revive the institution of legalized slavery. If Lord Elgin disallowed the Black Act because it was an improper piece of legislation, and he could disallow it only on this ground, it was his clear duty privately to have warned Sir Richard Solomon that the Transvaal could not enact such an iniquitous law after the grant of responsible government, and if it had any intention of doing so, the Imperial Govern¬ ment would be constrained to reconsider the advisability of granting it any such superior status. Or he should have told Sir Richard that responsible government could be conferred only on the condition that the rights of the Indians were fully safeguarded. Instead of following such straightforward procedure, Lord Elgin made an outward show of friendliness to the Indians, while at the same time he really and secretly supported the Transvaal Govern¬ ment and encouraged it to pass once more the very law which he had vetoed himself. This is not the only or the first case of such tortuous policy followed by the British CROOKED POLICY 117 Empire. Even an indifferent student of its history will easily recall similar incidents.
In Johannesburg, therefore, the sole topic of conver¬ sation was the trick played upon us by Lord Elgin and the Imperial Government. Our disappointment in South Africa was as deep as had been our joy in Madeira. Yet the immediate consequence of this deception was that the community became even more enthusiastic than before. Every one said that we must never fear as our struggle was independent of any help from the Imperial Govern¬ ment. We must look for assistance only to our own selves and to that God in Whose name we had pledged ourselves to resistance. And even crooked policy would in time turn straight if only we were true to ourselves.
Responsible government was established in the Trans¬ vaal. The first measure passed by the new Parliament was the budget; the second was the Asiatic Registration Act, which was, except for an alteration in the date specified in one of its clauses, which lapse of time made necessary, an exact replica of the original Ordinance, and was rushed through all its stages at a single sitting on March 21, 1907. The disallowance of the Ordinance, therefore, was forgotten as if it was a dream. The Indians submitted memorials, etc. as usual, but who would listen to them? The Act was proclaimed to take effect from July 1, 1907 and Indians were called upon to apply for registration under it before July 31. The delay in enforcing the Act was due not to any desire to oblige the Indians, but to the exigencies of the case. Some time must elapse before the formal sanction of the Grown to the measure was signified, and the prepara¬ tion of the forms set forth in schedules and the opening of permit offices at various centres would also take time. The delay therefore was intended solely for the Transvaal Government’s own convenience.
CHAPTER XVI AHMAD MUHAMMAD KACHHALIA When the deputation was on its way to England, I happened to talk about the anti-Asiatic legislation in the Transvaal with an Englishman who had settled in South Africa, and when I informed him of the object of our visit to England, he exclaimed, T see you are going to London in order to get rid of the dog’s collar.’ He thus compared the Transvaal permit to a dog’s collar, but I did not quite understand then, and cannot exactly tell while recording that incident even now, whether he thus intended to express his contempt for the Indians and joy at their humiliation, or whether he only meant to show his strong feeling in the matter. According to the golden rule that a person’s words must not be interpreted so as to do him an injustice, I take it that the gentleman used this graphic language only in order to evince his strong feeling. However that may be, the Transvaal Government on one side was prepar¬ ing to throw the dog’s collar on the Indians’ necks, while on the other side the Indians were getting ready to put up a fight against the wicked policy of that Government and were concerting measures calculated to strengthen them in their resolution never to wear that collar. Of course, we were writing letters to friends in England as well as in India and trying thus to keep them in touch with the situation from day to day. But a Satyagraha struggle depends but little upon help from outside, and it is only internal remedies that are effective. The leaders’ time therefore was chiefly taken up with the endeavours to keep all the elements of the community up to the mark.
One important question before us was what agency we should use for carrying on the struggle. The Transvaal British Indian Association had a large membership. Satya¬ graha had not yet seen the light of the day when it was esta¬ blished. The Association had resisted in the past, and must resist in the future, not one obnoxious law, but quite AHMAD MUHAMMAD KACHHALIA a host of them. Besides organizing resistance to obnoxious legislation, it had many other functions of a political and social nature to perform. Again all the members of the Association were not pledged to resist the Black Act through Satyagraha. At the same time we must take account of external risks to which the Association would be exposed in the event of its being identified with the Satyagraha struggle. What if the Transvaal Government declared the struggle to be seditious and all institutions carrying it on as illegal bodies? What would, in such a case, be the position of members who were not Satyagrahis? And what about the funds which were contributed at a time when Satyagraha was not so much as thought of? All these were weighty considerations. Lastly, the Satyagrahis were strongly of”"* opinion that they not only must not entertain any ill-will against those who did notjoi^ for want of faith or weakness or any other reason whatever, but must maintain their present friendly relations with them unimpaired and even work side by side with them in all other movements except the Satyagraha struggle. _ For all these reasons the community came to the conclusion that the Satyagraha struggle should not be car¬ ried on through any of the existing organizations. They might render all help in their power and resist the Black Act in every way open to them except that of Satyagraha, for which a new body named the ‘Passive Resistance Associa¬ tion5 was started by the Satyagrahis. The reader will see from this English name that the word Satyagraha had not yet been invented when this new Association came into being. Time fully justified the wisdom of constituting a fresh body for the work, and the Satyagraha movement might perhaps have suffered a setback if any of the exist¬ ing organizations had been mixed up with it. Numerous members joined this new Association, and the community furnished it funds too with a lavish hand.
