The object of the new registration measure in Transvaal was apparently to demoralise the better educated and prosperous Indian. The Indians had no representation in the legislature. Gandhi was convinced that if this measure became law and the Indians accepted it, it would ‘spell absolute ruin to them’. It was better, he felt, for Indians to die rather than submit to such a law. But how were they to die? What should they dare and do, so that there would be nothing before them except the choice between victory and death? An impenetrable wall was before him; he could not see his way through it.

On September 11, the Indians met at the Empire Theatre hall at Johannesburg — 3,000 of the 13,000 Indians in Transvaal were present. The main resolution, drafted by Gandhi, proclaimed that the determination of the community not to submit to the proposed measure. When one of the speakers declared in the name of God that he would never submit to that law, Gandhi was, as he wrote later, “startled and put on his guard”. The suggestion of a solemn oath helped him to think out “the possible consequences in a single moment,” and his “perplexity gave way to enthusiasm”. A solemn oath meant much to him. His life had been moulded by the vows he had taken. The idea of a pledge of resistance to an unjust law, with God as witness, and with no fear of consequences, demolished the wall which had been obscuring his vision.

... contd.