Satyagraha in Action
Satyagraha in South Africa
The ‘Black Act’–1906-1914
In August of 1906 Mohandas Gandhi picked up one of the local newspapers and read the draft of an ordinance proposed by Transvaal Government. (At the time of the Black Act Transvaal was a province that included Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria.) The official name of the Ordinance was the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance [1], but became known as the ‘Black Act’. ‘I shuddered as I read the sections of the Ordinance one after another. I saw nothing in it except hatred of Indians. It seemed to me that if the Ordinance was passed and the Indians meekly accepted it that would spell absolute ruins for the Indians in South Africa’ [2].