Gandhi, An Autobiography

“But Abdulla Sheth disapproved of the idea. He said, ‘If you do anything of the kind, it will have a very bad effect. You will compromise those insisting on wearing Indian turbans. And an Indian turban sits well on your head. If you wear an English hat, you will pass for a waiter.’” (page 108)

I found this quote in the book to represent one’s identity in a society. Gandhi had gained a London Matriculation in England, the highest degree for a lawyer and moved back to India, where he found that he has little knowledge to the rules there and to what he studied. He therefore moved to South Africa where his education would have been put to a better use.

At first Gandhi faced the trouble of dealing with meat or liquor that British people were spoken for and his solemn pledge to his mother before departure kept him strong and away from such during his education years. When in South Africa, ‘wearing the turban has a great importance in this state of things’ shows the discrimination that existed for a foreigner who had travelled abroad. Gandhi had learnt a lesson from his friend who had corrected him to keep his turban or else he would have shown that the other were superior and Gandhi wearing their ‘hat’ would make him equivalent to a waiter.

I really like this quote as many individuals loose their physical identity when in a new and odd environment. For Abdulla, he believed that it was an insult to loose something you possess and represent in turn for someone else’s desire.