The Essential Gandhi (18 page)

From the second or third day Satyagrahi prisoners began to arrive in large numbers.… The community had resolved to fill up the jail after our arrests.…

[Every] one of us was firm in his resolution of passing his term in jail in perfect happiness and peace. The number of Satyagrahi prisoners gradually rose to over 150.…
³⁸

 … As the struggle advanced, there came a stage when going to jail was a perfectly easy task for some and a means of getting well-earned rest, whereas it was infinitely more difficult to remain outside, minutely to look into things, to make various arrangements, and to deal with all sorts and conditions of men.
³⁹

During the Satyagraha in South Africa I had altered my style of dress so as to make it more in keeping with that of the indentured laborers.…
⁴⁰

The Government bill [giving the Indians no choice but to register and carry identity certificates] was about to pass through the Legislature, to which a petition was presented on behalf of the Indians, but in vain. At last an “ultimatum” [letter] was sent to the Government by the Satyagrahis. The word [“ultimatum”] was not the Satyagrahis’ but … General Smuts’ [a Boer General, who became South Africa’s Minister of Finance and Defence].…

One reason this letter was held to be an ultimatum was that it prescribed a time limit for reply. Another … was that the Europeans looked upon the Indians as savages. [This fact] was sufficient reason for the Indians to write such a letter. The Indians must either confess to their being barbarians and consent to be suppressed as such, or else they must take active steps in repudiation.… This letter was the first of such steps. If there had not been behind [it] an iron determination to act up to it, it would have been held an impertinence, and the Indians would have proved themselves to be a thoughtless and foolish race.
⁴¹

 … A meeting had been called [on August 10, 1908], some two
hours after the expiry of the time limit to perform the public ceremony of burning the certificates.…

“… Merely burning the certificates is no crime, and will not enable those who court imprisonment to win it,” [Gandhi told the meeting]. “By burning the certificates, we only declare our solemn resolution never to submit to the Black Act, and divest ourselves of the power of even showing the certificates.… No one need be ashamed of getting his certificate back just now, as in doing so he will be exhibiting a certain kind of courage.… We know that some of us have fallen out of the marching army, and the burden of those who remain has been made heavier. I would advise you to ponder over all these considerations, and only then to take the plunge proposed today.”

The Committee had already received upwards of two thousand certificates to be burnt. These were all … set ablaze.… The whole assembly rose to their feet and made the place resound with the echoes of their continuous cheers during the burning.… Some of those who had still withheld their certificates brought them in numbers to the platform.… When asked why he handed his certificate only at the last moments, one of these friends said he did so as it … would create a greater impression. Another frankly admitted his want of courage and a feeling that the certificates might not be burnt after all. But he could not possibly withhold the certificate after he had seen the bonfire, and gave [the certificate] up from an idea that the fate of all might well be his own fate too. Such frankness was a matter of frequent experience.…

 … The Indians’ only weapon was a faith in the righteousness of their own cause and in God. [Thirteen] thousand unarmed Indians might appear insignificant before the well-armed.… As God is the strength of the weak, it is as well that the world despises them.
⁴²

[At one time, of the thirteen thousand Indians in the Transvaal, twenty-five hundred were in jail. Some resisters served five prison terms in quick succession, courting a new sentence the moment they finished the old one.]

 … The Satyagrahis could not impose a time limit upon their Satyagraha. Whether it lasted one year or many, it was all the same
to them.… But what about their families in the meanwhile?… There cannot be many in the world who would fight the good fight in spite of being compelled to condemn their nearest and dearest to the same starvation which they suffered.…

Till now the families of jail-going Satyagrahis were maintained by a system of monthly allowances in cash according to their need.… A Satyagrahi who had a family of five persons dependent upon him could not be placed on a par with another, who was a Brahmachari [Celibate] without any responsibilities.… There was only one solution … that all the families should be kept at one place and … become members of a sort of coöperative commonwealth.…

 … Phoenix, where
Indian Opinion
was being printed … was three hundred miles away from Johannesburg and [it was] therefore difficult and expensive to take the families such a distance.… Besides, the families would not be ready to leave their homes for such a far-off place.…

 … Mr. Kallenbach [a wealthy German Jewish immigrant to South Africa and friend] bought a farm of about eleven hundred acres [May 30, 1910] and gave the use of it to the Satyagrahis.…
⁴³
Upon the farm there were nearly one thousand fruit-bearing trees and a small house … with accommodation for half-a-dozen persons.… We decided to build houses upon this farm and to invite the families of Satyagrahis to settle there.… Everything … from cooking to scavenging was done with our own hands.…

 … The food was to be the simplest possible. The time, as well as the number of meals, was fixed. There was to be one … kitchen, and all were to dine in a single row. Everyone was to see to the cleaning of his own dish and other things. The common pots were to be cleaned by different parties in turn. [Neither] the women nor the men ever asked for meat. Drink, smoking, etc., were of course totally prohibited.

