7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 16

54 55

VINAY LAL

Early in 1930 Gandhi Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National

Congress issued a call for complete independence or purna swaraj from

British rule in India Gandhi had led the noncooperation movement i

1920ndash21 and the resolute resistance of Ind ian masses to colonial rule

had even succeeded in paralyzing the British administration in parts

of north India yet much to the consternation of his Congress colleagu

Gandhi suspended the movement in February 1922 when violence

in Chauri Chaura a small town in Gorakhpur dist rict led to the death

of twenty-two policemen this convinced him that the country was

far from being committed to the path of nonviolence The suspension

was an opportune moment for the British to remove Gandhi from the

political scene and his conviction on charges of sedition at what has

been memorialized as ldquoThe Great Trialrdquo sent Gandhi into jail On his

release from prison three years later in mid-1925 Gandhi immersed

himself in what came to be known as the ldquoConstructive Programmerdquo

which aimed at ldquovillage upliftrdquo and comprehensive social reform

including the lifting of inequalities against women and untouchables

the promotion of basic education and norms of sanitation and hygien

and the promotion of Hindu-Muslim cooperation The common

understanding of Gandhi which focuses on him as the political

architect of Indian independence has largely obscured this equally

vital aspect of his life thus showing little awareness of the fact that he

thought of freedom as indivisible In what is described as his last willand testament issued just days before his assassination and shortly

after independence in 1947 Gandhi declared that ldquothe Congress has

won political freedom but it has yet to win economic freedom social

and moral freedom These freedoms are harder than the political if

only because they are constructive less exciting and not spectacularrdquo

Salt and the March to Freedo

Gandhi breaking the salt laws by picking up a lump of natural salt at Dandi983096983091983088 am

April 983094983089983097983091 983088Photographer unknownGandhiServe

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 26

56 57

articulation of Gandhirsquos ideas The British conquest of India in the

mid-eighteenth century had led to a state monopoly on the productio

and sale of salt and by 1878 a uniform policy on salt which criminalize

both the private manufacture of salt and the possession of salt not

derived from the colonial governmentrsquos sources had been adopted

throughout India

ldquoI regard this tax [on salt]rdquo Gandhi thus wrote to Irwin ldquoto be the mos

iniquitous of all from the poor manrsquos standpoint As the indep endenc

movement is essentially for the poorest in the land the beginning will

be made with this evil rdquo Significantly Gandhi a compulsive experi-

menter with foods had been seeking for years to minimize if noteliminate the use of salt in his own dietmdashand this is decades before

modern warnings on the dangers of sodium-rich foods But it was the

disposition of others particularly the needs of the poor which

weighed heavily on Gandhirsquos mind ldquoThere are millions in Indiardquo he

told his London audience in May 1891 when Gandhi was but 22 years

old ldquowho live upon one-third of a penny a day These poor people

have only one meal per day and that consists of stale bread and salt a

heavily taxed articlerdquo We are not surprised then that on February 27

1930 in his first lengthy critique of the salt tax Gandhi defended his

choice of targets with words reminiscent of his remarks from four

decades ago ldquoNext to air and water salt is perhaps the greatest

necessity of life It is the only condiment of the poor Cattle cannot live

without salt There is no article like salt outside water by taxing

which the State can reach even the starving millions the sick the

maimed and the utterly helpless The tax constitutes therefore the

most inhuman poll tax that the ingenuity of man can deviserdquo

Coming out of what might be termed a political retirement Gandhi

had sought to prepare the ground for the renewal of the movement

that would deliver India from colonial servitude He had searched his

mind for some action that might ignite the nation and serve as the

expression of the will of the general community The course of action

that Gandhi eventually decided up on is revealed by a remarkable letter

as unusual a document as any that is to be encountered in the gl obal

annals of political discourse that he addressed to Lord Irwin the viceroy

ldquoDear Friendrdquo he wrote to his political adversary on March 2 1930 ldquoI

cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives much less fellow human

beings even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine

Whilst therefore I hold the British rule to be a curse I do not intendharm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have

in Indiardquo Gandhi drew the viceroyrsquos attention to the myriad ways in

which India had been impoverished and bled under colonial rule

reserving his most detailed analysis for th e salaries paid to Indians and

to British officials He underscored the inequities of the system by

pointing out that while the average Indian earned less than two annas

per day or one-eighth of a rupee the British Prime Minister earned Rs

180 per day while the viceroy received Rs 700 per day more tellingly

the prime minister of Britain received 90 times more than the average

Britisher but the viceroy received ldquomuch over five thousand times

Indiarsquos average incomerdquo Apologizing for taking a ldquopersonal illustration

to drive home a painful truthrdquo Gandhi asked the vi ceroy ldquoon bended

kneerdquo to ldquoponder over this phenomenonrdquo The system of administra-

tion carried out in India founded on the ldquoprogressive exploitationrdquo of

a people reduced to political serfdom was ldquodemonstrably the most

expensive in the worldrdquo and had led to the countryrsquos ldquoruinationrdquo

If the British were not prepared to combat the various ldquoevilsrdquo afflicting

India under colonial rule Gandhi pronounced himself ready to

commence a fresh campaign of ldquocivil disobediencerdquo As he went on to

inform Irwin he intended to break the salt lawsmdasha gesture that no

doubt must have struck Irwin as bizarre considering t hat Gandhirsquos

own colleagues in the Congress Working Committee responded with

incredulity when he first broached the idea with them in mid -February

Salt had very much been on Gandhirsquos mind since he was a young man

though he may not have been possessed of the scientific findings on

saltrsquos critical role in transmitting electrical nerve i mpulses Gandhi

had struck upon the fact that it is essential in maintaining a properly

functioning body even more so in a hot climate where the risks ofdehydration are acute The first mention of the salt tax in India in