My experience has taught me that no movement ever stops or languishes for want of funds. This does noF^mean that any temporal movement can go on without money, but it does mean that wherever it has good men and true at its helm, it is bound to attract to itself the requisite SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA funds. On the other hand, I have also observed that a movement takes its downward course from the time that it is afflicted with a plethora of funds. When therefore a public institution is managed from the interest of invest¬ ments, I dare not call it a sin but I do say that it is a high¬ ly improper procedure. The public should be the bank for all public institutions, which should not last a day longer than the public wish. An institution run with the interest of accumulated capital ceases to be amenable to public opinion and becomes autocratic and self-righteous. This is not the place to dwell upon the corruption of many a social and religious institution managed with permanent funds. The phenomenon is so common that he who runs may read it.
But we must return to our narrative. Lawyers and English-educated persons do not by any means enjoy a monopoly of hair-splitting. I saw that even the unedu¬ cated Indians in South Africa were quite capable of draw¬ ing minute distinctions and making fine arguments. Some argued that the pledge taken in the Old Empire Theatre had been fulfilled as the old Ordinance was disallowed, and those who had weakened since then took shelter under this plea. The argument was not quite devoid of force, yet it could not impress those whose resistance was not to the law as a law but to the vicious principle underlying it. All the same it was found necessary to re-administer the oath of resistance for safety’s sake just to reinforce the awakening of the com¬ munity and to probe the extent of its- weakness if any. Meet¬ ings therefore were held in every place, where the situation was explained, the oath was administered afresh and the spirit of the community was found to be as high as ever.
Meanwhile the fateful month of July was gradually drawing to an end, and on the last day of that month we had resolved to call a mass meeting of the Indians at Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal. Delegates from other places besides were also invited to attend. The meet¬ ing was held in the open on the ground of Pretoria mosque. After the inauguration of Satyagraha our meetings were so largely attended that no building could accommodate them. The entire Indian population in the Transvaal did AHMAD MUHAMMAD KACHHALIA not exceed 13,000 souls, of whom over 10,000 lived in Johannesburg and Pretoria. An attendance at public meetings of two thousand from an aggregate population of ten thousand would be considered large and satisfactory in any part of the world. A movement of mass Satyagraha is impossible on any other condition. Where the struggle is wholly dependent upon internal strength, it cannot go on at all without mass discipline. The workers therefore did not consider such large attendance as any¬ thing surprising. From the very first they had decided to hold public meetings only in the open so that expense was nearly avoided and none had to go back from the place of meeting disappointed for want of accommodation. All these meetings, again, were mostly very quiet. The audiences heard everything attentively. If those who were far away from the platform could not hear a speaker, they would ask him to speak louder. The reader scarcely needs to be told that there were no chairs at these meet¬ ings. Every one sat on the ground. There was a very small platform designed to accommodate the chairman, the speaker and a couple of friends, and a small table and a few chairs or stools were placed upon it.
