Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1909 Book 05

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 317

thotely
APPEALS TO INDIA.
( 40
Appeals to India.
The following petitions are now being signed by large numbers of Transvaal Indians both passive resisters and non-resisters:To The HONOURABLE DADABHAI NAOROJI.
Sir,-We, the undersigned, British Indians residing in the Transvaal hereby approach you as the father of the Indian nation that is to be, with reference to the gigantic struggle in which we are engaged in this Colony. Through you we appeal to the whole of India.
We will not go into the history of the struggle, but will state the question as it stands to-day.
The Indian inhabitants of the Transvaal have asked for repeal of fhe Asiatic Registration Act of 1907, so that Indians possessing educational attainments, be they ever so few, even six per year, may enter the Transvaal on the same terms as the other immigrants. To-day, by reason of the Registration Act read together with the Immigration Act of the Colony, no Eritish Indian can immigrate into the Colony unless he has been previously domiciled. The laws of the Colony, therefore, constitute a colour-bar. No other British Colony possesses such legislation. Indians have, therefore, publicly entered into a solemn covenant not to submit to the Registration Acts of the Colony but to suffer imprisonment and other hardships until the national insult is removed.
Under the covenant, during the past two years and six months over 2,500 Indians have suffered imprisonment mostly with hard labour. Many homes have been broken up, many families have been ruined, in the struggle. Fathers and sons have gone to gaol at the same time, leaving behind them weeping wives and mothers. Many families are being supported from charitable funds raised by us. At the present moment, nearly two hundred Indians are suffering imprisonment for conscience sake.