We continued the march, but it did not suit the Gov¬ ernment to leave me in a state of freedom. I was there¬ fore re-arrested at Standerton on the 8th. Standerton is comparatively a bigger place. There was something rather strange about the manner of my arrest here. I was distri¬ buting bread to the pilgrims. The Indian storekeepers at Standerton presented us with some tins of marmalade, and the distribution therefore took more time than usual. Meanwhile the Magistrate came and stood by my side. He waited till the distribution of rations was over, and then called me aside. I knew the gentleman, who, I thought, perhaps wanted to talk with me. He laughed and said, ‘You are my prisoner.5 ‘It would seem I have received promotion in rank,5 I said, ‘as magistrates take the trouble to arrest me instead of mere police officials. But you will try me just now.5 ‘Go with me,5 replied the Magistrate, ‘the Courts are still in session.5 I asked the pilgrims to continue their march, and then left with the Magistrate. As soon as I reached the Court room, I found that some of my co-workers had also been arrested. There were five of them there, P. K. Naidoo, Biharilal Maharaj, Ramnarayan Sinha, Raghu Narasu and Rahimkhan.
I was at once brought before the Court and applied for remand and bail on the same grounds as in Volksrust. Here too the application was strongly opposed by the Public Prosecutor and here too I was released on my own SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA recognizance of £ 50 and the case was remanded till the 21st. The Indian traders had kept a carriage ready for me and I rejoined the pilgrims again when they had hardly proceeded three miles further. The pilgrims thought, and I thought too, that we might now perhaps reach Tolstoy Farm. But that was not to be. It was no small thing however that the invaders got accustomed to my being arrested. The five co-workers remained in jail.
CHAPTER XLV ALL IN PRISON We were now near Johannesburg. The reader will remember that the whole pilgrimage had been divided into eight stages. Thus far we had accomplished our marches exactly according to programme and we now had four days5 march in front of us. But if our spirits rose from day to day, Government too got more and more anxious as to how they should deal with the Indian invasion. They would be charged with weakness and want of tact if they arrested us after we had reached our destina¬ tion. If we were to be arrested, we must be arrested before we reached the promised land.
Government saw that my arrest did not dishearten or frighten the pilgrims, nor did it lead them to break the peace. If they took to rioting, Government would have an excellent opportunity of converting them into food for gunpowder. Our firmness was very distressing to General Smuts coupled as it was with peacefulness, and he even said as much. How long can you harass a peaceful man? How can you kill the voluntarily dead? There is no zest in killing one who welcomes death and therefore soldiers are keen upon seizing the enemy alive. If the mouse did not flee before the cat, the cat would be driven to seek another prey. If all lambs voluntarily lay with the lion, the lion would be compelled to give up feasting upon lambs. Great hunters would give up lion hunting if the lion took to non-resistance. Our victory was implicit in our combination of the two qualities of non-violence and determination.
ALL IN PRISON ALL IN PRISON Gokhale desired by cable that Polak should go to India and help him in placing the facts of the situation before the Indian and Imperial Governments. Polak’s temperament was such that he would make himself useful wherever he went. He would be totally absorbed in what¬ ever task he undertook. We were therefore preparing to send him to India. I wrote to him that he could go. But he would not leave without meeting me in person and taking full instructions from me. He therefore offered to come and see me during our march. I wired to him, say¬ ing that he might come if he wished though he would be in so doing running the risk of arrest. Fighters never hesi¬ tate to incur necessary risks. It was a cardinal principle of the movement that every one should be ready for arrest if Government extended their attentions to him, and should make all straightforward and moral efforts to get arrested until he overcame the reluctance of Government to lay hands upon him. Polak therefore preferred to come even at the risk of being arrested.
Mr Polak joined us on the 9th at Teakworth between Standerton and Greylingstad. We were in the midst of our consultation and had nearly done with it. It was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Polak and I were walking at the head of the whole body of pilgrims. Some of the co¬ workers were listening to our conversation. Polak was to take the evening train for Durban. But God does not always permit man to carry out his plans. Rama had to retire to the forest on the very day that was fixed for his coronation. While we were thus engaged in talking, a Cape cart came and stopped before us and from it alighted Mr Chamney, the Principal Immigration Officer of the Transvaal and a police officer. They took me somewhat aside and one of them said, T arrest you.’
I was thus arrested thrice in four days.
‘What about the marchers?’ I asked.
‘We shall see to that,’ was the answer.
