E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesChapter XSeptember 11, 1906"NEARLY three thousand persons filled the Imperial Theatre in Johannesburg.The big hall throbbed with the din of voices which spoke the Tamil and Telugulanguages of southern India, Gujarati and Hindi. The few women wore saris.The men wore European and Indian clothes; some had Hindu turbans and caps,some Moslem headgear. Among them were rich merchants, miners, lawyers,indentured labourers, waiters, rickshaw boys, domestic servants, hucksters andpoor shopkeepers. Many were delegates representing the eighteen thousandIndians of the Transvaal, now a British colony; they were meeting to decidewhat to do about pending discriminatory enactments against Indians. AbdulGani, chairman of the Tansvaal British-Indian Association and manager of a bigbusiness firm, presided. Sheth Haji Habib delivered the main address. MohandasK. Gandhi sat on the platform.Gandhi had convened the meeting. On returning from service to the Zulus, andafter acquainting Kasturbai with his celibacy vow, he had rushed off toJohannesburg in answer to a summons from the Indian community. TheTransvaal Government Gazette of August 22, 1906, had printed the draft of anordinance to be submitted to the legislature. 'If adopted, Gandhi decided, 'itwould spell absolute ruin for the Indians of South Africa. Better die than submitto such a law'.'But how are we to die?' Gandhi wondered. He had no idea what to do. He onlyknew that the ordinance must be resisted; nowhere in the world, he believed,had free men been subjected to such humiliating, restrictive legislation.The proposed ordinance required all Indian men and women, and children overeight, to register with the authorities, submit to finger-printing and accept acertificate which they were to carry with them at all times. A person whofailed to register and leave his fingerprints lost his right of residence and couldbe imprisoned, fined, or deported from the Transvaal. An Indian apprehendedwww.mkgandhi.org Page 85