Which law did Mahatma Gandhi and other Indians resist during the 1906 Satyagraha in the Transvaal?

Mahatma Gandhi and other Indians resisted the Asiatic Registration Act during the 1906 Satyagraha in the Transvaal.

The Transvaal government enacted the law in 1906. It required many Asian residents, especially Indians, to register and carry certificates containing identifying information, including fingerprints. Police could demand the documents, and failure to comply could lead to penalties, arrest, or deportation.

Gandhi helped organize a mass meeting at Johannesburg’s Empire Theatre on 11 September 1906. Participants pledged to disobey the registration requirement, and Gandhi later used the term satyagraha for this form of disciplined resistance based on truth and nonviolence.

The law is also commonly called the Black Act, a name used by opponents. It should not be confused with India’s Rowlatt Act of 1919, which Gandhi opposed more than a decade later.