GONARATHNAM "KESAVELOO" GOONAM

I grew pensive, and wondered at the duplicity of white people. It was unbelievable that the Scottish people, whom we found to be so kind, so hospitable, could assume the role of oppressors. Yet whenever the British went empire building, they plundered, marauded, pilfered and nassacred. The Ali sisters had made me live to what was going on in India . I wondered at the beautiful churches and stained glass windows. Were they a bribe to Gos to keep us in perpetual serfdom? Eighteen months in Britain had opened my eyes to the inequalities of the white Raj. It had torn through the innocence of my childhood. Life was not a Pongal to be celebrated, it was a cruelly to be challenged and destroyed. . . . Most important to me was the Edinburgh international student community which made a deep political impression on me, the most compelling influence being that of the Indian students. They were intensely patriotic, highly critical of the British and passionately supportive of Gandhi. It was very easy to feel a kindred spirit with them for I too was Indian, and though closeted in the Grey Street complex, and sheltered on my idyllic Umgeni bank where I had rarely come face to face with the indignities of racism, I understood what it was and responded whole heartedly to their arguments against empire, and their commitment to freedom. Winds from the world blew around me and ideas of justice, injustice, freedom and exploitation began to excite my imagination and awaken my political consciousness. I was attracted to the firebrands in the college and came to feel a strong affiliation with India . I attended political protest meetings and applauded the rhetoric against tyranny and empire.