[We] wanted to be self-reliant … even in erecting buildings.… The structures were all of corrugated iron and therefore did not take long to raise.…

[The farm was named in honor of Count Leo Tolstoy, whom Gandhi admired after reading Tolstoy’s
The Kingdom of God Is
Within You
. They corresponded for a year, until Tolstoy’s death in 1910, and Gandhi sent copies of
Indian Opinion
and his little book,
Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule
to the Count.]

The weak became strong on Tolstoy Farm, and labor proved to be a tonic for all.

 … It would have been impossible to have a single settler if force had been employed. The youngsters thoroughly enjoyed the work on the Farm and the errands to the city. It was difficult to prevent them from playing their pranks while engaged in work. No more work was given to them than what they willingly and cheerfully rendered, and I never found that the work thus done was unsatisfactory, either in quantity or in quality.

The work before us was to make the farm a busy hive of industry … to save money and, in the end, to make the families self-supporting. If we achieved this … we could battle with the Transvaal Government for an indefinite period. We had to spend some money on shoes.… We therefore determined to learn to make sandals. [Several] young men learnt [the method of the Trappist monks] and we commenced selling [the sandals] to friends.…
⁴⁴

[There] was on the Farm an ebb and flow of Satyagrahis, some of whom would be expecting to go to prison, while others had been released.…

 … At the commencement of the struggle, Satyagrahis were somewhat harassed by officials, and the jail authorities in some places were unduly severe. But as the movement advanced, we found the bitterness of the officials was softened, and in some cases even changed to sweetness. And where there was long continued intercourse with them, they even began to assist us.…
⁴⁵

[In 1913] it was realized that we would be imprisoned for long terms. It was decided to close Tolstoy Farm. Some families returned to their homes upon the release of the breadwinners. The rest mostly belonged to Phoenix [Farm], which therefore was pitched upon as the future base of operations.…
⁴⁶

 … Mr. Justice Searle of the Cape Supreme Court gave judgment on March 14, 1913 [which] nullified in South Africa … all marriages celebrated according to the Hindu, Moslem and Zoroastrian rites. The many married Indian women thus ceased to rank as the wives of their husbands and were degraded to the rank of concubines.…

 … Patience was impossible in the face of this insult offered to our womanhood.… Not only could the women now be not prevented from joining the struggle, but we decided even to invite them to come into line along with the men.…

 … I knew the step of sending women to jail was fraught with serious risk.… If afterwards they flinched at the time of actual trial or could not stand the jail, they might be led to apologize, thus not only giving me a deep shock but also causing serious damage to the movement. I decided not to broach the subject to my wife, as she could not say no to any proposal I made … and … I knew that in a serious matter like this the husband should leave the wife to take what step she liked on her own initiative, and should not be offended at all, even if she did not take any step whatever. The other sisters assured me they would complete their term in jail, come what might. My wife overheard my conversation … and, addressing me, said “… What defect is there in me which disqualifies me for jail? I also wish to take the path to which you are inviting the others.… If you can endure hardships and so can my boys, why cannot I? I am bound to join the struggle.…”
⁴⁷

The “invaders” were to go to jail for crossing the border and entering the Transvaal without permits.…

The sisters … were not arrested.… They therefore proceeded to Newcastle [the great coal-mining center of Natal state], and set about their work according to the plans [of advising the indentured Indian laborers there to strike] previously settled. Their influence spread like wildfire.…

[The] brave Transvaal sisters … were sentenced to [three months’] imprisonment.…
⁴⁸

The women’s imprisonment worked like a charm upon the
laborers in the mines near Newcastle, who lay down their tools and entered the city.…

The strikers brought quite a host of complaints to me.… Leaving the question of flogging aside, there was not much room for complaint if the collieries cut off the lights, the water supply and other amenities [to break the strike].… I therefore suggested that the only possible course was for the laborers to leave their masters’ quarters, to fare forth, in fact, like pilgrims.

The laborers were not to be counted by tens but by hundreds. And their number might easily swell into thousands. How was I to house and feed this evergrowing multitude …?

 … I suggested to the laborers that they should take it that their strike was to last for all time, and leave.… When they came to me, they should bring nothing with them except their wearing apparel and blankets.… They could sustain their strike and win a victory if and only if they came out on these conditions. Those who could not summon courage enough to take this line of action should return to work. None should despise or harass those who thus resumed their work. None of the laborers demurred to my conditions. From the very day that I made this announcement, there was a continuous stream of pilgrims … along with their wives and children, with bundles of clothing upon their heads.

I had no means of housing them, the sky was the only roof over their heads. Luckily for us, the weather was favorable.… The traders of Newcastle supplied cooking pots and bags of rice and dal [peas cooked in a thick mixture as a staple]. Other places also showered rice, dal, vegetables, condiments and other things upon us.…

Not all were ready to go to jail, but all felt for the cause.… Those who could not give anything served as volunteer workers. Well-known and intelligent volunteers were required to look after these obscure and uneducated men, and they were forthcoming.…

 … I must take this “army” to the Transvaal and see them safely deposited in jail.… The army should be divided in small batches, each of which would cross the border separately. But I dropped this … idea … as it would have taken too long … and the successive imprisonment of small batches would not produce the … effect of a mass movement.