In November of 1913, Gandhi had been sentenced to a year in prison, nine months of it with hard labor, for his role in leading thousands of striking mine workers across South African borders without permits. He relished the prison sentence, writing, “the prospect of uninterrupted study for a year filled me with joy.”
There were some mild troubles with his diet; he was in the middle of a five-year experiment of living on only fruits and nuts. He had taken a vow to stop drinking milk several years earlier, after reading about the animal cruelty involved in extracting the last drops of milk from the cows’ udders. (There were also ethical reasons to eschew all animal products.) The prison doctor was supportive, and ensured Gandhi got sufficient food.
Meanwhile, things had continued to escalate outside of the prison. The government had arrested the striking mine workers for the illegal border crossing, and sentenced them to hard labor. Here, they got creative. After surrounding them with wire fences, the mines were declared satellite facilities of the jails. The striking workers were imprisoned inside and told to work the mines as punishment. “The laborers therefore were now reduced to slavery pure and simple.”1
The mine workers refused anyway, resulting in beatings, whippings, and other abuses. As Gandhi would later achieve with the Salt March, this behavior cost the government the moral high ground. The Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, made a speech denouncing the government of South Africa for these “measures which would not for a moment be tolerated in any country that claims to call itself civilized.” The Viceroy called for an investigative committee to be assembled, and promised to continue to pressure London to take up this call as well.
Simultaneously, Indian laborers in the sugarcane fields went on strike; tens of thousands throwing down their tools, and refusing to work. Forced to negotiate, the government appointed a commission to make reform recommendations. The striking workers demanded the satyagraha prisoners be released, and the commission agreed, so that their inquiry could hear from all parties. On December 18, 1913, The government unconditionally released Gandhi, along with his co-defendants Hermann Kallenbach and Henry Polak.
However, when the government—personified by General Jan Smuts—refused to reduce the partisanship of the committee, Gandhi announced plans for another march on January 1. Things were moving quickly now; just seven months after his release from prison, Gandhi would declare victory and say goodbye to South Africa.
When have you had a planned activity cut short by circumstances outside your control?
Satyagraha in South Africa, Chapter XLVI, The Test