Lord Elgin agreed to receive the deputation on Thursday, November 8,

1906. The day before, Gandhi and Ally addressed a meeting in the House
of Commons' Grand Committee Room, attended by one hundred members
of the Liberal, Labour, and Nationalist Parties, all of whom were sympathetic.
A resolution supporting the deputation's objects was unanimously
adopted. Upon meeting Elgin, Gandhi presented his memorial, arguing that
the recently passed ordinance assumed that every Indian was a criminal
guilty of dishonest, unlawful actions and accentuated "colour prejudice in
the most offensive manner. ... it undoubtedly reduces Indians to a level
lower than . . . Kaffirs [blacks]."40 Elgin listened patiently to all that the
deputation had to say and was cordial but unmoved in his reply. Gandhi
then pressed for another minute of His Lordship's time, urging that a special
commission be appointed to look into the grievances of the deputation
and requesting a second appointment in order to correct the misinformation
Lord Elgin had received from the Transvaal.
Gandhi made the most of every hour he spent in London, writing to
everyone he knew or could contact, granting interviews to every reporter
he could reach, and visiting every member of Parliament or official at
Whitehall, who was willing to see him. He rarely went to sleep before 3:30
A.M. and was up before dawn, carrying out a more rigorous routine than he
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Gandhi's Passion
ever had in South Africa. At thirty-seven he was physically in his prime and
drove himself with relentless intensity.
The day after he met Elgin, he sent a copy of the petition he had drafted
and submitted to him to "every Member of Parliament with a courteous
covering letter."41 His legal training and growing skills at public relations
allowed him to amplify every action he took to the largest, most influential
audience, making the most of each precious moment. He wrote to India's
secretary of state, John Morley as well, requesting an audience with him,
and was invited to bring his deputation to the India Office shortly before he
sailed back to Africa. He urged Sir Muncherji and other friends to establish
a "permanent committee for the South African Indians" in London so that
the work he had started would not be "frittered away."42 Indefatigable, inexhaustible,
he pressed on, urging everyone he met to do whatever was
possible to help him in seeking to redress his community's many grievances.
Louis Ritch agreed to act as that committee's permanent secretary and remained
his man in London.
Gandhi wrote to the editor of the Times, urging that a commission be
appointed to investigate and report on conditions in the Transvaal, pending
whose report "Royal sanction for the Ordinance in question" be withheld.
"If the Colonies persist in their policy of exclusion, they will force on the
mother country ... a very serious problem. ... 'Is India to remain a part
of the British Dominions or not?' He who runs may read that England will
find it difficult to hold India if her people, immediately they migrated to
British Colonies, are to be insulted and degraded as if they belonged to a
barbarous race."43 The importance of this brief, intense return to London
for Gandhi's strategic thinking and the evolution of his revolutionary
movement of peaceful protest can hardly be exaggerated. His mind raced
decades ahead, spinning off ideas of effective agitation and creating inchoate
organizations to carry forward demands he and his growing army
of followers would articulate over the next four decades.
He even wrote to Winston Churchill as colonial under secretary, requesting
a private interview to place the whole position before him and was
granted an audience shortly before leaving London. Churchill had answered
a question in the Commons a few days earlier, arguing that "it is

1
very desirable to keep the White and Coloured quarters apart."44 Gandhi
tried to convince Churchill of the inhumanity of his viewpoint, but the century's
two greatest leaders of India and England rarely agreed on any issue,
Winston later maligning the Mahatma as a "fraud" and "scoundrel."
Liberal John Morley, on the other hand, not only warmly welcomed
Gandhi and his deputation to the India Office but was so supportive of all
he heard that he swayed Elgin and their Liberal Prime Minister Campbell-
Bannerman, as well as the rest of Great Britain's Cabinet to veto the Transvaal
Ordinance. In his half decade at the helm of London's India Office,
[ 62 ]
Satyagraha in South Africa
Morley labored mightily to open British India's narrowly despotic administration
to representative and responsible change. But Morley saw little
value in the idea of appointing another royal commission, which usually
took so long in gathering evidence that its report proved hopelessly irrelevant.
