Satyagraha in South Africa - Mahatma Gandhi

Satyagraha in South Africa
commission, we should be allowed to go to the mines and factories where the
indentured labourers are at work. If these requests are not complied with, we
are sorry that we shall have to explore fresh avenues for going to jail.’
General Smuts declined to appoint any more members on the commission and
stated that the commission was appointed not for the sake of any party but
merely for the satisfaction of the government. Upon receiving this reply on
December 24, we had no alternative but to prepare to go to jail. We therefore
published a notification to the Indians that a party of Indians courting jail
would commence their march from Durban on January 1, 1914.
But there was one sentence in General Smuts’ reply, which prompted me to
write to him again, and it was this: ‘We have appointed an impartial and
judicial commission, and if while appointed it, we have not consulted the
Indians, neither have we consulted the coal-owners or the sugar-planters.’ I
wrote privately to the General, requesting to see him and place some facts
before him if the Government were out to do justice. General Smuts granted
my request for an interview, and the march was postponed for a few days
accordingly.
When Gokhale heard that a fresh march was under contemplation, he sent a
long cablegram, saying that such a step on our part would land Lord Hardinge
and himself in an awkward position and strongly advising us to give up the
march, and assist the commission by tendering evidence before it.
We were on the horns of a dilemma. The Indians were pledged to a boycott of
the commission if their personnel was not enlarged to their satisfaction. Lord
Hardinge might be displeased, Gokhale might be pained, but how could we go
back upon our pledged word Mr. Andrews suggested to us the considerations of
Gokhale’s feelings, his delicate health and the shock, which our decision was
calculated to impart to him. But in fact these considerations were never absent
from my mind. The leaders held a conference and finally reached the decision
that boycott must stand at any cost if more members were not coopted to the
commission. We therefore sent a long cablegram to Gokhale, at an expense of
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