Thrown off the train

In 1891, Mahatma Gandhi had gone on a train as the first class to Pretoria and was thrown off because darker-skinned people were not allowed to sit in first class. He was an attorney and was not believed when he said he was there for business. He was left at the rail station at Pietermaritzburg.

Pietermaritzburg railway station 1905

Burning the passes

The Indian community held a meeting on the grounds of the Hamidia Mosque in Johannesburg in 1908. Hindus and Muslims all gathered around and everyone's registration certificates were collected and burned. Gandhi was beat by British police but still continued to burn the passes. 

How the passes looked like.

State of India, Living in Ashram, and poverty in India

Gandhi returns to India from South Africa to spearhead the Indian Independence Movement. Gandhi lived in the Kochrab area of Ahmedabad and lived there from 1917 - 1930. Gandhi had many experiences with people from all social classes and understood that British exploitation was the root cause of poverty in India and made plans to free India from the hands of the British.

Gandhi's Home

Day of fasting and prayer,

General Strike, and the Amritsar Massacre

Gandhi proposed that the whole country observe a hartal, a day of fasting and prayer on April 6, 1919. He asked of them to not indulge with the British and instead take a day off of physical labor in protest against the injustice of the new law.

A general strike was called. Mills closed and trains stopped.

Thousands of people took to the streets in protest of the treatment they were facing. Many got arrested which provoked more protesting. On April 13, 1919, Indians gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. They peacefully protested against the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of peaceful protesters. British forces surrounded the group and were then forced to shoot at the crowd. The deaths vary from around 379 - 1500+ people. This massacre caused a re-evaluation of the British Army.