Aarth Kansagara was an Indian National Congress activist in South Africa. In 1893, he attended a rally held by Mahatma Gandhi which protested against Jan Smuts' new policy of fingerprinting all Indians in the country, forcing non-Christians to marry in Christian marriages in order to acquire validity, and allowing policemen to enter Indian households without permission. He spoke up and said that he would be willing to die in order to protect Indian women from the police, but Gandhi responded by saying that he, too, was willing to die for the cause, but not to kill for it.