An unhappy constituent
February 10, 2024
In January 1908, Gandhi served his first jail term during the satyagraha campaign against the Asiatic Registration Act. When hundreds of Indians clogged the jails, Gandhi negotiated a settlement and the prisoners were released. However, not everyone was happy with the terms.
Gandhi may have felt pressured to make a deal by new arrivals to the jail. “They told me people were losing courage. … They wanted me to bring about a compromise as early as possible,” he wrote a few weeks later. As I said last year,
The compromise was an odd one. Gandhi agreed that the Indian community would voluntarily register with the government, and in return, the Registration Act would be repealed. If you’re confused as to why this was a good deal for people who had pledged to go to jail rather than register, so were many in the community.
When the registration office in Johannesburg opened February 10, Gandhi intended to lead by example and be the first one there. He and other resistance leaders met at his law office and set out. However, Mir Alam, a muscular, six-foot Panthan, was loitering outside. After confirming Gandhi was on his way to the registration office, he attacked with an iron rod, knocking Gandhi unconscious, and continued to strike and kick him on the ground.
His friends managed to drive Mir Alam away. When Gandhi came to, he was in the office of a nearby business. An acquaintance, the Reverend Joseph Doke, suggested Gandhi be brought to his home for recuperation, and Gandhi agreed. His first priority was to voluntarily register; the papers were brought, and he gave his fingerprints. A doctor was called, and stitched up his cheek, lips, and eyebrow.
Gandhi spent about 10 days recovering in the Doke’s home. To assist with his healing, Gandhi reports he did a two-day dry fast: no food or water. (On the the same day 35 years later, Gandhi would begin a 21-day fast to protest his indefinite detention.) The minister became even more enamored with Gandhi, and in 1909 published his first biography: M.K. Gandhi: An Indian Patriot in South Africa.
As far as his assailant, Gandhi contacted the prosecutor and asked that charges be dropped. Because the attack had taken place in public, the trial went ahead. Gandhi was not called as a witness, but other testimony secured Mir Alam’s conviction: he was sentenced to three months incarceration at hard labor.
Was justice done in this case? Why or why not?
The next 30-day Gandhi challenge runs from February 15-March 15. Besides the two fasting days and 30 days of sobriety, there are five optional challenges: walking, a bloodless diet, a three-day fast, cold showers, and daily teeth brushing. Sign up to get the Zoom link for the 7pm ET meetings on the 1st and 15th.