Gandhirsquos work appears in 1905 strikingly he described the salt tax as

ldquonot a small injusticerdquo in Chapter 2 of Hind Swaraj a work that he

penned in 1909 and which has ever since been viewed as the principal

983148 983137 983148

Lord Willingdonrsquos Dilemmaca983089983097983091 983089Published in the HidustanTimes with the caption

ldquoThe Government of India have hardly locked Gandhiji in than they turn round and find

that for the one Gandhiji locked in there are thousands outsiderdquo

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 36

58 59

It is wholly characteristic of Gandhi and entirely consonant with his

conception of satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) that his letter to the

viceroy describes precisely how he would violate the Salt Laws Gandhi

proposed to set out from his ashram in Ah medabad and walk the 241

miles to the sea and break the law A practitioner of satyagraha has

nothing to hide from his opponents indeed secrecy is itself a form of

violence and the practice of satyagraha demands that onersquos opponent

should be allowed every opportunity to retaliate Gandhi (a London-

trained barrister) was keen as well on conveying his acceptance of the

sovereignty of law thus his letter speaks not of the moral obligation to

violate the law but rather only a law that is unj ust and unacceptable to

onersquos conscience Since Gandhi intended no harm to the viceroy himselfor indeed to any Englishman he chose to have his letter delivered in

person by a ldquoyoung English friend who believes in the Indian cause

and is a full believer in non-violencerdquo Reginald Reynolds was moreover

a Quakermdasha representative of a strand of Christianity that had a thing

or two to teach to those C hristians who forgetful of Christrsquos own

teachings about the power of nonviolent resistance had harnessed

their faith to the project of empire The viceroy not unexpectedly

promptly wrote back to express his regret that Gandhi was again

ldquocontemplating a course of action which is clearly bound to involve

violation of the law and danger to the public peacerdquo In a letter written

to the archbishop of Canterbury Irwin was rather more forthright in

his dismissal of ldquothe silly salt stuntrdquo The Statesman the voice of the

English community in India opined that ldquoMr Gandhi has revealed his

secret His scheme of Civil Disobedience is t o go with some of his

followers to the seashore to take water from the sea and extract salt

from it by evaporation It is difficult not to laugh and we imagine that

will be the mood of most thinking Indians There is something almost

childishly theatrical in challenging in this way the salt monopoly of

the governmentrdquo

ldquoOn bended knees I asked for bread and I have received stone insteadrdquo

Gandhi remarked and making good his promise he set out on March

12 with seventy-eight of his followers and disciples from Sabarmati

Ashram on the march to Dandi on the sea Gandhirsquos long stay in South

Africa had furnished him with a precedent for the political march he

had led more than 2200 men women and children on a five day

march in November 13 from Natal to the Transvaal in protest against

repressive legislation To the people of India Gandhi wit h his staff and

purposeful stride might well have appeared to be on a religiouspilgrimage All along the way he addressed large crowds and with

each passing day an increasing number of people joined the march

The marchers kept up a lively pace none more so than Gandhi

although as the American journalist William Shirer who was to visit

him in February 1931 would later recall Gandhi ldquoseemed terribly frail

all skin and bonesrdquo his appearance was deceptivemdashhe ldquowalked four or

Gandhi and others on the Salt MarchMarch 983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownGandhiServe

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 46

60 61

Gandhi and others on the Salt March983089983097983091983088 Photographer unknown

MansellThe LIFE Picture CollectionGetty Images

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 56

62 63

five miles each morning at a pace so briskrdquo that Shirer at less than h alf

his age and ldquoin fair shape from skiing and hiking in the Alps below

Vienna could scarcely keep uprdquo with the Mahatma It is said that the

roads were watered and fresh flowers and green leaves strewn on the

path and as the satyagrahis walked they did so to the tune of one of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram On the morning

of April 6 which marked the anniversary of the commencement of the

1919

agitation against the repressive Rowlatt Acts and the initiation of

the country into the methods of nonviolent resistance Gandhi arrived

at the sea at Dandi Narayan Khare offered mellifluous renderings of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans including Vaishnavajana to short prayers

were offered and Gandhi then addressed the crowd before wading intothe water Precisely at 630 AM he picked up a small lump of natural

salt He had now broken the law Sarojini Naidu his close friend and

associate shouted ldquoHail delivererrdquo No sooner had Gandhi violated

the law than everywhere others followed suit within one week the

jails were full but the marchers kept coming Images of disciplined

nonviolent resisters being brutalized by the police mobilized world

public opinion in favor of Indian independence Though Gandhi

himself would be arrested many Indians appeared t o have thrown off

the mental shackles of colonial oppression

It has been suggested by some historians that nothing substantial was

achieved by Gandhi through this campaign of civil disobedience

Gandhi and Irwin signed a t ruce and the British Government agreed

to call a conference in London to negotiate Indiarsquos demands for

independence Gandhi was sent by the Congress as its sole representa-

tive but these 1931 negotiations proved to be inconclusive particularly

since various other Indian communities had each been encouraged by

the British to send a representative and make the claim that they were

not prepared to live in an India under the domination of the Congress

Yet never before had the British consented to negotiate directly with

the Congress and Gandhi met Irwin as his equal In this respect the

man who most loathed Gandhi Winston Churchill understood

the extent of his achievement when he declared it ldquoalarming and also

nauseating to see Mr Gandhi a seditious Middle Temple lawyer now

posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East striding half-naked

up the steps of the viceregal palace while he is still organizing and

conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience to parley on

equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperorrdquo Even

Nehru was to come to a better appreciation of Gandhi following hismarch to the sea since many Indians now appeared t o understand that

the nation had unshackled itself and achieved a symbolic emancipa-

tion ldquoStaff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujaratrdquo Nehru

had written of Gandhi ldquoclear-eyed and firm of step with his faithful

band trudging along behind him Many a j ourney he has undertaken

in the past many a weary road traversed But longer than any that

Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu on the Salt March983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownBettmannCorbis

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 66

64 65

Oppositepage Nandalal Bose (India983089983096983096983090ndash983089983097983094983094) Dandi March (Bapuji)983089983097983091983088 Linocut

on paper983089983089 1048625frasl1048626 times 983095 1048625frasl1048632 inches (983090983097983093 times 983089983096983090 cm) National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi

