19061906–1914 · Johannesburg

Gandhi and the birth of satyagraha in Johannesburg

Whitewashed gateway of Johannesburg's Old Fort prison, topped by the old republic's coat of arms — Photo: Steamhunter. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In September 1906 Indians in Johannesburg, led by the young lawyer Mohandas Gandhi, pledged at a mass meeting to defy a Transvaal law forcing them to register and give fingerprints. Gandhi called their method satyagraha, 'truth force': deliberate, non-violent law-breaking and acceptance of prison. He was jailed in the Old Fort, and the campaign won concessions in 1914 before he returned to India.

Civil Rights & Human Rights
Political History
Revolutions & Resistance
Johannesburg & Soweto, South Africa

Sites

Site 1: Old Fort, Constitution HillPrison where Gandhi, and later Mandela, were held; now a museum.Map ↗
Site 2: Satyagraha House, OrchardsThatched house Gandhi shared with Hermann Kallenbach, now a small museum.Map ↗