I said nothing further. I asked Polak to assume charge of and go with the pilgrims. The police officer permitted me only to inform the marchers of my arrest. As I SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA proceeded to ask them to keep the peace etc., the officer interrupted me and said, ‘You are now a prisoner and cannot make any speeches.5 I understood my position, but it was needless. As soon as he stopped me speaking, the officer ordered the driver to drive the cart away at full speed. In a moment the pilgrims passed out of my sight.
The officer knew that for the time being I was master of the situation, for trusting to our non-violence, he was alone in this desolate veldt confronted by two thousand Indians. He also knew that I would have surrendered to him even if he had sent me a summons in writing. Such being the case, it was hardly necessary to remind me that I was a prisoner. And the advice which I would have given the pilgrims would have served the Government’s purpose no less than our own. But how could an officer forego an opportunity of exercising his brief authority? I must say, however, that many officers understood us better than this gentleman. They knew that not only had arrest no terrors for us but on the other hand we hailed it as the gateway of liberty. They therefore allowed us all legitimate freedom and thankfully sought our aid in conveniently and expeditiously effecting arrests. The reader will come across apposite cases of both the kinds in these pages.
I was taken to Greylingstad, and from Greylingstad via Balfour to Heidelberg where I passed the night.
The pilgrims with Polak as leader resumed their march and halted for the night at Greylingstad where they were met by Sheth Ahmad Muhammad Kachhalia and Sheth Amad Bhayat who had come to know that arrange¬ ments were complete for arresting the whole body of march¬ ers. Polak therefore thought that when this responsibility ceased in respect of the pilgrims upon their arrest, he could reach Durban even if a day later and take the steamer for India after all. But God had willed otherwise. At about 9 o’clock in the morning on the 10th the pilgrims reached Balfour where three special trains were drawn up at the station to take them and deport them to Natal. The pilgrims were there rather obstinate. They asked for me ALL IN PRISON ALL IN PRISON to be called and promised to be arrested and to board the trains if I advised them to that effect. This was a wrong attitude. And the whole game must be spoiled and the movement must receive a set-back unless it was given up. Why should the pilgrims want me for going to jail? It would ill become soldiers to claim to elect their commanders or to insist upon their obeying only one of them. Mr Chamney approached Mr Polak and Kachhalia Sheth to help him in arresting them. These friends encountered difficulty in explaining the situation to the marchers. They told them that jail was the pilgrims’ goal and they should therefore apperciate the Government’s action when they were ready to arrest them. Only thus could the Satyagrahis show their quality and bring their struggle to a triumphant end. They must realize that no other procedure could have my appro¬ val. The pilgrims were brought round and all entrained peacefully.
I, on my part, was again hauled up before the Magis¬ trate. I knew nothing of what transpired after I was sepa¬ rated from the pilgrims. I asked for a remand once again. I said that a remand had been granted by two courts, and that we had not now much to go to reach our destina¬ tion. I therefore requested that either the Government should arrest the pilgrims or else I should be permitted to see them safe in ITolstoy Farm. • The • Magistrate did not comply with my request, but promised to forward it at once to the Government. This time I was arrested on a warrant from Dundee where I was to be prosecuted on the principal charge of inducing indentured labourers to leave the province of Natal. I was therefore taken to Dundee by rail the same day.
Mr Polak was not only not arrested at Balfour but he was even thanked for the assistance he had rendered to the authorities. Mr Chamney even said that the Government had no intention of arresting him. But these were Mr Chamney’ s own views or the views of the Govern¬ ment in so far as they were known to that officer. Govern¬ ment in fact would be changing their mind every now and then. And finally they reached the decision that Mr Polak should not be allowed to sail for India and should SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA be arrested along with Mr Kallenbach who was working most energetically on behalf of the Indians. Mr Polak therefore was arrested in Charlestown whilst waiting for the corridor train. Mr Kallenbach was also arrested and both these friends were confined in Volksrust jail.
I was tried in Dundee on the 11th and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment with hard labour. I had still to take my second trial at Volksrust on the charge of aid¬ ing and abetting prohibited persons to enter the Transvaal. From Dundee I was therefore taken on the 13th to Volk¬ srust where I was glad to meet Kallenbach and Polak in the jail.
I appeared before the Volksrust court on the 14th. The beauty of it was that the charge was proved against me only by witnesses furnished by myself at Kromdraai. The police could have secured witnesses but with difficulty. They had therefore sought my aid in the matter. The courts here would not convict a prisoner merely upon his pleading guilty.
