.
Later life and relations with Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Rustomjee soon became close associates soon after Gandhi's arrival in 1893. On August 22, 1894 he co-founded the
Natal Indian Congress
The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was an organisation that aimed to fight discrimination against Indians in South Africa.
The Natal Indian Congress was proposed by Mahatma Gandhi on 22 May 1894. established on 22 August 1894.
Gandhi was the H ...
(NIC) as a Vice-President. Meetings of the NIC were often held at his shop on Field Street, sometimes amongst sacks of grain and bottles of pickle.
Gandhi and his young family were given shelter at Rustomjee's house on January 13, 1897,
after a mob of Europeans attacked Gandhi. Rustomjee and his property were threatened by the mob but he was unrelenting in his support for Gandhi.
Alongside Shapurji Randeria, Dawad Mahomed, N. C. Anglia and others he tested his domiciliary rights in Transvaal in August 1908. He crossed into the Transvaal by rail to protest the
racialist Immigration Restriction acts including the
Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act. He was arrested on the 27th of August and ordered to leave the colony,
but recorded the border and was sentenced to three months of hard labour.
Rustomjee described himself in the Court at
Volksrust
Volksrust is a town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa near the KwaZulu-Natal provincial border, some 240 km southeast of Johannesburg, 53 km north of Newcastle and 80 km southeast of Standerton.
History
The town was la ...
as a general merchant in Natal, where he was a considerable property owner with large business interests throughout
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. He also considered himself to have vested rights as a pre-war resident of the Transvaal. Unusually for a South African-Indian he was a Parliamentary voter registered in Natal. He said he initially arrived in the Transvaal in 1893 and owned three properties there which had been expropriated by the Johannesburg municipality in 1904. His financial affairs in the Transvaal had then been conducted by Gandhi. Owing to his Parsi ethnicity he was exempt from the registration certificates required by the Dutch government and he had been exempted from the necessity of taking a registration certificate under the Dutch government.
On 11 February 1909, he was sentenced to sixth months of hard labour for refusing to give his thumbprints and sentenced again on 11 August 1909, to six months of hard labour.
Gandhi visited him in prison in December 1909 and gravely reported that Rustomjee health was weakening. He walked about with an eye-shade, his sight being affected, he complained of side ache and constitutional disease. In prison Rustomjee lost over seventy lbs. Rustomjee visited Durban in February 1910 to recuperate from his illness. He was greeted by some five hundred people at Durban station and more as he returned home. At his premises on Field Street, he gave a rousing speech arguing the honour of India was threatened.
Despite his stay in Transvaal prisons, Rustomjee insisted on joining a group of resisters from the
Phoenix Settlement
Inanda or eNanda ( isiZulu: ''pleasant place'', also possibly, ''level-topped hill'') is a township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that is situated 30 km north-west of the Durban CBD; it forms part of eThekwini, the Greater Durban Metropolita ...
(to which he had been a major financial benefactor). This included
Kasturba Gandhi
Kasturbai Mohandas Gandhi (, born Kasturbai Gokuldas Kapadia; 11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was an Indian political activist. She married Mohandas Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1883. With her husband and her eldest so ...
, who had started the third phase of the
satyagraha on 15 September 1913. The fifteen satyagrahis crossed the border at Transvaal and were sentenced on 23 September to three months with hard labour.
Rustomjee suffered great persecution during his imprisonment at the Pietermaritzburg jail. He was deprived of his Zoroastrian girdle (
kushti
The ''kushti'' () also known as kosti, kusti and kustig is the sacred girdle worn by invested Zoroastrians around their waists. Along with the sedreh, the kushti is part of the ritual dress of the Zoroastrians.
Origin
The Avestan term for ...
) and undershirt (
sedreh
Sedreh (also called sudreh, sudre or sudra) is the Avestan term for the undergarment worn by Zoroastrians, which is worn alongside the Kushti.
The Sudreh contains a small pocket in the front, which doesn't open, which is supposed to collect one' ...
). Rustomjee went on a
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
until these were restored back to his possession. He was eventually given back his girdle and undershirt after protests in both India and South Africa. Rustomjee was also moved to Durban prison where he was assaulted twice by 'native' warders.
In total he served 18 months in prison during the satyagraha, all with hard labour, at the prisons in Volksrust,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Diepkloof
Diepkloof is a large zone of Soweto township in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is also sometimes referred to as Diepmeadow, if considered as a single township with the nearby Meadowlands (although there is Orlando in between). Diepkloo ...
,
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...
,
Pietermaritzburg and
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
.
References
Further reading
An obituary of Rustomjee published in Gandhi's ''Indian Opinion'' magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustomjee, Parsi
Parsi people
1861 births
1924 deaths
Gandhians
Indian independence activists
South African businesspeople
South African people of Indian descent
South African people of Parsi descent
Colony of Natal people
South African philanthropists
South African civil rights activists
Indian civil rights activists
Natal Indian Congress politicians