IT was a freezing night in Maritzburg, in the highlands of South Africa. On that bitterly cold night of June 8, 1893, Gandhi was forced to get out of the first class carriage on a train to Pretoria, and was left at the lonely Pietermaritzburg Station—­a red brick building with high ceilings.

Gandhi later recalled this bitter experience : 

“It was winter, and winter in the higher regions of South Africa is severely cold. Mar