History Recalled – 83 years before, 12th March 1930 ... in India

History Recalled – 83 years before , 12th March 1930 ... in India

Today a close colleague of mine , Mr.Sushil  Vispute , from Ahmedabad  reminded me by a mail communication that this day , 12^th March  is the anniversary of Salt Satyagraha of Mahtma Gandhi . He knows my interest in Gandhian activities and he was the person who took me to Sabarmati Asharam , after 40 years , when I visited Ahmedabad.  I am really thankful to him on his concern and interest in keeping me posted  about the great news of  83 years old history  recalled with a national spirit. This made me to write a blog on past history , an event  of national importance that made British to  feel the strength of Satyagraha. My recent trip to Ahmedabad and visit to Sabarmati Ashram  again kindles my thought to write this.

A painting com model in Sabarmati Ashram depicting the great Dandi March led by Mahatma

The Dandi March, also mainly known as the Salt Satyagraha, began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930, and was an important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly.

Mahatma Gandhi  led the Dandi march from his base, Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad, to the sea coast near the village of Dandi. As he continued on this 24 day, 240 mile (390 km) march to produce salt without paying the tax, growing numbers of Indians joined him along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws at 6:30 am on April 6, 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians.^[1] The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitude towards Indian independence^[2][3] and caused large numbers of Indians to join the fight for the first time.

After making salt at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, producing salt and addressing meetings on the way. His party planned to stage a satyagraha at the Dharasana Salt Works, 25 miles south of Dandi. However, Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of May 4–5, 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana.

During India's independence struggle, C. Rajagopalachari, who would later become independent India's first Governor-General, launched a salt march in Vedaranyam parallel to the Dandi March launched by Gandhi in 1930 to protest against the sales tax levied on salt extraction.

C. Rajagopalachariar (Rajaji) led 100 chosen Congress volunteers to walk 150 miles in 15 days from Tiruchirapalli to Vedaranyam, then in Thanjavur District, to make salt at the seashore and defy British Government's prohibition of its manufacture without licence.

At 3.30 a.m. that day, Rajaji and his 10-member group were stealthily led in darkness through a short-cut to reach the salt marsh at Agastiampatti, two miles away from Vedaranyam. When Rajaji and others collected salt, it was already 6.00 a.m. A posse of policemen headed by a superintendent of police reached the spot and arrested Rajaji alone. In the afternoon, he was produced before the local magistrate and was sentenced to six months simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 200, or another three months in jail. Rajaji preferred additional three months. He was whisked away to Tiruchirapalli by train.

Nehru considered the Salt Satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi, and felt that its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians.

More than thirty years later, Satyagraha and the March to Dandi exercised a strong influence on American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and his fight for civil rights for blacks in the 1960s.

We must salute those who sacrificed their life in the freedom struggle . Long live our independence.