Here is a sterling example how Gandhi was able to transform his arch opponent, General Smuts, during his time in South Africa. His work there finished, Gandhi left South Africa with his family in July 1914. Before he departed, he sent General Smuts a pair of sandals as a gift. Smuts wore the sandals every summer at his farm and then returned them on Gandhi’s seventieth birthday.
Smuts remarked, “I have worn these sandals for many a summer . . . even though I may feel that I am not worthy to stand in the shoes of so great a man. It was my fate to be the antagonist of a man for whom even then I had the highest respect. . . . He never forgot the human background of the situation, never lost his temper or succumbed to hate, and preserved his gentle humor even in the most trying situations. His manner and spirit even then, as well as later, contrasted markedly with the ruthless and brutal forcefulness which is the vogue in our day.”[1]
[1] Louis Fischer, ed., The Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 98.
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