Above Walter Bosshard (Swiss983089983096983097983090ndash983089983097983095983093) AGroup of Volunteers Arrives at the River

983089983097983091983088 Gelatin silver print dimensionsCredit line

have gone before is this last journey of his and many are the obstacles

in his way But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love

of his miserable countrymen And love of truth that scorches and love

of freedom that inspires And none that passed him can escape the

spell and men of common clay feel the spark of life It is a long journey

for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the

exploitation of her millionsrdquo

The picture of Gandhi firm of step and walking staff in hand has

endured longer than almost any other image of him and it is through

this representation that the Bengali artist Nandalal Bose sought to

immortalize Gandhi The Salt March remains perhaps the most potentexample of both the power of concerted nonviolent resistance and the

intuitive strategies of satyagraha Gandhi sought in various ways to

insert the body into the body politic and he was always alert to the

meaning and potential of symbols An inveterate user of trains Gandhi

was yet alive to the i dea that a personrsquos feet were enough to take him

wherever he wanted He also readily opened himself up to criticism for

instance in hand-picking his marching companions he had purposely

omitted women even though they were full and active members of his

ashram community and many indeed served as his closest associates

Gandhi took the view that the presence of women might deter the

British from attacking the satyagrahis and that no such excuse should

be available to the state if it wished to offer retaliation Behind this lay

Gandhirsquos distinction between nonviolence of the strong and nonvio-

lence of the weak but his thi nking was also informed by a certain

sense of chivalry such that any triumph of nonviolence was diminished

if the playing field was not level When Gandhi waded into the sea at

Dandi thousands joined in the young and the old believers and

nonbelievers and as many women as men A revolution had been

launched one that Time Magazine recognized when in anointing

Gandhi their Man of the Year in 1930 over Stalin and Hitler it invoked

ldquothe little brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubt-

edly loom largest of allrdquo Decades later Bayard Rustin a Quaker and a

principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington and other leading

activists of the Civil Rights Movement acknowledged that Gandhirsquos

march to the sea had given them all the cues they needed to launch

ldquothe most significant civil rights demonstration since Gandhi led the

Indians to freedomrdquo One suspects that generations to come will be

reading about Gandhirsquos Dandi Marchmdashwith perhaps a pinch of salt

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 26

56 57

articulation of Gandhirsquos ideas The British conquest of India in the

mid-eighteenth century had led to a state monopoly on the productio

and sale of salt and by 1878 a uniform policy on salt which criminalize

both the private manufacture of salt and the possession of salt not

derived from the colonial governmentrsquos sources had been adopted

throughout India

ldquoI regard this tax [on salt]rdquo Gandhi thus wrote to Irwin ldquoto be the mos

iniquitous of all from the poor manrsquos standpoint As the indep endenc

movement is essentially for the poorest in the land the beginning will

be made with this evil rdquo Significantly Gandhi a compulsive experi-

menter with foods had been seeking for years to minimize if noteliminate the use of salt in his own dietmdashand this is decades before

modern warnings on the dangers of sodium-rich foods But it was the

disposition of others particularly the needs of the poor which

weighed heavily on Gandhirsquos mind ldquoThere are millions in Indiardquo he

told his London audience in May 1891 when Gandhi was but 22 years

old ldquowho live upon one-third of a penny a day These poor people

have only one meal per day and that consists of stale bread and salt a

heavily taxed articlerdquo We are not surprised then that on February 27

1930 in his first lengthy critique of the salt tax Gandhi defended his

choice of targets with words reminiscent of his remarks from four

decades ago ldquoNext to air and water salt is perhaps the greatest

necessity of life It is the only condiment of the poor Cattle cannot live

without salt There is no article like salt outside water by taxing

which the State can reach even the starving millions the sick the

maimed and the utterly helpless The tax constitutes therefore the

most inhuman poll tax that the ingenuity of man can deviserdquo

Coming out of what might be termed a political retirement Gandhi

had sought to prepare the ground for the renewal of the movement

that would deliver India from colonial servitude He had searched his

mind for some action that might ignite the nation and serve as the

expression of the will of the general community The course of action

that Gandhi eventually decided up on is revealed by a remarkable letter

as unusual a document as any that is to be encountered in the gl obal

annals of political discourse that he addressed to Lord Irwin the viceroy

ldquoDear Friendrdquo he wrote to his political adversary on March 2 1930 ldquoI

cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives much less fellow human

beings even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine

Whilst therefore I hold the British rule to be a curse I do not intendharm to a single Englishman or to any legitimate interest he may have

in Indiardquo Gandhi drew the viceroyrsquos attention to the myriad ways in

which India had been impoverished and bled under colonial rule

reserving his most detailed analysis for th e salaries paid to Indians and

to British officials He underscored the inequities of the system by

pointing out that while the average Indian earned less than two annas

per day or one-eighth of a rupee the British Prime Minister earned Rs

180 per day while the viceroy received Rs 700 per day more tellingly

the prime minister of Britain received 90 times more than the average

Britisher but the viceroy received ldquomuch over five thousand times

Indiarsquos average incomerdquo Apologizing for taking a ldquopersonal illustration

to drive home a painful truthrdquo Gandhi asked the vi ceroy ldquoon bended

kneerdquo to ldquoponder over this phenomenonrdquo The system of administra-

tion carried out in India founded on the ldquoprogressive exploitationrdquo of

a people reduced to political serfdom was ldquodemonstrably the most

expensive in the worldrdquo and had led to the countryrsquos ldquoruinationrdquo

If the British were not prepared to combat the various ldquoevilsrdquo afflicting

India under colonial rule Gandhi pronounced himself ready to

commence a fresh campaign of ldquocivil disobediencerdquo As he went on to

inform Irwin he intended to break the salt lawsmdasha gesture that no

doubt must have struck Irwin as bizarre considering t hat Gandhirsquos

own colleagues in the Congress Working Committee responded with

incredulity when he first broached the idea with them in mid -February

Salt had very much been on Gandhirsquos mind since he was a young man

though he may not have been possessed of the scientific findings on

saltrsquos critical role in transmitting electrical nerve i mpulses Gandhi

had struck upon the fact that it is essential in maintaining a properly

functioning body even more so in a hot climate where the risks ofdehydration are acute The first mention of the salt tax in India in