This was arranged as regards me, but who would testify against Mr Kallenbach and Mr Polak? It was impossible to convict them in the absence of evidence, and it was also difficult at once to secure witnesses- against them. Mr Kallenbach intended to plead guilty as he wish¬ ed to be with the pilgrims. But Mr Polak was bound for India, and was not deliberately courting jail at this moment. After a joint consultation therefore we three resolved that we should say neither yes nor no in case we were asked whether Mr Polak was guilty of the offence with which he was charged.
I provided the evidence for the Grown against Mr Kallenbach and I appeared as witness against Mr Polak. We did not wish that the cases should be protracted, and we therefore did our best to see that each case was dispos¬ ed of within a day. The proceedings against me were com¬ pleted on the 14th, against Kallenbach on the 15th and and against Polak on the 17th, and the Magistrate passed sentences of three months’ imprisonment on all three of us. We now thought we could live together in Volksrust jail ALL IN PRISON 283 for these three months. But the Government could not afford to allow it.
Meanwhile, we passed a few happy days in Volksrust jail, where new prisoners came every day and brought us news of what was happening outside. Among these Satya- grahi prisoners there was one old man named Harbat- sinh who was about 75 years of age. Harbatsinh was not working on the mines. He had completed his indenture years ago and he was not therefore a striker. The Indians grew far more enthusiastic after my arrest, and many of them got arrested by crossing over from Natal into the Transvaal. Harbatsinh was one of these enthusiasts.
‘Why are you in jail?’ I asked Harbatsinh. ‘I have not invited old men like yourself to court jail.5 ‘How could I help it,5 replied Harbatsinh, ‘when you, your wife and even your boys went to jail for our sake?5 ‘But you will not be able to endure the hardships of jail life. I would advise you to leave jail. Shall I arrange for your release?5 ‘No, please. I will never leave jail. I must die one of these days, and how happy should I be to die in jail!5 It was not for me to try to shake such determination which would not have been shaken even if I had tried. My head bent in reverence before this illiterate sage. Harbatsinh had his wish and he died in Durban jail on January 5, 1914. His body was with great honour cremat¬ ed according to Hindu rites in the presence of hundreds of Indians. There was not one but there were many like Harbatsinh in the Satyagraha struggle. But the great good fortune of dying in jail was reserved for him alone and hence he becomes entitled to honourable mention in the history of Satyagraha in South Africa.
Government would not like that men should thus be attracted to jail, nor did they appreciate the fact that pri¬ soners upon their release should carry my messages out¬ side. They therefore decided to separate Kallenbach, Polak and me, send us away from Volksrust, and take me in particular to a place where no Indian could go and see me. I was sent accordingly to the jail in Bloemfontein, SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA the capital of Orangia, where there were not more than 50 Indians, all of them serving as waiters in hotels. I was the only Indian prisoner there, the rest being Europeans and Negroes. I was not troubled at this isolation but hail¬ ed it as a blessing. There was no need now for me to keep my eyes or ears open, and I was glad that a novel exper¬ ience was in store for me. Again, I never had had time for study for years together, particularly since 1893, and the prospect of uninterrupted study for a year filled me with joy.
I reached Bloemfontein jail where I had as much solitude as I could wish. There were many discomforts but they were all bearable, and I will not inflict a des¬ cription of them upon the reader. But I must state that the medical officer of the jail became my friend. The jailer could think only of his own powers while the doctor was anxious to maintain the prisoners in their rights. In those days I was purely a fruitarian. I took neither milk nor ghi nor food grains. I lived upon a diet of bananas, tomatoes, raw groundnuts, limes and olive oil. It meant “starvation for me if the supply of any one of these things was bad in quality. The doctor was therefore very care¬ ful in ordering them out, and he added almonds, wal¬ nuts and Brazil nuts to my diet. He inspected everything indented for me in person. There was not sufficient venti¬ lation in the cell which was assigned to me. The doctor tried his best to have the cell doors kept open but in vain. The jailer threatened to resign if the doors were kept open. He was not a bad man, but he had been moving in a single rut from which he could not deviate. He had to deal with refractory prisoners, and if he discriminated in favour of a mild prisoner like myself, he would run the real risk of the turbulent prisoners getting the upper hand of him. I fully understood the jailer’s standpoint, and in the dis¬ putes between the doctor and the jailer in respect of me, my sympathies were always with the jailer who was an experienced, straightforward man, seeing the way clear before him.
Mr Kallenbach was taken to Pretoria jail and Mr Polak to Germiston jail.
THE TEST But the Government might have saved all this trouble. They were like Mrs Partington trying to stem the -rising tide of the ocean broom in hand. The Indian labourers of Natal were wide awake, and no power on earth could hold them in check.
