Law Amendment Act of 1907 was the logical issue of this principle of segregation, with its imposition of degrading restrictions and its brand of the criminal. In 1903, the policy was already there.
Mr. Gandhi's aim was the incorporation of the Indian community as a useful part of the Transvaal Colony, and the recognition of its members as true citizens of the Empire. Everything that tended to segregate, to separate, to stigmatise them as unworthy of the rights of citizens, was to his mind an insult to their character, a national injury, and a travesty of British justice. He was prepared to resist this policy to the uttermost.
These British Indians were nearly all pre-war residents of the Transvaal. They held permits the Dutch Government, for which they had paid a statutory fee of £3 to £25, or else they were recognised as having a right to reside here by virtue of possessing Peace Preservation Ordinance permits. Many of them had large financial interests in the country. Not a few had been born here. It was to win justice and citizenship for these that Mr. Gandhi directed all his energy.
Since then, no doubt, suspicion on either side been the cause of many mistakes. The Indians
