In October 1913 approximately 20,000 Indian workers joined Mahatma Gandhi's campaign of resistance against the South African government. This was a spontaneous outburst against terrible working conditions and a realisation that the£ 3 poll tax on free Indians meant perpetual indenture. 2 The findings of the Solomon Commission of Enquiry resulted in the Indian Relief Act of 1914, which abolished the tax but left the status of Indians
essentially unchanged. World War I broke out shortly after Gandhi's departure to India. This …