The years 1898-1903 which Gandhiji spent in South Africa except for a year (1909-1902) when he was in India, were a period of intense activity in the cause of Indians in South Africa. They were significant both in this personal and public life. He felt a growing urge at this time to Simplify the manner of his life to do come concrete act o service to his fellow-men. He served in the Durban Indian Hospital as a lay assistant giving an hour or two daily to this work which brought him into close touch with indentured Indians. He also developed a special interest in the nursing and care of children. The year 1898 saw Gandhiji devoting greater efforts to building up the embership and the funds of the Natal Indian Congress. When the Boer War broke out in 1899 he organized an Indian Ambulance Corps and placed its services at the disposal of the Natal Government. He was then proud of his British citizenship and anxious to disprove the charge, frequently leveled against the Indians in South Africa, that they were mere self-seeker and money-grabbers. The services which he and the rest of the corps rendered during the six weeks at the front often in the line of fire won warm praise from all quarters. Later in a speech in Calcutta Gandhiji recalls the rich experience gained by him at the front comparing its perfect order and holy stillness to those of a Trappist monastery he says "Tommy was then altogether lovable…Like Arjun, They went to the battlefield because it was their duty and how many proud rude savage spirits has it not broken into gentle creatures of God"
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