The decade he spent in South Africa , from 1896, when he arrived from England , to 1906, the date of the sudden death caused by a heart disease, Mansukhlal Hiralal Nazar was one of the foremost Indian intellectuals and political leaders. One indication of his political vision was the founding together with Mohandas K. Gandhi of the Indian Opinion newspaper as an intellectual forum for modernizing the Indian cultural imagination. Together they used the newspaper as an instrument for mobilizing Indian political activities in opposition to discriminatory racial laws as well as a unifying ideological center for protesting against anti Indian immigration laws. A measure of Nazar's intellectual seriousness is indicated by the lucidity and the forthrightness of the editorials he wrote from the founding of the newspaper in June 1903 to his death. Reading all of these editorials, one is impressed by their high moral seriousness. It was this unrelenting and uncompromising engagement with the complexity of modernity that perhaps most impressed Gandhi. Nazar's unexpected death at the relatively young age of 44 years had a searing impact on Gandhi. This is particularly evident in the obituary notice that Gandhi wrote within a few days of the death of his close friend and intellectual interlocutor which states the following among its illuminating insights: “Without him this journal [ Indian Opinion ] would never have come into being. In the initial stages of its struggle, Mr. Nazar took up almost the whole of the editorial burden, and if it is known for its moderate policy and sound views, the fact is due, to a very large extent, to the part that Mr. Nazar played in connection with it. An Indian reading this account will understand thoroughly that Mr. Nazar was, when I state that he was a real Yogin, a cosmopolitan Hindu, knowing no distinction as to caste or creed, recognizing no religious difference. His one solace in life was the Bhagavad Gita , the ‘Song Celestial.' He was imbued with its philosophy. He knew the Sanskrit text almost by heart, and the writer of this memoir is personally aware that, amid his sorest trials---and he had his full share of them---he was in a position to preserve fairly perfect equanimity under the inspiration of that teaching. To an orthodox Hindu some of his ways would appear to be strange, but Mr. Nazar was undoubtedly a strange mixture. It is not the writer's purpose to scrutinize the character of the dead man. Indians will have to search far and wide before they will be able to find Mr. Nazar's equal. He disdained praise and never wanted any, and whether he was blamed or praised, he never allowed his public work to be affected. We do not stumble upon such selfless workers anywhere and everywhere. They are few among all communities. Time alone will show what the Indian community and, shall I say, even the European community, has lost in Mr. Nazar” (“Mansukhlal Hiralal Nazar”, Indian Opinion , January 27, 1906). As though this extraordinary praise were not sufficient, on the same page as this obituary notice, Mohandas Gandhi wrote the following editorial: “Mr. Nazar's death leaves a gap in the Indian community which it will be difficult to fill. From 1896 up to the day of his death he was actively identified with almost every movement of the Indian community, more especially in Natal . His ripe judgment, his wide experience and statesmanlike ability were ever at the disposal of the Indian community. He filled the role of interpreter between thw two communities with ability, tact and wisdom. Mr. Nazar possessed a very keen sense of humour, and he often saved a bad situation by means of that useful quality. Having travelled very largely in the West, and having lived in England for a long time, he had an intimate knowledge of Western civilisation, Western institutions and Western character. This knowledge, coupled with proficiency in the English language, always stood him in good stead in the course of his public work. No wonder that Indians feel most keenly the loss caused by Mr. Nazar's death. Mr. Nazar leaves behind him a mother, widow and children. We tender them our respectful sympathy. May they derive consolation from the fact that though he has died in body, he lives in the memory of the people by the good work done by him from a pure spirit of love for his country and his fellow-men” (“Mr. Nazar's Death”). Indeed, the loss of Mansukhlal Hiralal Nazar was felt so keenly that tributes to him continued to appear for several weeks in Indian Opinion . The one we would like to conclude this consideration Nazar was written by a younger member of the “ Gandhi School ” in South Africa who was an Englishman. In a tribute appearing in the same issue of the Indian Opinion as Gandhi's obituary notice and editorial piece, Albert H. West wrote: “Of his scholarly attainments, keen judgment, and political knowledge, I leave others to speak. It is to his kindness of heart and great consideration for the poor and unprotected that I wish to pay my tribute. Whilst keeping in view the grievances of merchants and traders, his sympathy went out more towards those poor unfortunate people---the indentured and labouring class---who always found in him a willing listener and kind adviser. Many a time, on entering his office, I have found several Indians, each having come seeking advice, probably not one of whom would be able to pay f him a shilling. And I found that the greater part of his time was spent in this way. I wonder how many hours he has spent in reading and writing letters d for his poor clients, knowing that his only remuneration would be gratitude; and such gratitude was worth more to him than riches” (“Our Late Editor: As I Knew Him”). Mansukhlal Hiralal Nazar exemplified the kind of humanism that Mohandas Gandhi made possible in South African modernity. Nazar's editorials from 1903 to 1906 summarize the intellectual amplitude of this humanism. Like other New African intellectuals, before and after him, such as Allan Kirkland Soga and Walter Benson Rubusana in Izwi Labantu in the 1900s, Abdullah Abdurahman in A. P. O. in the 1910s, R. V. Selope Thema in Bantu World in the 1930s, Jordan Ngubane in Inkundla ya Bantu and the Dhlomo brothers in Ilanga lase Natal in the 1940s, Nazar used Indian Opinion to shape the modernist imagination of South Africans.