Gandhirsquos work appears in 1905 strikingly he described the salt tax as

ldquonot a small injusticerdquo in Chapter 2 of Hind Swaraj a work that he

penned in 1909 and which has ever since been viewed as the principal

983148 983137 983148

Lord Willingdonrsquos Dilemmaca983089983097983091 983089Published in the HidustanTimes with the caption

ldquoThe Government of India have hardly locked Gandhiji in than they turn round and find

that for the one Gandhiji locked in there are thousands outsiderdquo

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 36

58 59

It is wholly characteristic of Gandhi and entirely consonant with his

conception of satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) that his letter to the

viceroy describes precisely how he would violate the Salt Laws Gandhi

proposed to set out from his ashram in Ah medabad and walk the 241

miles to the sea and break the law A practitioner of satyagraha has

nothing to hide from his opponents indeed secrecy is itself a form of

violence and the practice of satyagraha demands that onersquos opponent

should be allowed every opportunity to retaliate Gandhi (a London-

trained barrister) was keen as well on conveying his acceptance of the

sovereignty of law thus his letter speaks not of the moral obligation to

violate the law but rather only a law that is unj ust and unacceptable to

onersquos conscience Since Gandhi intended no harm to the viceroy himselfor indeed to any Englishman he chose to have his letter delivered in

person by a ldquoyoung English friend who believes in the Indian cause

and is a full believer in non-violencerdquo Reginald Reynolds was moreover

a Quakermdasha representative of a strand of Christianity that had a thing

or two to teach to those C hristians who forgetful of Christrsquos own

teachings about the power of nonviolent resistance had harnessed

their faith to the project of empire The viceroy not unexpectedly

promptly wrote back to express his regret that Gandhi was again

ldquocontemplating a course of action which is clearly bound to involve

violation of the law and danger to the public peacerdquo In a letter written

to the archbishop of Canterbury Irwin was rather more forthright in

his dismissal of ldquothe silly salt stuntrdquo The Statesman the voice of the

English community in India opined that ldquoMr Gandhi has revealed his

secret His scheme of Civil Disobedience is t o go with some of his

followers to the seashore to take water from the sea and extract salt

from it by evaporation It is difficult not to laugh and we imagine that

will be the mood of most thinking Indians There is something almost

childishly theatrical in challenging in this way the salt monopoly of

the governmentrdquo

ldquoOn bended knees I asked for bread and I have received stone insteadrdquo

Gandhi remarked and making good his promise he set out on March

12 with seventy-eight of his followers and disciples from Sabarmati

Ashram on the march to Dandi on the sea Gandhirsquos long stay in South

Africa had furnished him with a precedent for the political march he

had led more than 2200 men women and children on a five day

march in November 13 from Natal to the Transvaal in protest against

repressive legislation To the people of India Gandhi wit h his staff and

purposeful stride might well have appeared to be on a religiouspilgrimage All along the way he addressed large crowds and with

each passing day an increasing number of people joined the march

The marchers kept up a lively pace none more so than Gandhi

although as the American journalist William Shirer who was to visit

him in February 1931 would later recall Gandhi ldquoseemed terribly frail

all skin and bonesrdquo his appearance was deceptivemdashhe ldquowalked four or

Gandhi and others on the Salt MarchMarch 983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownGandhiServe

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 46

60 61

Gandhi and others on the Salt March983089983097983091983088 Photographer unknown

MansellThe LIFE Picture CollectionGetty Images

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 56

62 63

five miles each morning at a pace so briskrdquo that Shirer at less than h alf

his age and ldquoin fair shape from skiing and hiking in the Alps below

Vienna could scarcely keep uprdquo with the Mahatma It is said that the

roads were watered and fresh flowers and green leaves strewn on the

path and as the satyagrahis walked they did so to the tune of one of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram On the morning

of April 6 which marked the anniversary of the commencement of the

1919

agitation against the repressive Rowlatt Acts and the initiation of

the country into the methods of nonviolent resistance Gandhi arrived

at the sea at Dandi Narayan Khare offered mellifluous renderings of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans including Vaishnavajana to short prayers

were offered and Gandhi then addressed the crowd before wading intothe water Precisely at 630 AM he picked up a small lump of natural

salt He had now broken the law Sarojini Naidu his close friend and

associate shouted ldquoHail delivererrdquo No sooner had Gandhi violated

the law than everywhere others followed suit within one week the

jails were full but the marchers kept coming Images of disciplined

nonviolent resisters being brutalized by the police mobilized world

public opinion in favor of Indian independence Though Gandhi

himself would be arrested many Indians appeared t o have thrown off

the mental shackles of colonial oppression

It has been suggested by some historians that nothing substantial was

achieved by Gandhi through this campaign of civil disobedience

Gandhi and Irwin signed a t ruce and the British Government agreed

to call a conference in London to negotiate Indiarsquos demands for

independence Gandhi was sent by the Congress as its sole representa-

tive but these 1931 negotiations proved to be inconclusive particularly

since various other Indian communities had each been encouraged by

the British to send a representative and make the claim that they were

not prepared to live in an India under the domination of the Congress

Yet never before had the British consented to negotiate directly with

the Congress and Gandhi met Irwin as his equal In this respect the

man who most loathed Gandhi Winston Churchill understood

the extent of his achievement when he declared it ldquoalarming and also

nauseating to see Mr Gandhi a seditious Middle Temple lawyer now

posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East striding half-naked

up the steps of the viceregal palace while he is still organizing and

conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience to parley on

equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperorrdquo Even

Nehru was to come to a better appreciation of Gandhi following hismarch to the sea since many Indians now appeared t o understand that

the nation had unshackled itself and achieved a symbolic emancipa-

tion ldquoStaff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujaratrdquo Nehru

had written of Gandhi ldquoclear-eyed and firm of step with his faithful

band trudging along behind him Many a j ourney he has undertaken

in the past many a weary road traversed But longer than any that

Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu on the Salt March983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownBettmannCorbis

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 66

64 65

Oppositepage Nandalal Bose (India983089983096983096983090ndash983089983097983094983094) Dandi March (Bapuji)983089983097983091983088 Linocut

on paper983089983089 1048625frasl1048626 times 983095 1048625frasl1048632 inches (983090983097983093 times 983089983096983090 cm) National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi

Above Walter Bosshard (Swiss983089983096983097983090ndash983089983097983095983093) AGroup of Volunteers Arrives at the River

983089983097983091983088 Gelatin silver print dimensionsCredit line

have gone before is this last journey of his and many are the obstacles

in his way But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love

of his miserable countrymen And love of truth that scorches and love

of freedom that inspires And none that passed him can escape the

spell and men of common clay feel the spark of life It is a long journey

for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the

exploitation of her millionsrdquo

The picture of Gandhi firm of step and walking staff in hand has

endured longer than almost any other image of him and it is through

this representation that the Bengali artist Nandalal Bose sought to

immortalize Gandhi The Salt March remains perhaps the most potentexample of both the power of concerted nonviolent resistance and the

intuitive strategies of satyagraha Gandhi sought in various ways to

insert the body into the body politic and he was always alert to the

meaning and potential of symbols An inveterate user of trains Gandhi

was yet alive to the i dea that a personrsquos feet were enough to take him

wherever he wanted He also readily opened himself up to criticism for

instance in hand-picking his marching companions he had purposely

omitted women even though they were full and active members of his

ashram community and many indeed served as his closest associates

Gandhi took the view that the presence of women might deter the

British from attacking the satyagrahis and that no such excuse should

be available to the state if it wished to offer retaliation Behind this lay

Gandhirsquos distinction between nonviolence of the strong and nonvio-

lence of the weak but his thi nking was also informed by a certain

sense of chivalry such that any triumph of nonviolence was diminished

if the playing field was not level When Gandhi waded into the sea at

Dandi thousands joined in the young and the old believers and

nonbelievers and as many women as men A revolution had been

launched one that Time Magazine recognized when in anointing

Gandhi their Man of the Year in 1930 over Stalin and Hitler it invoked

ldquothe little brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubt-

edly loom largest of allrdquo Decades later Bayard Rustin a Quaker and a

principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington and other leading

activists of the Civil Rights Movement acknowledged that Gandhirsquos

march to the sea had given them all the cues they needed to launch

ldquothe most significant civil rights demonstration since Gandhi led the

Indians to freedomrdquo One suspects that generations to come will be

reading about Gandhirsquos Dandi Marchmdashwith perhaps a pinch of salt

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 36

58 59

It is wholly characteristic of Gandhi and entirely consonant with his

conception of satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) that his letter to the

viceroy describes precisely how he would violate the Salt Laws Gandhi

proposed to set out from his ashram in Ah medabad and walk the 241

miles to the sea and break the law A practitioner of satyagraha has

nothing to hide from his opponents indeed secrecy is itself a form of

violence and the practice of satyagraha demands that onersquos opponent

should be allowed every opportunity to retaliate Gandhi (a London-

trained barrister) was keen as well on conveying his acceptance of the

sovereignty of law thus his letter speaks not of the moral obligation to

violate the law but rather only a law that is unj ust and unacceptable to

onersquos conscience Since Gandhi intended no harm to the viceroy himselfor indeed to any Englishman he chose to have his letter delivered in

person by a ldquoyoung English friend who believes in the Indian cause

and is a full believer in non-violencerdquo Reginald Reynolds was moreover

a Quakermdasha representative of a strand of Christianity that had a thing

or two to teach to those C hristians who forgetful of Christrsquos own

teachings about the power of nonviolent resistance had harnessed

their faith to the project of empire The viceroy not unexpectedly

promptly wrote back to express his regret that Gandhi was again

ldquocontemplating a course of action which is clearly bound to involve

violation of the law and danger to the public peacerdquo In a letter written

to the archbishop of Canterbury Irwin was rather more forthright in

his dismissal of ldquothe silly salt stuntrdquo The Statesman the voice of the

English community in India opined that ldquoMr Gandhi has revealed his

secret His scheme of Civil Disobedience is t o go with some of his

followers to the seashore to take water from the sea and extract salt

from it by evaporation It is difficult not to laugh and we imagine that

will be the mood of most thinking Indians There is something almost

childishly theatrical in challenging in this way the salt monopoly of

the governmentrdquo

ldquoOn bended knees I asked for bread and I have received stone insteadrdquo

Gandhi remarked and making good his promise he set out on March

12 with seventy-eight of his followers and disciples from Sabarmati

Ashram on the march to Dandi on the sea Gandhirsquos long stay in South

Africa had furnished him with a precedent for the political march he

had led more than 2200 men women and children on a five day

march in November 13 from Natal to the Transvaal in protest against

repressive legislation To the people of India Gandhi wit h his staff and

purposeful stride might well have appeared to be on a religiouspilgrimage All along the way he addressed large crowds and with

each passing day an increasing number of people joined the march

The marchers kept up a lively pace none more so than Gandhi

although as the American journalist William Shirer who was to visit

him in February 1931 would later recall Gandhi ldquoseemed terribly frail

all skin and bonesrdquo his appearance was deceptivemdashhe ldquowalked four or

Gandhi and others on the Salt MarchMarch 983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownGandhiServe

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 46

60 61

Gandhi and others on the Salt March983089983097983091983088 Photographer unknown

MansellThe LIFE Picture CollectionGetty Images

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 56

62 63

five miles each morning at a pace so briskrdquo that Shirer at less than h alf

his age and ldquoin fair shape from skiing and hiking in the Alps below

Vienna could scarcely keep uprdquo with the Mahatma It is said that the

roads were watered and fresh flowers and green leaves strewn on the

path and as the satyagrahis walked they did so to the tune of one of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram On the morning

of April 6 which marked the anniversary of the commencement of the

1919

agitation against the repressive Rowlatt Acts and the initiation of

the country into the methods of nonviolent resistance Gandhi arrived

at the sea at Dandi Narayan Khare offered mellifluous renderings of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans including Vaishnavajana to short prayers

were offered and Gandhi then addressed the crowd before wading intothe water Precisely at 630 AM he picked up a small lump of natural

salt He had now broken the law Sarojini Naidu his close friend and

associate shouted ldquoHail delivererrdquo No sooner had Gandhi violated

the law than everywhere others followed suit within one week the

jails were full but the marchers kept coming Images of disciplined

nonviolent resisters being brutalized by the police mobilized world

public opinion in favor of Indian independence Though Gandhi

himself would be arrested many Indians appeared t o have thrown off

the mental shackles of colonial oppression

It has been suggested by some historians that nothing substantial was

achieved by Gandhi through this campaign of civil disobedience

Gandhi and Irwin signed a t ruce and the British Government agreed

to call a conference in London to negotiate Indiarsquos demands for

independence Gandhi was sent by the Congress as its sole representa-

tive but these 1931 negotiations proved to be inconclusive particularly

since various other Indian communities had each been encouraged by

the British to send a representative and make the claim that they were

not prepared to live in an India under the domination of the Congress

Yet never before had the British consented to negotiate directly with

the Congress and Gandhi met Irwin as his equal In this respect the

man who most loathed Gandhi Winston Churchill understood

the extent of his achievement when he declared it ldquoalarming and also

nauseating to see Mr Gandhi a seditious Middle Temple lawyer now

posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East striding half-naked

up the steps of the viceregal palace while he is still organizing and

conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience to parley on

equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperorrdquo Even

Nehru was to come to a better appreciation of Gandhi following hismarch to the sea since many Indians now appeared t o understand that

the nation had unshackled itself and achieved a symbolic emancipa-

tion ldquoStaff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujaratrdquo Nehru

had written of Gandhi ldquoclear-eyed and firm of step with his faithful

band trudging along behind him Many a j ourney he has undertaken

in the past many a weary road traversed But longer than any that

Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu on the Salt March983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownBettmannCorbis

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 66

64 65

Oppositepage Nandalal Bose (India983089983096983096983090ndash983089983097983094983094) Dandi March (Bapuji)983089983097983091983088 Linocut

on paper983089983089 1048625frasl1048626 times 983095 1048625frasl1048632 inches (983090983097983093 times 983089983096983090 cm) National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi

Above Walter Bosshard (Swiss983089983096983097983090ndash983089983097983095983093) AGroup of Volunteers Arrives at the River

983089983097983091983088 Gelatin silver print dimensionsCredit line

have gone before is this last journey of his and many are the obstacles

in his way But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love

of his miserable countrymen And love of truth that scorches and love

of freedom that inspires And none that passed him can escape the

spell and men of common clay feel the spark of life It is a long journey

for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the

exploitation of her millionsrdquo

The picture of Gandhi firm of step and walking staff in hand has

endured longer than almost any other image of him and it is through

this representation that the Bengali artist Nandalal Bose sought to

immortalize Gandhi The Salt March remains perhaps the most potentexample of both the power of concerted nonviolent resistance and the

intuitive strategies of satyagraha Gandhi sought in various ways to

insert the body into the body politic and he was always alert to the

meaning and potential of symbols An inveterate user of trains Gandhi

was yet alive to the i dea that a personrsquos feet were enough to take him

wherever he wanted He also readily opened himself up to criticism for

instance in hand-picking his marching companions he had purposely

omitted women even though they were full and active members of his

ashram community and many indeed served as his closest associates

Gandhi took the view that the presence of women might deter the

British from attacking the satyagrahis and that no such excuse should

be available to the state if it wished to offer retaliation Behind this lay

Gandhirsquos distinction between nonviolence of the strong and nonvio-

lence of the weak but his thi nking was also informed by a certain

sense of chivalry such that any triumph of nonviolence was diminished

if the playing field was not level When Gandhi waded into the sea at

Dandi thousands joined in the young and the old believers and

nonbelievers and as many women as men A revolution had been

launched one that Time Magazine recognized when in anointing

Gandhi their Man of the Year in 1930 over Stalin and Hitler it invoked

ldquothe little brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubt-

edly loom largest of allrdquo Decades later Bayard Rustin a Quaker and a

principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington and other leading

activists of the Civil Rights Movement acknowledged that Gandhirsquos

march to the sea had given them all the cues they needed to launch

ldquothe most significant civil rights demonstration since Gandhi led the

Indians to freedomrdquo One suspects that generations to come will be

reading about Gandhirsquos Dandi Marchmdashwith perhaps a pinch of salt

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 46

60 61

Gandhi and others on the Salt March983089983097983091983088 Photographer unknown

MansellThe LIFE Picture CollectionGetty Images

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 56

62 63

five miles each morning at a pace so briskrdquo that Shirer at less than h alf

his age and ldquoin fair shape from skiing and hiking in the Alps below

Vienna could scarcely keep uprdquo with the Mahatma It is said that the

roads were watered and fresh flowers and green leaves strewn on the

path and as the satyagrahis walked they did so to the tune of one of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram On the morning

of April 6 which marked the anniversary of the commencement of the

1919

agitation against the repressive Rowlatt Acts and the initiation of

the country into the methods of nonviolent resistance Gandhi arrived

at the sea at Dandi Narayan Khare offered mellifluous renderings of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans including Vaishnavajana to short prayers

were offered and Gandhi then addressed the crowd before wading intothe water Precisely at 630 AM he picked up a small lump of natural