Gandhi appreciated Morley's kind words and sympathy, as well as
those of others, but in his own "Deputation Notes" penned the next day he
reflected with penetrating political insight that "we would get no redress
until we acquired strength like the Whites ... we should realize that our
salvation lies in our own hands."45
The deputation sailed back to Cape Town on the R.M.S. Briton and
welcoming receptions cheered them there and in Johannesburg before
year's end. On January 1, 1907, Gandhi addressed his Natal Indian Congress
in Durban, informing them that "British rule is essentially just. . . .
But we should not be elated by our success. Our struggle has just begun.
Now ... we have to explain things to the politicians here."46 This would
not, of course, be easy.
Two days later Gandhi told Durban's Mohamedan Association that he
felt certain the reason they succeeded in turning Britain's government
around was thanks to "the perfect accord that obtained between Mr. Ally
and myself. . . . We acted with love and in concert. . . . though following
different religions, we remained united in our struggle. Secondly, truth and
justice were on our side. I believe God is always near me. He is never away
from me."47 It was his first public profession of constant proximity to God,
but it would not be his last. Though still dressed as a British barrister,
Gandhi now began to sound more like a Mahatma.
The suffragette movement was on in force during Gandhi's brief visit
to London, and he reported to his community the reply of Chancellor of
the Exchequer Herbert Asquith to "the women of Great Britain" that "if
all of them demanded the franchise, it could not but be granted." Gandhi
told his followers that "under British rule, justice is often not to be had
without some show of strength, whether of the pen, of the sword, or of
money. For our part we are to use only the strength that comes from unity
and truth. That is to say, our bondage in India can cease this day, if all the
people unite in their demands and are ready to suffer any hardships that
may befall them."48 The remaining forty years of his life would be spent in
explaining, in reiterating, and in implementing this passionate, inspired
prescription for winning freedom for the people of India, or, indeed, for
any enslaved or politically oppressed people.
Gandhi was moved to write about the eight hundred English women
who marched on Parliament in February, fearlessly courting imprisonment.
"We believe these women have behaved in a manly way."49 He was bracing
his community for the struggle ahead, knowing that though he'd convinced
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Gandhi's Passion
Britain's Home Government to reject the Transvaal Colony's ordinance,

2
that same government had now given the Transvaal full responsible rule,
which meant they could reintroduce the same ordinance on their own.
Their deputation's victory thus offered his community but a brief respite. In
March of 1907 General Louis Botha, who had fought the British, capturing
Churchill, among others, during the Boer War, was elected first prime minister
of independent Transvaal, and three years later of the Union of South
Africa. Botha's greatest assistant and successor was General Jan Smuts,
South Africa's foremost legal mind, statesman architect of South Africa's
Union, and Gandhi's most brilliant South African adversary.
The Transvaal's new Boer Parliament reintroduced and passed the Asiatic
Registration Ordinance as its first order of official business, leaving Indians
"staggered" by the swiftness of that action.50 Gandhi immediately responded
by calling a mass meeting and reminding his community of their
promise to refuse to obey that "Black Act," and instead to welcome entering
the "palace" of prison. He cabled Lord Elgin, of course, urging him at
least to postpone any Royal decision on the act passed by the new dominion.
And, in early April, Gandhi led a deputation to Pretoria to call on Colonial
Secretary Smuts and argue against the new act.
Royal assent was granted in May to the Transvaal Asiatic Registration
Act. Gandhi repeated his earlier pledge never to register and called upon all
members of the Indian community not to "swerve," not to fail in doing
their duty.51 Many of his friends, however, asked "How?" Gandhi's answer
had long before been supplied by Martin Luther: We have now earned the
freedom to burn old permits, together with the new ones. Not a single person
must enter the Permit Office. ... a final date will be fixed for taking
out new permits. Only after that date can the doors of prison-palace open
for us.52
The new act requiring Indians to register was gazetted to be enforced
starting on July 1, 1907. On Sunday, June 30, Gandhi's community turned
out in numbers too great to fit inside any home in Pretoria. "If any Indian,
big or small, should accept the title-deed of slavery under the law," Gandhi
told that enormous crowd, "others would not follow. . . . Those who kept
themselves free would win in the end."53 Indians in Pretoria started to
picket outside the Permit Office to keep Indians tempted to enter it from
doing so, and Gandhi soon urged them to extend that boycott to Durban.
