BURNING TRUTH: Usha Seejarim’s memorial honouring Mohandas Gandhi and the 1908 protest against racism led by him features a potjie, like the cauldron in which Gandhi’s supporters burned their passes. When the wheel beneath the cauldron is spun, a zoetrope cuts into its metal sides and enables viewers to see an image of a pass actually burning. PICTURE: DEBBIE YAZBEK © SUNDAY TIMES

Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi

October 2 1869 — January 30 1948

On August 16, 1908, 3 000 Muslims, Hindus and Christians led by Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu, gathered outside the Hamidia Mosque and burned their passes, documents all people classified "non-white" by the government were forced to carry or face imprisonment. The huge bonfire, lit in a cauldron, marked the first burning of passes in South Africa and the beginning of Gandhi’s satyagraha, or passive resistance, campaign.

» ARTIST: Usha Seejarim

» ADDRESS: Hamidia Mosque, Jennings Street, Fordsburg, Johannesburg

The father of passive resistance

SOLID GROUND

Abiding legacies from the Gandhi archive

Our archive tells the unexpected story of why a shy Bombay lawyer — who came to be known as "Mahatma", which means "great soul" — set sail for South Africa in the first place, and of how life in this country forever changed him, and shook the world

» View the archive

» Key moments in the life of Mohandas Gandhi

USHA SEEJARIM

IN A BRUSHSTROKE

» Who is Usha Seejarim?
Her work is flavoured by her urban surroundings and her heritage as a person of Indian origin growing up in South Africa

» The light bulb moment: The artist’s concept
One of the first questions Seejarim asked when she was approached to make the Gandhi memorial for the Heritage Project was whether she’d been picked because she is Indian

Mohandas Gandhi, 1908 PICTURE © SUNDAY TIMES

» Following the footsteps of a great man
A pair of sandals made by Gandhi for Jan Smuts symbolises the respect the two leaders had for each other

» The power of peaceful defiance
Gandhi’s belief in passive resistance developed during his two-decades-long stay in South Africa

» 9/11 and satyagraha
The fifth anniversary of 9/11 was also the centenary of the birth of satyagraha, Gandhi’s mode of peaceful struggle

» LESSON PLANS FOR EDUCATORS

» ARCHIVE PHOTO GALLERY

Gandhi’s transformation from dapper young lawyer to sage in sandals

» ARTWORK PHOTO GALLERY

See the memorial outside the historic mosque where 3 000 Indian passes went up in flames

» Audio Slide Show
Usha Seejarim was reading Gandhi’s autobiography when she was asked to make his memorial

» Map

How to get to the memorial

» Panorama

Beneath palm trees and a minaret… Take a 360° tour of the Fordsburg site

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