Mahatma Gandhi

“I have no doubt about the soundness of my advice. However much one may sympathise with the Bantus, Indians cannot make common cause with them.”

— Harijan, his weekly journal

“Of course, under my suggestion, the Town Council must withdraw the Kaffirs from the Location. About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel most strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population and it is an undue tax on even the proverbial patience of my countrymen.”

— A 1904 letter to Dr. Porter, the Medical Officer of Health for Johannesburg

Notes:

Gandhi used the term "Kaffir" as a derogatory term to describe black South Africans.

“By persistent ill-treatment they cannot but degenerate, so much so that from their civilized habits they would be degraded to the habits of the aboriginal Natives, and a generation hence, between the progeny of the Indians thus in course of degeneration and the Natives, there will be very little difference in habits, and customs, and thought. The very object of immigration will be frustrated, and a large portion of Her Majesty's subjects, instead of being raised in the scale of civilization, will be actually lowered.”

— An 1895 petition by Gandi

“For me Manu sleeping with me is a matter of dharma (moral duty). [...] If I don’t let Manu sleep with me, though I regard it as essential that she should, wouldn’t that be a sign of weakness in me?”

— In response to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel criticism of Gandhi's celibacy experiments

“Despite my best efforts, the organ remained aroused. It was an altogether strange and shameful experience.”

— A biographical account describing one of his tests of celibacy