# In India explained — The Story of My Experiments with Truth

> Chapter companion for The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi.

## What happens

Gandhi returns to India and begins advocating for Indians in South Africa by writing the Green Pamphlet. He also volunteers for sanitation work during a plague outbreak in Rajkot, inspecting latrines across different communities and observing stark contrasts in cleanliness between the rich and the poor.

## Themes in this chapter

### Service and Community Leadership

Gandhi volunteers for the sanitation committee, inspects latrines across all classes, and organizes children to help mail pamphlets.

### Social Justice and Anti-Colonialism

Gandhi writes the Green Pamphlet to highlight the plight of Indians in South Africa and seeks fair treatment from colonial authorities.

## Character check-ins

### Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Returns to India, writes the Green Pamphlet, and volunteers for sanitation work during the plague outbreak.

## Key lines

> I decided to utilize the interval for a drive through the town. I also had to purchase some medicine at a chemist’s shop. The chemist was half asleep, and took an unconscionable time in dispensing the medicine, with the result that when I reached the station, the train had just started.

Gandhi missed his train in Allahabad because the chemist was slow, leading him to stay overnight and meet the editor of The Pioneer.

_This chance event led to Gandhi's first interaction with The Pioneer, which later helped publicize the Green Pamphlet._

> I gathered together all the children in my locality and asked them to volunteer two or three hours’ labour of a morning, when they had no school. This they willingly agreed to do. I promised to bless them and give them, as a reward, used postage stamps which I had collected.

Gandhi enlisted local children to help prepare and mail copies of the Green Pamphlet, rewarding them with used stamps.

_This was Gandhi's first experiment with child volunteers, some of whom later became his coworkers._

> It was our common experience that the latrines of the rich were more unclean. They were dark and stinking and reeking with filth and worms.

During sanitation inspections, Gandhi found that the latrines of wealthy families were often dirtier than those of the poor.

_Gandhi observed that the upper classes resisted improvements, while the poor were more cooperative._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_story_of_my_experiments_with_truth_se/chapters/part-ii-xxv-in-india
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_story_of_my_experiments_with_truth_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_story_of_my_experiments_with_truth_se/chapters