salt He had now broken the law Sarojini Naidu his close friend and

associate shouted ldquoHail delivererrdquo No sooner had Gandhi violated

the law than everywhere others followed suit within one week the

jails were full but the marchers kept coming Images of disciplined

nonviolent resisters being brutalized by the police mobilized world

public opinion in favor of Indian independence Though Gandhi

himself would be arrested many Indians appeared t o have thrown off

the mental shackles of colonial oppression

It has been suggested by some historians that nothing substantial was

achieved by Gandhi through this campaign of civil disobedience

Gandhi and Irwin signed a t ruce and the British Government agreed

to call a conference in London to negotiate Indiarsquos demands for

independence Gandhi was sent by the Congress as its sole representa-

tive but these 1931 negotiations proved to be inconclusive particularly

since various other Indian communities had each been encouraged by

the British to send a representative and make the claim that they were

not prepared to live in an India under the domination of the Congress

Yet never before had the British consented to negotiate directly with

the Congress and Gandhi met Irwin as his equal In this respect the

man who most loathed Gandhi Winston Churchill understood

the extent of his achievement when he declared it ldquoalarming and also

nauseating to see Mr Gandhi a seditious Middle Temple lawyer now

posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East striding half-naked

up the steps of the viceregal palace while he is still organizing and

conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience to parley on

equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperorrdquo Even

Nehru was to come to a better appreciation of Gandhi following hismarch to the sea since many Indians now appeared t o understand that

the nation had unshackled itself and achieved a symbolic emancipa-

tion ldquoStaff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujaratrdquo Nehru

had written of Gandhi ldquoclear-eyed and firm of step with his faithful

band trudging along behind him Many a j ourney he has undertaken

in the past many a weary road traversed But longer than any that

Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu on the Salt March983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownBettmannCorbis

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 66

64 65

Oppositepage Nandalal Bose (India983089983096983096983090ndash983089983097983094983094) Dandi March (Bapuji)983089983097983091983088 Linocut

on paper983089983089 1048625frasl1048626 times 983095 1048625frasl1048632 inches (983090983097983093 times 983089983096983090 cm) National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi

Above Walter Bosshard (Swiss983089983096983097983090ndash983089983097983095983093) AGroup of Volunteers Arrives at the River

983089983097983091983088 Gelatin silver print dimensionsCredit line

have gone before is this last journey of his and many are the obstacles

in his way But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love

of his miserable countrymen And love of truth that scorches and love

of freedom that inspires And none that passed him can escape the

spell and men of common clay feel the spark of life It is a long journey

for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the

exploitation of her millionsrdquo

The picture of Gandhi firm of step and walking staff in hand has

endured longer than almost any other image of him and it is through

this representation that the Bengali artist Nandalal Bose sought to

immortalize Gandhi The Salt March remains perhaps the most potentexample of both the power of concerted nonviolent resistance and the

intuitive strategies of satyagraha Gandhi sought in various ways to

insert the body into the body politic and he was always alert to the

meaning and potential of symbols An inveterate user of trains Gandhi

was yet alive to the i dea that a personrsquos feet were enough to take him

wherever he wanted He also readily opened himself up to criticism for

instance in hand-picking his marching companions he had purposely

omitted women even though they were full and active members of his

ashram community and many indeed served as his closest associates

Gandhi took the view that the presence of women might deter the

British from attacking the satyagrahis and that no such excuse should

be available to the state if it wished to offer retaliation Behind this lay

Gandhirsquos distinction between nonviolence of the strong and nonvio-

lence of the weak but his thi nking was also informed by a certain

sense of chivalry such that any triumph of nonviolence was diminished

if the playing field was not level When Gandhi waded into the sea at

Dandi thousands joined in the young and the old believers and

nonbelievers and as many women as men A revolution had been

launched one that Time Magazine recognized when in anointing

Gandhi their Man of the Year in 1930 over Stalin and Hitler it invoked

ldquothe little brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubt-

edly loom largest of allrdquo Decades later Bayard Rustin a Quaker and a

principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington and other leading

activists of the Civil Rights Movement acknowledged that Gandhirsquos

march to the sea had given them all the cues they needed to launch

ldquothe most significant civil rights demonstration since Gandhi led the

Indians to freedomrdquo One suspects that generations to come will be

reading about Gandhirsquos Dandi Marchmdashwith perhaps a pinch of salt

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 56

62 63

five miles each morning at a pace so briskrdquo that Shirer at less than h alf

his age and ldquoin fair shape from skiing and hiking in the Alps below

Vienna could scarcely keep uprdquo with the Mahatma It is said that the

roads were watered and fresh flowers and green leaves strewn on the

path and as the satyagrahis walked they did so to the tune of one of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram On the morning

of April 6 which marked the anniversary of the commencement of the

1919

agitation against the repressive Rowlatt Acts and the initiation of

the country into the methods of nonviolent resistance Gandhi arrived

at the sea at Dandi Narayan Khare offered mellifluous renderings of

Gandhirsquos favorite bhajans including Vaishnavajana to short prayers

were offered and Gandhi then addressed the crowd before wading intothe water Precisely at 630 AM he picked up a small lump of natural

salt He had now broken the law Sarojini Naidu his close friend and

associate shouted ldquoHail delivererrdquo No sooner had Gandhi violated

the law than everywhere others followed suit within one week the

jails were full but the marchers kept coming Images of disciplined

nonviolent resisters being brutalized by the police mobilized world

public opinion in favor of Indian independence Though Gandhi

himself would be arrested many Indians appeared t o have thrown off

the mental shackles of colonial oppression

It has been suggested by some historians that nothing substantial was

achieved by Gandhi through this campaign of civil disobedience

Gandhi and Irwin signed a t ruce and the British Government agreed

to call a conference in London to negotiate Indiarsquos demands for

independence Gandhi was sent by the Congress as its sole representa-

tive but these 1931 negotiations proved to be inconclusive particularly

since various other Indian communities had each been encouraged by

the British to send a representative and make the claim that they were

not prepared to live in an India under the domination of the Congress

Yet never before had the British consented to negotiate directly with

the Congress and Gandhi met Irwin as his equal In this respect the

man who most loathed Gandhi Winston Churchill understood

the extent of his achievement when he declared it ldquoalarming and also

nauseating to see Mr Gandhi a seditious Middle Temple lawyer now

posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East striding half-naked

up the steps of the viceregal palace while he is still organizing and

conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience to parley on

equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperorrdquo Even

Nehru was to come to a better appreciation of Gandhi following hismarch to the sea since many Indians now appeared t o understand that

the nation had unshackled itself and achieved a symbolic emancipa-

tion ldquoStaff in hand he goes along the dusty roads of Gujaratrdquo Nehru

had written of Gandhi ldquoclear-eyed and firm of step with his faithful

band trudging along behind him Many a j ourney he has undertaken

in the past many a weary road traversed But longer than any that

Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu on the Salt March983089983097983091983088