Mr Yusuf Ismail Mian, acting chairman of the British Indian Association, presided over this meeting. As the time for issuing permits under the Black Act was drawing nearer, the Indians were naturally anxious in spite of all their enthusiasm; but no less anxious than they were General Botha and General Smuts, all the might of the Transvaal Government at their back notwithstanding. No one would like to bend a whole community to his will by sheer force. General Botha therefore had sent Mr William Hosken to this meeting to admonish us. The reader has already made this gentleman’s acquaintance in a previous chapter. The meeting received him warmly, and he said, “You know I am your friend. I need scarcely say that my feelings in this matter are with you. If at all I could, I would gladly make your opponents accede to your de¬ mands. But you hardly need to be told about the general hostility of the Transvaal Europeans to your community. I am here at General Botha’s instance. He has asked me SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA to be the bearer of his message to this meeting. He enter¬ tains a feeling of respect for you and understands your sentiments, but he says, ‘he is helpless. All the Europeans in the Transvaal unanimously ask for such law, and he himself is convinced of the necessity for it. The Indians know fully well how powerful is the Transvaal Govern¬ ment. The law has again been endorsed by the Imperial Government. The Indians have done all they could and have acquitted themselves like men. But now that their opposition has failed, and the law has been passed, the community must prove their loyalty and love of peace by submitting to it. General Smuts will carefully look into any representations you make suggesting minior changes in the regulations framed in virtue of the Registration Act.’ My own advice to you also is, that you should comply with the General’s message. I know that the Transvaal Government is firm regarding this law. To resist it will be to dash your head against a wall. I wish that your community may not be ruined in fruitless opposition or invite needless suffering on their heads.” I translated the speech to the meeting word by word, and further put them on their guard on my own behalf. Mr Hosken retired amidst cheers.
It was now time for the Indian speakers to address the meeting. One of these speakers was the late Ahmad Muhammad Kachhalia, the hero, not of this chapter alone, but of the present volume. I knew him only as a client and as an interpreter. He had never before now taken a leading part in public work. He had a working knowledge of English, which he had so far improved by practice that when he took his friends to English lawyers, he acted as interpreter himself. But interpretership was not a profession with him; he worked as interpreter only as a friend. He at first used to hawk piecegoods, and then to trade on a small scale in partnership with his brother. He was a Surti Meman and enjoyed great reputation in his class. His knowledge of Gujarati was also limited but in this too he had greatly advanced, being schooled by experience. He had such sharp intelligence that he very easily grasped anything that was put to him. He solved legal difficulties AHMAD MUHAMMAD KAGHHALIA with such facility as often astonished me. He would not hesitate to argue law even with lawyers, and very often his arguments were worthy of consideration for them.
I have never, whether in South Africa or in India, come accross a man who could surpass Mr Kachhalia in courage and steadfastness. He sacrificed his all for the community’s sake. He was always a man of his word. He was a strict orthodox Musalman, being one of the trustees of the Surti Meman mosque. But at the same time he look¬ ed upon Hindus and Musalmans with an equal eye. *1 do not remember that he ever fanatically or improperly sided with Musalmans as against Hindus. Perfectly fear¬ less and impartial as he was, he never hesitated to point out their faults to Hindus as well as Musalmans whenever he found it necessary. His simplicity and humility were worthy of imitation. My close contact with him for years leads me to hold firmly to the opinion that a community can rarely boast of having in their midst a man of the stamp of Mr Kachhalia.
Mr Kachhalia was one of the speakers at the meeting. He made a very short speech. He said, “Every Indian knows what the Black Act is and what it implies. I have heard Mr Hosken attentively, and so have you. His speech has only confirmed me in my resolution. We know how powerful the Transvaal Government is. But it cannot do anything more than enact such a law. It will cast us into prison, confiscate our property, deport us or hang us. All this we will bear cheerfully, but we cannot simply put up with this law.” I observed that while saying this, Mr Kachhalia was being deeply moved. His face reddened, the veins on his neck and on the head were swollen with the blood coursing rapidly through them, his body was shaking, and moving the fingers of his right hand upon his throat, he thundered forth: ‘I swear in the name of God that I will be hanged but I will not submit to this law, and I hope that every one present will do likewise.5 So saying he took his seat. As he moved his fingers on his throat, some of those seated on the platform smiled, and I remember that I joined them in their smile. I was rather doubtful whether Kachhalia Sheth would be able fully to SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA translate his brave words into action. I am ashamed of this doubt now, and every time I think of it. Kachhalia always remained to the fore among the many Indians who literally observed their pledge in that great struggle without a moment’s flinching.
The meeting cheered him as he spoke. Others then knew him very much better than I did, as many of them were personally familiar with this obscure hero. They knew that Kachhalia only says what he means and means what he says. There were other spirited speeches too. But I have singled out Kachhalia Sheth’s for mention, as it proved to be a prophecy of his subsequent career. Not everyone of the spirited speakers stood the final test. This great man died in 1918, four years after the struggle was over, serving the community till the last.
