6. In India

In the middle of 1896 Gandhi sailed for India, and after twenty-four days landed at Calcutta. From there he went to Rajkot. It was a happy family reunion when kasturbai welcomed him their two sons.

But the plight of the Indians in South Africa was so much on his mind that the could not be content to enjoy domestic bliss in peace. He therefore launched a campaign to acquaint the people of India with the real condition of the Indians in South Africa.

He met the editors of influential newspapers and important Indian leaders, including Lokamanya B. G. Tilak, the hero of Maharashtra, and Gopal Krishna Gokhale who, like Gandhi, was already famous at the age of twenty-seven.

Wherever Gandhi went, he tried to make the people aware of the lot of their compatriots reached South Africa long before Gandhi returned there.

Meanwhile, plague broke out in Bombay and threatened to spread to neighboring areas. In Rajkot Gandhi volunteered to join a group who tried to educate the people about the need for sanitation and other measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

At the end of November, however, Gandhi received an urgent message from Natal asking him to return immediately there were some developments which required his presence there. So Gandhi set sail for South Africa once more, taking with him Kasturbai and their two sons and also the only son of his widowed sister.