Photographer unknownBettmannCorbis

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 66

64 65

Oppositepage Nandalal Bose (India983089983096983096983090ndash983089983097983094983094) Dandi March (Bapuji)983089983097983091983088 Linocut

on paper983089983089 1048625frasl1048626 times 983095 1048625frasl1048632 inches (983090983097983093 times 983089983096983090 cm) National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi

Above Walter Bosshard (Swiss983089983096983097983090ndash983089983097983095983093) AGroup of Volunteers Arrives at the River

983089983097983091983088 Gelatin silver print dimensionsCredit line

have gone before is this last journey of his and many are the obstacles

in his way But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love

of his miserable countrymen And love of truth that scorches and love

of freedom that inspires And none that passed him can escape the

spell and men of common clay feel the spark of life It is a long journey

for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the

exploitation of her millionsrdquo

The picture of Gandhi firm of step and walking staff in hand has

endured longer than almost any other image of him and it is through

this representation that the Bengali artist Nandalal Bose sought to

immortalize Gandhi The Salt March remains perhaps the most potentexample of both the power of concerted nonviolent resistance and the

intuitive strategies of satyagraha Gandhi sought in various ways to

insert the body into the body politic and he was always alert to the

meaning and potential of symbols An inveterate user of trains Gandhi

was yet alive to the i dea that a personrsquos feet were enough to take him

wherever he wanted He also readily opened himself up to criticism for

instance in hand-picking his marching companions he had purposely

omitted women even though they were full and active members of his

ashram community and many indeed served as his closest associates

Gandhi took the view that the presence of women might deter the

British from attacking the satyagrahis and that no such excuse should

be available to the state if it wished to offer retaliation Behind this lay

Gandhirsquos distinction between nonviolence of the strong and nonvio-

lence of the weak but his thi nking was also informed by a certain

sense of chivalry such that any triumph of nonviolence was diminished

if the playing field was not level When Gandhi waded into the sea at

Dandi thousands joined in the young and the old believers and

nonbelievers and as many women as men A revolution had been

launched one that Time Magazine recognized when in anointing

Gandhi their Man of the Year in 1930 over Stalin and Hitler it invoked

ldquothe little brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubt-

edly loom largest of allrdquo Decades later Bayard Rustin a Quaker and a

principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington and other leading

activists of the Civil Rights Movement acknowledged that Gandhirsquos

march to the sea had given them all the cues they needed to launch

ldquothe most significant civil rights demonstration since Gandhi led the

Indians to freedomrdquo One suspects that generations to come will be

reading about Gandhirsquos Dandi Marchmdashwith perhaps a pinch of salt

983148 983137 983148

7212019 Salt and the March to Freedom

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullsalt-and-the-march-to-freedom 66

64 65

Oppositepage Nandalal Bose (India983089983096983096983090ndash983089983097983094983094) Dandi March (Bapuji)983089983097983091983088 Linocut

on paper983089983089 1048625frasl1048626 times 983095 1048625frasl1048632 inches (983090983097983093 times 983089983096983090 cm) National Gallery of Modern ArtNew Delhi

Above Walter Bosshard (Swiss983089983096983097983090ndash983089983097983095983093) AGroup of Volunteers Arrives at the River

983089983097983091983088 Gelatin silver print dimensionsCredit line

have gone before is this last journey of his and many are the obstacles

in his way But the fire of a great resolve is in him and surpassing love

of his miserable countrymen And love of truth that scorches and love

of freedom that inspires And none that passed him can escape the

spell and men of common clay feel the spark of life It is a long journey

for the goal is the independence of India and the ending of the

exploitation of her millionsrdquo

The picture of Gandhi firm of step and walking staff in hand has

endured longer than almost any other image of him and it is through

this representation that the Bengali artist Nandalal Bose sought to

immortalize Gandhi The Salt March remains perhaps the most potentexample of both the power of concerted nonviolent resistance and the

intuitive strategies of satyagraha Gandhi sought in various ways to

insert the body into the body politic and he was always alert to the

meaning and potential of symbols An inveterate user of trains Gandhi

was yet alive to the i dea that a personrsquos feet were enough to take him

wherever he wanted He also readily opened himself up to criticism for

instance in hand-picking his marching companions he had purposely

omitted women even though they were full and active members of his

ashram community and many indeed served as his closest associates

Gandhi took the view that the presence of women might deter the

British from attacking the satyagrahis and that no such excuse should

be available to the state if it wished to offer retaliation Behind this lay

Gandhirsquos distinction between nonviolence of the strong and nonvio-

lence of the weak but his thi nking was also informed by a certain

sense of chivalry such that any triumph of nonviolence was diminished

if the playing field was not level When Gandhi waded into the sea at

Dandi thousands joined in the young and the old believers and

nonbelievers and as many women as men A revolution had been

launched one that Time Magazine recognized when in anointing

Gandhi their Man of the Year in 1930 over Stalin and Hitler it invoked

ldquothe little brown man whose 1930 mark on world history will undoubt-

edly loom largest of allrdquo Decades later Bayard Rustin a Quaker and a

principal architect of the 1963 March on Washington and other leading

activists of the Civil Rights Movement acknowledged that Gandhirsquos

march to the sea had given them all the cues they needed to launch

ldquothe most significant civil rights demonstration since Gandhi led the

Indians to freedomrdquo One suspects that generations to come will be

reading about Gandhirsquos Dandi Marchmdashwith perhaps a pinch of salt

983148 983137 983148