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The First Campaign

Of the 13,000 Indians in the Transvaal, only 511 had registered by the last day of registration, 30 November 1907 – the campaign was thus underway, with the majority refusing to register.

Indians were served with official notices to register or leave the Transvaal and Gandhi was arrested on 27 December. Gandhi and a group of resisters appeared before a magistrate on 11 January 1908. He appealed to the judge to be given the heaviest sentence, and he was sentenced to a term of two months. Four other Satyagrahis were jailed with Gandhi and by 29 January the figure had risen to 155.

In jail, Gandhi spent his time reading Ruskin, Tolstoy and the holy books of various religions – the Baghavad Gita and the Qur’an. He was approached by Albert Cartwright, editor of the Transvaal Leader, on behalf of Jan Smuts. Cartwright promised that if Gandhi and his supporters registered voluntarily, the Black Act would be repealed.

Gandhi met with Smuts on 30 January, the agreement was formalised and he was immediately set free. The other resisters were released the next morning.

The agreement with Smuts drew criticisms from some passive resisters. They wanted the act repealed before they would register, but Gandhi saw the move as the way of the Satyagrahi. He said: ‘A Satyagrahi bids goodbye to fear. He is therefore never afraid of trusting the opponent. Even if the opponent plays him false twenty times, the Satyagrahi is ready to trust him for the 21st time – for an implicit trust in human nature is the very essence of his creed.’

At a public meeting, Gandhi, cognisant of the predicament of his opponents, explained to the community that Smuts was under pressure from whites to limit Indian immigration, and that a voluntary registration would leave room for the state to treat all citizens equally. This way, Indians would not be bowing to force, which took away from their dignity. Voluntary registration would indicate to the state that the Indians would not bring other Indians into the Transvaal illegally and would place an obligation on the state to treat all equally.

A huge and fierce Pathan member of the community accused Gandhi of having sold out the community for £15,000. He swore that he would not allow himself to be fingerprinted and would kill anyone who voluntarily agreed to fingerprinting. Gandhi answered that he would be the first to be fingerprinted, saying: ‘Death is the appointed end of all life. To die by the hand of a brother, rather than by disease or in such other way, cannot be for me a matter of sorrow. And if, even in such a case, I am free from the thought of anger or hatred against my assailant, I know that that will redound to my eternal welfare, and even the assailant will later on realise my perfect innocence.’

On the morning of 10 February, Gandhi went to his office, where a group of large Pathans had gathered outside, including Mir Alam, a client of Gandhi. When Gandhi and a few Satyagrahis began walking to the registration office, they were followed by the Pathans, who assaulted Gandhi just before he arrived at the office. The Pathans were arrested but Gandhi called for their release, saying he had no desire to prosecute them as they had acted in the belief that what they were doing was the right course.

The injured Gandhi was taken to the nearby home of the Reverend Doke, and he called for the registration official to come to the house to complete the registration process.

Gandhi then went to the Phoenix settlement, which he had established, and wrote various articles, published in the Indian Opinion, explaining and justifying his course of action. Although many Indians disagreed with his ideas, they continued to support Gandhi.

However, before long the government reneged on the agreement – a development that some writers say was a result of a misinterpretation of the agreement on the part of Gandhi. The act took account of the voluntary process but retained the compulsory-registration law. Gandhi accused Smuts of ‘foul play’ and being a heartless man.

Mahatma Gandhi and residents of Tolstoy Farm. Source: Durban Local History Museum.

On 16 August 1908 thousands of resisters met at the Hamidia Mosque, and more than 2000 registration documents were burnt in a large cauldron. Resisters also began engaging in other forms of resistance - trading without licences, and crossing over from one province to another without permits.

Gandhi spent his time at his office, which became a headquarters for the Satyagraha movement, and also at Phoenix in Natal, where his family were living. He attracted many supporters, especially Christians, who saw his actions as extensions of Christ’s principles. Gandhi was close to Oliver Schreiner and her brother, senator and attorney general of the Cape WP Schreiner, and his closest friends included Henry Polak, Hermann Kallenbach and Sonya Schlesin.

The next move in the Satyagrahi’s battle saw Sorabji Adajana declare that he would enter the Transvaal without a permit, and present himself for arrest to the border authorities at Volksrust. But Adajana was allowed into the province, and only arrested when he failed to leave. Others who tried to enter the Transvaal were arrested at Volksrust, including Gandhi’s son Harilal.

Satyagrahis now became eager to be arrested, and were imprisoned when they tried to cross provincial boundaries. Gandhi was again imprisoned from 10 October to 13 December 1908. He took up cooking duties for his 75 fellow Satyagrahis in prison and performed various laborious tasks, including cleaning toilets.

Gandhi was again imprisoned from 25 February to May in 1909. Smuts sent two religious books for Gandhi, who also read works by Henry David Thoreau, notably the well-known Civil Disobedience.

Smuts agreed to keep negotiations going with the passive resisters but secured an undertaking from the imperial government to stop the flow of indentured labourers to Natal – a demand he first made in 1908. By April 1909 the government began to deport some who took part in the campaign.

Throughout the campaign 3000 people were arrested. Fifty-nine people were deported to India in April, and a further 26 in June 1910. Six thousand Indians left the province. Ultimately, the campaign had failed to halt government plans to limit immigration and to secure the general rights of Indian citizens – they were not even recognised as citizens.