I will close this chapter with a reminiscence of Kachhalia Sheth which may not find a place elsewhere. The reader later on will hear of Tolstoy Farm where lived a number of Satyagrahi families. The Sheth sent his ten or twelve year old son Ali to be educated there as an example to others and in order that the boy might be brought up to a life of simplicity and service. It was due to the example he thus set that other Musalmans likewise sent their boys to the Farm. Ali was a modest, bright, truthful and straightforward boy. God took him unto Him¬ self before his father. If it had been given to him to live, I doubt not he would have turned out to be the worthy son of an excellent father.
CHAPTER XVII A RIFT IN THE LUTE The first of July 1907 arrived, and saw -the opening of permit offices. The community had decided openly to picket each office, that is to say, to post volunteers on the roads leading thereto, and these volunteers were to warn weak-kneed Indians against the trap laid for them there. Volunteers were provided with badges and expressly in¬ structed not to be impolite to any Indian taking out a permit. They must ask him his name, but if he refused to give it they must not on any account be violent or rude to him. To every Indian going to the permit office, they were to hand a printed paper detailing the injuries which submission to the Black Act would involve, and explain what was written in it. They must behave to the police too with due respect. If the police abused or thrashed them, they must suffer peacefully; if the ill-treatment by the police was insufferable they should leave the place. If the police arrested them, they should gladly surrender themselves. If some such incident occurred in Johannes¬ burg, it should be brought to my notice. At other places the local secretaries were to be informed, and asked for further instructions. Each party of pickets had a captain whose orders must be obeyed by the rest.
This was the community’s first experience of that kind. All who were above the age of twelve were taken as pickets, so that there were many young men from 12 to 18 years of age enrolled as such. But not one was taken who was unknown to the local workers. Over and above all these precautions, people were informed by announce¬ ments at every public meeting and otherwise, that if any one desirous of taking out a permit was afraid of the pickets, he could ask the workers to detail a volunteer to escort him to the permit office and back. Some did avail themselves of this offer.
The volunteers in every place worked with boundless enthusiasm, and were ever alert and wide awake in the SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA performance of their duties. Generally speaking there was not much molestation by the police. When sometimes there was such molestation, the volunteers quietly put up with it. They brought to bear upon their work quite an amount of humour, in which the police too sometimes joined. They devised various diversions in order to beguile their time. They were once arrested • on a charge of obst¬ ructing the public traffic. As non-co-operation did not form a part of the Satyagraha struggle there, defence could be made in courts, though as a rule advocates for defence were not paid from public funds. The volunteers were declared innocent and acquitted by the court, which still further exalted their spirit.
Although the Indians who wanted to take out permits were thus saved from rudeness or violence from the volun¬ teers in public, I must admit, that there arose a body of men in connection with the movement, who without be¬ coming volunteers privately threatened those who would take out permits with violence or injury in other ways. This was a most painful development, and strong mea¬ sures were adopted in order to stamp it out as soon as it was found out. The holding out of threats nearly ceased in consequence, though it was not quite rooted out. The threats left an impression behind them, and as I could see, thus far injured the cause. Those who were threatened instantly sought Government protection and got it. Poi¬ son was thus instilled into the community, and those who were weak already grew weaker still. The poison thus grew more virulent, as the weak are always apt to be revengeful.
These threats created but little impression; but the force of public opinion on the one hand, and on the other, the fear of one’s name being known to the community through the presence of volunteers acted as powerful deterrents. I do not know a single Indian who held it proper to submit to the Black Act. Those who submitted did so out of an inability to suffer hardships or pecuniary losses, and were therefore ashamed of themselves. This sense of shame, as well as a fear of loss in trade following upon the displeasure of big Indian merchants, pressed A RIFT IN THE LUTE heavily upon them, and some leading Indians found a way out of this twofold difficulty. They arranged with the per¬ mit office, that an officer should meet them in a private house after nine or ten o’clock at night and give them permits. They thought that in this case no one would know about their submission to the law for some time at least and that as they were leaders, others would -follow suit, thus lightening their burden of shame. It did not matter if they were found out afterwards.
But the volunteers were so vigilant, that the commu¬ nity was kept informed of what happened every moment. There would be some even in the permit office who might give such information to the Satyagrahis, Others again, though weak themselves, would be unable to tolerate the idea of leaders thus disgracing themselves, and would inform the Satyagrahis from an idea that they too could face the music if others were firm. In this way the com¬ munity once received information that certain jnen were going to take out permits in a certain shop on a certain night. The community therefore first tried to dissuade these men. The shop too was picketed. But human weak¬ ness cannot be long suppressed. Some leading men took permits in this way at ten or eleven o’clock at night, and there was a rift in the lute. The very next day their names were published by the community. But a sense of shame has its limits. Considerations of self-interest drive shame away and mislead men out of the strait and narrow path. By and by something like five hundred 'men took out permits. For some time permits were issued in private houses, but as the sense of shame wore out, some went publicly to the Asiatic office and obtained certificates of registration.
