It was late in the evening when the
train pulled into Pretoria. There was nobody to meet Gandhi at the station, so
he had to spend the night in a hotel.
The next day a friend moved Gandhi
to a house where he lived as a lodger. There he began his study of the Abdulla
law suit. Even while he was engaged in it, he found time to call a meeting of
the Indians in Pretoria.
This he did with the help of Tyeb
Haji Khan Muhammad, an influential Indian merchant. Only a handful of Indians
attended it. It was the first time that Gandhi had addressed a meeting.
“There is too much division among
us, “he said, “Why should we be kept apart by differences in birth, family,
caste and religion? Let us form a league representing every group and keep the
government informed of our difficulties and our needs”.