On September 11, 1906, as nearly 3000 people filled the Imperial Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sheth Haji Habib delivered his maiden address, Mahatma Gandhi sat on the platform. Gandhi had convened the meeting to register opposition to the Transvaal Government Gazette of August 22, 1906, which had published a draft of an ordinance requiring all Indians — men, women and children over eight — to register with the authorities, submit to finger printing and accept a certificate which they were to carry with them at all times. A person who failed to register and leave his fingerprints lost his right of residence and could be imprisoned, fined or deported from Transvaal.

Indians in South Africa were rightly incensed. The Hindus and Muslims of Transvaal wanted Gandhi to voice their protest. But what must be the strategy of this protest? Passive resistance was not an option. There was nothing passive about Gandhi.

Madan Lal Gandhi, a second cousin of Gandhi who lived in Phoenix Farm, suggested ‘sadagraha’: ‘firmness in a good cause’ as a kind of mass opposition to the government’s unfairness. Gandhi amended it to ‘satyagraha’. ‘Satya’ is truth, which equals love and ‘agraha’ is firmness or force. Satyagraha means truth-force or love-force. Truth and love are attributes of the soul.

This became Gandhi’s target: to be strong not with the strength of the brute but with strength drawn from God. Satyagraha, said Gandhi, is the vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on one’s opponents but on one’s own self. It requires self-control. The weapons of the satyagrahi are within him.

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