CHAPTER XLVI THE TEST The jeweller rubs gold on the touchstone. If he is not still satisfied as to its purity, he puts it into the fire and hammers it so that the dross if any is removed and only pure gold remains. The Indians in South Africa passed through a similar test. They were hammered, and passed through fire and had the hall-mark attached to them only when they emerged unscathed through all the stages of examination.
The pilgrims were taken on special trains not for a picnic but for baptism through fire. On the way the Gov¬ ernment did not care to arrange even to feed them and when they reached Natal, they were prosecuted and sent to jail straightaway. We expected and even desired as much. But the Government would have to incur addition¬ al expenditure and would appear to have played into the Indians’ hands if they kept thousands of labourers in pri¬ son. And the coal mines would close down in the interval. If such a state of things lasted for any length of time, the Government would be compelled to repeal the £ 3 tax. They therefore struck out a new plan. Surrounding them with wire netting, the Government proclaimed the mine compounds as outstations to the Dundee and Newcastle jails and appointed the mineowners’ European staffs as the warders. In this way they forced the labourers under¬ ground against their will and the mines began to work once more. There is this difference between the status of a servant and that of a slave, that if a servant leaves his post, only a civil suit can be filed against him, whereas the slave who leaves his master can be brought back to work by SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA main force. The labourers therefore were now reduced to slavery pure and simple.
But that was not enough. The labourers were brave men, and they flatly declined to work on the mines with the result that they were brutally whipped. The insolent men dressed in a brief authority over them kicked and abused them and heaped upon them other wrongs which have never been placed on record. But the poor labourers patiently put up with all their tribulations. Cablegrams re¬ garding these outrages were sent to India addressed to Gokhale who would inquire in his turn if he did not even for a day receive a fully detailed message. Gokhale broad¬ cast the news from his sickbed, as he was seriously ill at the time. In spite of his illness, however, he insisted upon attending to the South African business himself and was at it at night no less than by day. Eventually all India was deeply stirred, and the South African question became the burning topic of the day.
It was then (December 1913) that Lord Hardinge in Madras made his famous speech which created a stir in South Africa as well as in England. The Viceroy may not publicly criticize other members of the Empire, but Lord Llardinge not only passed severe criticism upon the Union Government, but he also whole-heartedly defended the action of the Satyagrahis and supported their civil dis¬ obedience of unjust and invidious legislation. The con¬ duct of Lord Hardinge came in for some adverse comment in England, but even then he did not repent but on the other hand asserted the perfect propriety of the step he had been driven to adopt. Lord Hardinge’s firmness creat¬ ed a good impression all round.
Let us leave for the moment these brave but unhappy labourers confined to their mines, and consider the situ¬ ation in other parts of Natal. The mines were situated in the north-west of Natal, but the largest number of Indian labourers was to be found employed on the north and the south coasts. I was fairly intimate with the labourers on the north coast, that is, in and about Phoenix, Verulam, Tongaat etc., many of whom served with me in the Boer THE TEST THE TEST War. I had not met the labourers on the south coast from Durban to Isipingo and Umzinto at such close quarters, and I had but few co-workers in those parts. But the news of the strike and the arrest spread everywhere at light¬ ning speed, and thousands of labourers unexpectedly and spontaneously came out on the south as well as on the north coast. Some of them sold their household chattels from an impression that it would be a long drawn out struggle and they could not expect to be fed by others. When I went to jail, I had warned my co-workers against allowing any more labourers to go on strike. I hoped that a victory could be achieved only with the help of the miners. If all the labourers, — there were about sixty thousand of them all told, — were called out it would be difficult to maintain them. We had not the means of taking so many on the march; we had neither the men to control them nor the money to feed them. Moreover, with such a large body of men it would be impossible to prevent a breach of the peace.
But when the floodgates are opened, there is no checking the universal deluge. The labourers everywhere struck work of their own accord, and volunteers also posted themselves in the various places to look after them.
Government now adopted a policy of blood and iron. They prevented the labourers from striking by sheer force. Mounted military policemen chased the strikers and bro¬ ught them back to their work. The slightest disturbance on the part of the labourers was answered by rifle fire. A body of strikers resisted the attempt to take them back to work. Some of them even threw stones. Fire was opened upon them, wounding many and killing some. But the labourers refused to be cowed down. The volunteers prevented a strike near Verulam with great difficulty. But all the labourers did not return to work. Some hid themselves for fear and did not go back.