A week later, however, several Indians appealed to Jan Smuts, asking him
not to require those who registered to give their mother's name or to be fingerprinted
by Kaffir [black] police. Smuts sent a long and "very ingenious"
reply, which made Gandhi's blood boil. He agreed to withdraw the
mother's name requirement, most obnoxious to Muslims, and also to
promise that no black policeman would ever fingerprint any Indian. "After
reducing us to a living death . . . could there be a fresh amendment in order
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Satyagraha in South Africa
to kick at the dead?" an outraged Gandhi cried. "It should be noted that on
no single point has Mr. Smuts given up his obstinacy. . . . With God as our
witness, we have pledged opposition to the law. With the same God as witness,
let us prove our courage."54
Braced as he was for martyrdom, this was one of the few times in his
life that Gandhi lost his temper, shifting his tone from calm reasonableness
to heated anger, a clear tribute to Smuts's negotiating skills. "BOYCOTT,
BOYCOTT, PERMIT OFFICE! BY GOING TO GAOL WE ... SUFFER
FOR OUR COMMON GOOD, AND SELF-RESPECT," Gandhi wrote
on a poster hammered up Luther-like onto the door of the Permit Office in
Pretoria. "LOYALTY TO THE KING DEMANDS LOYALTY TO THE
KING OF KINGS. INDIANS BE FREE!"55

3
"Indians in the Transvaal will stagger humanity without shedding a
drop of blood," Gandhi later explained in his weekly journal: Gentle Jesus,
the greatest passive resister the world has seen, is their pattern. . . . Was not
Jesus rejected and yet did He not resist the blasphemy that His persecutors
would have Him utter on pain of suffering what was, in their estimation,
an inglorious death, side by side with thieves and robbers? But the crown of
thorns today sits better on that bleeding head than a crown bedecked with
diamonds. . . . He died indeed, yet He lives in the memory of all true sons
of God. . . . So, too, will Indians of the Transvaal, if they remain true to
their God, live in the memory of their children . . . who will be able to say
. . . "Our forefathers did not betray us for a mess of pottage."56
The British Committee worked hard in London to rally support for
Gandhi's struggle, and its secretary, Louis Ritch, kept him informed daily
by cable of all those he contacted in Parliament and the Cabinet and sent
him every newspaper report as well. Gokhale, of course, worked even
harder to win support for South Africa's Indians, not only from every
member of India's National Congress but also from colleagues on the Viceroy's
Legislative Council, including Jinnah, who was at this time still a
leader of Congress. "Surrender-not" Banerjea also cabled his "warmest
sympathy" from Calcutta, as did William Wedderburn from London.
Gandhi's valiant efforts thus were applauded by the best and most principled
leaders of three continents by the fall of 1907. Nonetheless, some
Indians were registering in Johannesburg; Gandhi cautioned his pickets
not to assault them, for any such assaults would "turn our success into
failure."57
The first Indian to be prosecuted in the Transvaal under the new act
was Hindu "priest" Ram Sundar Pundit, arrested in Germiston on November
8, 1907. Gandhi appeared on Ram's behalf in court, but offered no
defense, since his client admitted he had no permit and wished to offer no
bail, though "scores of Indians had offered to bail him out."58 Thanks to
Gandhi's appeal Ram was released without bail. Ram was later sentenced
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Gandhi's Passion
to one month imprisonment under the Asiatic Act. Mass protest meetings
were held, and Gandhi addressed them. "If, after sending Pundit to gaol,
any Indian submits to the obnoxious law, we do not think he deserves the
name of man. . . . Hindus and Muslims have become completely united . . .
this work concerns all Indians," Gandhi wrote for Indian Opinion that
November.59