CHAPTER XVIII THE FIRST SATYAGRAHI PRISONER When the Asiatic Department found, that notwith¬ standing all their exertions, they could not get more than 500 Indians to register, they decided to arrest some one. In Germiston there lived many Indians, one of whom was Pandit Rama Sundara. This man had a brave look and was endowed with some gift of the gab. He knew a few Sanskrit verses by heart. Hailing from North India as he did, he naturally knew a few dohas and chopais from the Tulasi Ramayana, and owing to his designation Pandit, he also enjoyed some reputation among the people. He delivered a number of spirited speeches in various places. Some malevolent Indians in Germiston suggested to the Asiatic Department that many Indians there would take out permits if Rama Sundara was arrested, and the officers concerned could scarcely resist the temptation thus offered. So Rama Sundara was put under arrest, and this being the first case of its kind, the Government as well as the Indians were much agitated over it. Rama Sundara, who was till yesterday known only to the good people of Germi¬ ston, became in one moment famous all over South Africa. He became the cynosure of all eyes as if he were a great man put upon his trial. Government need not have taken, but it did take, special measures for the preserva¬ tion of peace. In the Court too Rama Sundara was accorded due respect as no ordinary prisoner but a repre¬ sentative of his community. Eager Indian spectators filled the Court-room. Rama Sundara was sentenced to a month’s simple imprisonment, and kept in a separate cell in the European ward in Johannesburg gaol. People were allowed to meet him freely. He was permitted to receive food from outside, and was entertained every day with delicacies prepared on behalf of the community. He was provided with everything he wanted. The day on which he was sentenced was celebrated with great eclat. There was no trace of depression, but on the other hand there THE FIRST SATYAGRAHI PRISONER was exultation and rejoicing. Hundreds were ready to go to jail. The officers of the Asiatic Department were dis¬ appointed in their hope of a bumper crop of registrants. They did not get a single registrant even from Germiston. The only gainer was the Indian community. The month was soon over. Rama Sundara was released and was taken in a procession to the place where a meeting had been arranged. Vigorous speeches were made. Rama Sundara was smothered with garlands of flowers. The volunteers held a feast in his honour, and hundreds of Indians envied Rama Sundara’s luck and were sorry that they had not the chance of suffering imprisonment.
But Rama Sundara turned out to be a false coin. There was no escape from the month’s imprisonment, as his arrest came as a surprise. In jail he had enjoyed luxu¬ ries to which he had been a stranger outside. Still accust¬ omed as he was to licence, and addicted as he was to bad habits, the loneliness and the restraints of jail life were too much for him. In spite of all the attention showered upon him by the jail authorities as well as by the com¬ munity, jail appeared irksome to him and he bid a final good-bye to the Transvaal and to the movement. There are cunning men in every community and in every move¬ ment and so there were in ours. These knew Rama Sundara through and through, but from an idea that even he might become an instrument of the community’s providence, they never let me know his secret history until his bubble had finally burst. I subsequently found that he was an indentured labourer who had deserted before complet¬ ing his term. There wTas nothing discreditable in his hav¬ ing been an indentured labourer. The reader will see towards the end how indentured labourers proved to be a most valuable acquisition to the movement, and what a large contribution they made towards winning the final victory. It was certainly wrong for him not to have finished his period of indenture.
I have thus detailed the whole history of Rama Sundara not in order to expose his faults, but to point a moral. The leaders of every clean movement are bound to see that they admit only clean fighters to it. But all SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA their caution notwithstanding, undesirable elements can¬ not be kept out. And yet if the leaders are fearless and true, the entry of undesirable persons into the movement without their knowing them to be so does not ultimately harm the cause. When Rama Sundara was found out, he became a man of straw. The community forgot him, but the movement gathered fresh strength even through him. Imprisonment suffered by him for the cause stood to our credit, the enthusiasm created by his trial came to stay, and profiting by his example, weaklings slipped away out of the movement of their own accord. There were some more cases of such weakness besides this but I do not propose to deal with them in any detail, as it would not serve any useful purpose. In order that the reader may appreciate the strength and the weakness of the commu¬ nity at their real worth, it will be enough to say that there was not one Rama Sundara but several and yet I observed that the movement reaped pure advantage from all of them.