In this speech, Gandhi addressed the new law enacted by the British government as a response to the Indians defiance to carry pass books at all times. This is a deliberative rhetoric because it is in a form of a discussion or argument between him and the audience about the present issues the Indians face in South Africa.
He starts his speech by welcoming everybody including the English policemen. He states that we(Indians) have no secrets addressing the police and making them receptive of what he's about to say which in rhetorical terms is his exordium.
He then moves categorically spell out the new law passed, "all Indians must be finger printed like criminals, men and women, no marriage other than a christian one is considered valid". He uses logos(the appeal to reason) to to infer that if no marriage besides a christian marriage is considered valid then "our wives and mother are whores ad every man here is a bastard and that a policeman passing an Indian dwelling may enter and demand the card of any Indian woman whose dwelling" and carefully digress this statement to stress how despicable and disrespectful the law is "the policeman does not have to stand at the door, he may enter". Upon saying this, it generated a lot of outrage from the crowd and you can hear one of the leaders commending how good Gandhi has developed as a speaker. Some part of the audience was infuriated by his analysis of this law, they cut in on his speech to raise their grievances. One of the said '' i swear to Allah, i will kill the man who offers that insult to my home and wife and let them hang me", the other said " is say talk means nothing , kill a few officials before they disgrace one Indian woman".Both opinions were welcomed and highly endorsed by the crowd.
The Indian marriage is one of the sacred institutions in the Indian tradition. The men view their wives and marriage in high esteem. An insult to their marriage or wife is not one they will take lightly. Gandhi, of course, being an Indian man knows this and therefore knew the exact emotional strings to pull from the audience. He knew if he interpreted in this manner it will generate this amount of animosity within the crowd and therefore used it perfectly. This is an ideal application of pathos in rhetorical terms.
He then moves on to his peroratio/ conclusion where he
mentions again what the police will do to them and that they should not give
in. He nears the end of the speech by using pathos again when he says"
they may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then they will have my
dead body but not my obedience".
This powerful statement sent the crowd in a frenzy and when he finally asked
them to take an oath to ensure they will stick to what he preached he had the
unwavering support of everybody in the room.