Ironically, if it hadn’t been for racism and prejudice, we may not have had a Gandhi. I wouldn’t be here standing and talking to you about my grandfather. He may have been just another successful lawyer who had made a lot of money. But because of prejudice in South Africa, he was subjected to humiliation within a week of his arrival. He was thrown off a train because of the color of his skin, and it humiliated him so much that he sat on the platform of the station all night wondering what could he do to gain justice.

His first response was one of anger. He was so angry that he wanted eye-for-an-eye justice. He wanted to respond violently to the people who humiliated him. But he stopped himself and said, “That’s not right.” It was not going to get him justice. It might have made him feel good for the moment, but it wasn’t going to get him any justice.

The second response was to go back to India and live among his own people in dignity. He ruled that out also. He said, “You can’t run away from problems. You’ve got to stay and face the problems.” And that’s when the third response dawned on him–the response of nonviolent action. From that point onwards, he developed the philosophy of nonviolence and practiced it in his life as well as in his search for justice in South Africa. He ended up staying in that country for 22 years, and then he went and led the movement in India.

Had it not been for that one moment when he was humiliated, he would not have made that change in his life. All of us face these moments in our lives, but often we don’t make the right choices. We submit to anger, and in our search for eye-for-an-eye justice, we increase the level of violence in our societies. But we can make the right choice if we learn how to deal with anger positively.

– Arun Gandhi