Dr. Dadoo and Naicker lead Passive Resisters

Updated: 12 Jun 2020

Led by Dr G.M. Naicker and Dr. Y.M. Dadoo, Indians observed complete hartal, that is, a day of mourning or protest on which all the shops were shut and no-one went to work or did any shopping, throughout the country. Mass meetings were held in many cities and towns. A mass meeting of over 15 000 people at the Red Square in Durban was addressed by Dr Naicker. After the meeting, a procession marched to the corner of Gale Street and Umbilo Road where the first batch of seventeen Passive Resisters, including seven women, pitched five tents on a piece of vacant municipal land in defiance of the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act, the so-called Ghetto Act, enacted by the Smuts Government.

How we know this

01SAHO Indian passive resistance in South Africa, 1946-1948 by E.S. Reddy [online] Available at: www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed on 11 June 2013]
02Overcoming Apartheid Passive Resistance Campaign [online] Available at: https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu [Accessed on 11 June 2013]

Last updated · 12 Jun 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Dr. Dadoo and Naicker lead Passive Resisters. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011683

South African History Online (2011) 'Dr. Dadoo and Naicker lead Passive Resisters', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011683 (Accessed: 7 November 2026).

South African History Online, Dr. Dadoo and Naicker lead Passive Resisters [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011683, (accessed 7 November 2026).

"Dr. Dadoo and Naicker lead Passive Resisters." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011683. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

South African History Online. "Dr. Dadoo and Naicker lead Passive Resisters." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011683.