Valiamina Munuswami Mudaliar was a young girl who decided to join in the last phases of Gandhi’s Satyagraha in 1913. On 29 October Mudaliar and her mother joined other women who went on a march to inform others of the passive resistance movement. She travelled to Charlestown, Dundee, Ladysmith, Dannhauser, Pietermaritzburg and Durban before crossing the Transvaal border. At this time it was against Asiatic law for her to cross this border, and she was arrested and sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour. She was only 16 years old at this time.
When Mudaliar was sentenced to prison, she was already a little sick. Her condition soon began to deteriorate, but she refused the offer of the authorities to return home. She was not prepared to give up the passive struggle. She was eventually released on 11 February 1914, after a provisional agreement had been signed between Smuts and Gandhi. She arrived home on 20 February, and on 27 February died.