Pietermaritzburg incident

A cover from South Africa 🇿🇦 with Stamps on Joint Issue between SouthAfrica and India 

India and South Africa issued two joint issue MS in 2018 and the second one was to comommerate the 125th year of Pietermaritzburg incident and 100 th anniversary of Nelson Mandela. 

Pietermaritzburg Railway Station is the main railway station serving the city of Pietermaritzburg (pronounced PEE-TER-MARE-ITS-BERG) , South Africa. It is located on Railway and Pine Streets in the South Western corner of the city centre. The station is a stop on long-distance passenger rail services operated by Shosholoza Meyl. Historically, the station is famous as being the place where Mahatma Gandhi was thrown off a train for riding first class in 1893.y

When a white fellow-passenger got a railway guard to order Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to quit his first-class carriage and when on refusing to do so Gandhi was forcibly ejected from the train by a constable and had his luggage pitched out after him, all did change. But not for Gandhi alone. It changed quickly thereafter for Indians in South Africa; and ultimately, thanks to the epic initiatives of the South African people, for all of South Africa. The fellow-passenger, the guard and the constable were a trinity in oppression; they were also a threesome agency of change. Unbeknownst to them, they changed it, transformed it all. Imagining themselves to be protectors and perpetuators of the establishment, they unwittingly initiated one of the most potent movements for its transformation. 

Thanks David Clingham for this cover !