One incident deserves to be placed on record. Many labourers came out in Verulam and would not return in SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA spite of all the efforts of the authorities. General Lukin was present on the scene with his soldiers and was about to order his men to open fire. Brave Sorabji, son of the late Parsi Rustomji then hardly 18 years of age, had reached here from Durban. He seized the reins of the General’s horse and exclaimed, ‘You must not order firing. I under¬ take to induce my people peacefully to return to work.5 General Lukin was charmed with the young man’s cou¬ rage and gave him time to try his method of love. Sorabji reasoned with the labourers who came round and returned to their work. Thus a number of murders were prevented by the presence of mind, valour and loving kindness of one young man.
The reader must observe that this firing and the treatment accorded by the Government to the strikers on the coast were quite illegal. There was an appearance of legality about the Government’s procedure in respect of the miners who were arrested not for going on strike but for entering the Transvaal without proper credentials. On the north and the south coast however the very act of striking work was treated as an offence not in virtue of any law but of the authority of the Government. Authority takes the place of law in the last resort. There is a maxim in English law that the kingcan do nojwrongijrheconve- nience_qf_the powers that_bmus_the law in the final ana- lysis. This objection is applicable to all governments alike. Arid as a matter of fact it is not always objectionable thus to lay the ordinary law on the shelf. Sometimes adherence to ordinary law is itself open to objection. When the authority charged with and pledged to the public good is threatened with destruction by the restraints imposed upon it, it is entitled in its discretion to disregard such restraints. But occasions of such a nature must always be rare. If the authority is in the habit of frequently exceeding the limits set upon it, it cannot be beneficial to the commonweal.
In the case under consideration the authority had no reason whatever to act arbitrarily. The labourer has en¬ joyed the right to strike from times immemorial. The Government had sufficient material before them to know THE TEST that the strikers were not bent upon mischief. At the most the strike was to result only in the repeal of the £ 3 tax. Only peaceful methods can be properly adopted against men of peace. Again the authority in South Africa was not pledged to the public good but existed for the exclu¬ sive benefit of the Europeans, being generally hostile to the Indians. And therefore the breach of all restraints on the part of such a partisan authority could never be proper or excusable.
Thus in my view there was here a sheer abuse of authority, which could never achieve the ends which it proposed to itself. There is sometimes a momentary suc¬ cess, but a permanent solution cannot be reached by such questionable methods. In South Africa the very £ 3 tax for bolstering up which the Government perpetrated all these outrages had to be abolished within six months of the firing. Pain is often thus the precursor of pleasure. The pain of the Indians in South Africa made itself heard every¬ where. Indeed, I believe, that as every part has its place in a machine, every feature has its place in a movement of men, and as a machine is clogged by rust, dirt and the like, so is a movement hampered by a number of factors. We are merely the instruments of the Almighty Will and are -therefore often ignorant of what helps us forward and what acts as an impediment. We must thus rest satisfied with a knowledge only of the means, and if these are pure, we can fearlessly leave the end to take care of itself.
I observed in this struggle, that its end drew nearer as the distress of the fighters became more intense, and as the innocence of the distressed grew clearer. I also saw that in such a pure, unarmed and non-violent struggle, the very kind of material required for its prosecution, be it men, money or munitions, is forthcoming at the right moment. Many volunteers rendered spontaneous help, whom I do not know even to this day. Such workers are generally selfless and put in a sort of invisible service even in spite of themselves. No one takes note of them, no one awards them a certificate of merit. Some of them do not even know that their nameless but priceless unremembered acts of SATYAGRAHA IN SOUTH AFRICA love do not escape the sleepless vigilance of the record¬ ing angel.
The Indians of South Africa successfully passed the test to which they were subjected. They entered the fire and emerged out of it unscathed. The beginning of the end of the struggle must be detailed in a separate chapter.
CHAPTER XLVII THE BEGINNING OF THE END The reader has seen that the Indians exerted as much quiet strength as they could and more than could be expected of them. He has also seen that the very large majority of these passive resisters were poor downtrod¬ den men of whom no hope could possibly be entertained. He will recall too, that all the responsible workers of the Phoenix settlement with the exception of two or three were now in jail. Of the workers outside Phoenix the late Sheth Ahmad Muhammad Kachhalia was still at large,, and so were Mr West, Miss West and Maganlal Gandhi in Phoenix. Kachhalia Sheth exercised general supervision. Miss Schlesin kept all the Transvaal accounts and looked after the Indians who crossed the border. Mr West was in charge of the English section of Indian Opinion and of the cable correspondence with Gokhale. At a time like the present, when the situation assumed a new aspect every moment, correspondence by post was out of the question. Cablegrams had to be despatched, no shorter in length than letters, and the delicate responsibility regarding them was shouldered by Mr West.