About this quote

This comes from Gandhi's early years as a lawyer in South Africa, when he shared the racial prejudices of the colonial world around him and pressed for Indian rights while ignoring African ones. Historians treat it as a documented failing he later moved beyond, not wisdom to carry forward.

When to use it

• A history class studies a national hero's early bigoted writings alongside his later reforms, so students get a full portrait instead of a myth.
• A family keeps an ancestor's letters even where they hold ugly prejudice, discussing those parts openly rather than quietly hiding them.
• A museum labels a founder's racist remarks plainly in the exhibit rather than editing them out of the story.