“The name of V a l l i a m m a l ( V a l l i a m m a i in Tamil) will live in the history of South African Satyagraha as long as India lives,” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote in his book Satyagraha in South Africa: “Valliamma R. Munuswamy Mudaliar was a young girl of Johannesburg only sixteen years of age. She was confined to bed when I saw her. As she was a tall girl, her emaciated body was a terrible thing to behold.

    Valliammal, you do not repent of your having gone to jail?” I asked. “Repent? I am even now ready to go to jail again if I am arrested,” said Valliammal. “But what if it results in your death?” I pursued. “I do not mind it. Who would not love to die for one’s motherland? was the reply.”

   “Within a few days after this conversation Valliammal was no more with us in the flesh, but she left us the heritage of an immortal name…....