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The passive resistance campaigns led by MK Gandhi in South Africa had huge consequences not only for the history of the country but also for world history in general. Gandhi’s campaigns forged a new form of struggle against oppression that became a model for political and ethical struggles in other parts of the world – especially in India (the struggle for independence) and the United States (the civil rights campaign of the 1960s).
Gandhi’s first passive resistance campaign began as a protest against the Asiatic Registration Bill of 1906. The bill was part of the attempt to limit the presence of Indians in the Transvaal by confining them to segregated areas and limiting their trading activities.
After the victory of the British in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), Indians in the Transvaal had hoped that the British administration would treat them more favourably, but the British instead passed a string of laws to limit the rights of Indians. In August 1906 the Transvaal Government Gazette published a draft of a new law which made it compulsory for all Indian males above the age of eight to be registered and have their fingerprints taken and recorded. Gandhi said the law would spell ‘absolute ruin for the Indians of South Africa… Better to die than submit to such a law’.
Now Gandhi began to clarify his concept of passive resistance, outlining its rationale. He disliked the notion of passivity, and called for people to come up with an appropriate name for the new mode of resistance. When his nephew made a suggestion, Sadagraha (firmness in a good cause), Gandhi adapted the idea and coined the word ‘Satyagraha’, which means ‘truth force’.
Before the law came into force, Gandhi organised a mass meeting on 11 September 1906 at the Imperial Theatre in Johannesburg, where 3000 people pledged to defy the law – a short while later this would develop into the first passive resistance campaign. On 20 September 1906, the Crown government passed the Asiatic Law Amendment
Gandhi’s first passive resistance campaign began as a protest against the Asiatic Registration Bill of 1906. The bill was part of the attempt to limit the presence of Indians in the Transvaal by confining them to segregated areas and limiting their trading activities.
After the victory of the British in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), Indians in the Transvaal had hoped that the British administration would treat them more favourably, but the British instead passed a string of laws to limit the rights of Indians. In August 1906 the Transvaal Government Gazette published a draft of a new law which made it compulsory for all Indian males above the age of eight to be registered and have their fingerprints taken and recorded. Gandhi said the law would spell ‘absolute ruin for the Indians of South Africa… Better to die than submit to such a law’.
Now Gandhi began to clarify his concept of passive resistance, outlining its rationale. He disliked the notion of passivity, and called for people to come up with an appropriate name for the new mode of resistance. When his nephew made a suggestion, Sadagraha (firmness in a good cause), Gandhi adapted the idea and coined the word ‘Satyagraha’, which means ‘truth force’.
Before the law came into force, Gandhi organised a mass meeting on 11 September 1906 at the Imperial Theatre in Johannesburg, where 3000 people pledged to defy the law – a short while later this would develop into the first passive resistance campaign. On 20 September 1906, the Crown government passed the Asiatic Law Amendment