South Africa

South Africa was a turning point. The overt racism that he, and other Indians, faced, turned him towards active politics, and the various influences in his life came together into the first formulation of what is now called Gandhian politics.
His political involvement in South Africa began in the usual liberal British fashion, with the writing of letters to newspapers, organising lectures and debates, founding an organisation with meticulously kept accounts, making petitions and publishing pamphlets. This activity won the sympathy of all parties in India. In 1897 he toured India, meeting Tilak, Ranade, Gokhale and Bannerjee. He adopted the moderate Gokhale as his political guru. He returned to South Africa, and was immediately embroiled in controversy. Nevertheless, in 1899 when the Boer War broke out, he volunteered to lead an ambulance corps. The writings of Naoroji seem to have had little effect on him during this period, because he believed that India was actually gaining out of the British rule.
Non-violent protest as a political tool seems to have been born in 1906. In this year the South African government required that every Indian carry an identification pass. Gandhi led the community in a mass refusal to obey the law. The word satyagraha was coined in 1908 by Gandhi and one of his cousins. By 1914 the movement was making sufficient progress for Gandhi to feel that he could return to India.