Mahatma Gandhi first travelled to South Africa for legal work in 1893.
A Gujarati Muslim merchant firm, Dada Abdulla and Company, hired Gandhi to assist with a commercial legal dispute in Natal and the Transvaal. He expected to remain abroad for about a year, but the experience of racial discrimination transformed the direction of his life.
During the journey, Gandhi was removed from a first-class train compartment at Pietermaritzburg despite holding a valid ticket. He later described this incident as a decisive moment in his political awakening. In South Africa, he organised the Indian community, founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and developed methods of nonviolent resistance.
Gandhi returned to India permanently in 1915. The year 1888 refers to his journey to England to study law, while 1906 marks an important early satyagraha campaign in South Africa. Those dates are therefore commonly confused with his first South African trip.