The Salt March and its contemporary relevance

April 6, 2015 was the 85^th anniversary of the Salt March Gandhi led. Quite a few researchers and friends ask me to reflect on the glory of that great event and its contemporary relevance.

“Great  March for Liberty Begins” and “India under Revolt”-- these were the headlines in some of the prominent newspapers about the Salt March of 1930  under Gandhi which began on 12 March  from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi sea shores, about 200 miles away. In Gandhi’s words he was seeking “world sympathy in this battle of Right against Might”.

The Salt March today is viewed globally as an extremely important landmark in the history of popular movements in the world for freedom and justice. It was reported by media and historians that over 5 million people joyfully participated in this novel and exciting program braving all kinds of hardships.

 The selection of salt and the much criticized and despised Salt Act for expressing the indignation of a suppressed nation and its resolute and growing determination of the masses to stand up and send a clear and loud message to the colonial exploiters urging them to read the writing on the wall also revealed Gandhi’s  gift and penchant for fight. To him remaining silent was ‘a crime against man and God’. About the choice of salt Gandhi said,“…like a flash it came as you know it was enough to shake the country from one end to the other”.

It might be of interest to remember that even Gandhi’s close associates like Motilal Nehru,Vallabhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru were initially apprehensive of Gandhi’s identification of salt for fight.  Gandhi’s son Devdas was also reported to have had reservation on Gandhi’s choice of salt as well as the timing of the program.

The British officials almost dismissed it as inconsequential while The Statesman  newspaper described contemptuously: “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 Government”.

 Later events showed that Gandhi’s selection of an item like the common salt and an unjustifiable tax imposed by the Colonial Government to challenge the might of the British Empire revealed his profound understanding of popular sentiment.

The British Government had made manufacture of salt a government monopoly. Even a coastal family was not to manufacture salt for its own use. It was this Act, which Gandhi wanted to violate. It was a repugnant, most iniquitous and unjustifiable Act. Gandhi had also a moral point in this. Salt is the primary necessity of even the poorest people in the country. And the poorest man also would have to pay tax on his salt, which was pretty heavy. Out of the price paid by the poor consumer, 50 per cent went to the Government as tax.

Gandhi’s decision to challenge the Act by leading a march to the sea in order to take salt illegally from its waters clearly symbolized the Indians' refusal to recognize the authority of the government. Gandhi was also confident of the multiple impact the Salt March might create elsewhere.

 “I hope the whole of Gujrat will join this time. If Gujrat takes the initiative, I have no doubt the whole of India will rise up…I  therefore, look upon this struggle as the final test. If countless multitudes join the struggle and if peace is preserved, we shall win swaraj sooner than we imagine”(CWMG,Vol.XL111,March-June1930,p31-33).

Gandhi warned the Viceroy, Lord Irwin on March 2, 1930  of his intentions, saying, "If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for me poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil".

Gandhi further argued, "The salt tax oppresses all alike. It hits the poor man hardest, whatever be his religious persuasions. Indeed not even the dumb cattle are immune to their tax. The little babe   and the invalid and the aged all suffer alike from this iniquitous tax… who can be against the poor man's”.

The plan of action was that Gandhi would lead a march to some spot, educating people en route and pick up salt, thus violating the law. He was to be accompanied only by the members of his Ashram at Sabarmati. Others in different parts of India were to wait until he was arrested. True to the Gandhian strategy of maintaining transparency, Gandhi wrote to the viceroy on his plans. His letter was ignored by the Viceroy. A four-line acknowledgement from his secretary was all that Gandhi got, "His Excellency...regrets to learn that you contemplate a course of action which is clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace which drew anguished response from Gandhi, “I asked for bread and received a stone instead".

About the total absence of other methods Gandhi said, "I was a believer in the politics of petitions, deputations, and friendly negotiations. But all these have gone to dogs. I know that these are not the ways to bring this government around. Sedition has become my religion. Ours is a nonviolent battle. We are not to kill anybody but it is our Dharma (duty) to see that the curse of the government is blotted out".

Consequently, left with no option, Gandhi took up the violation of the Salt Act as the first item of civil disobedience as it would involve the entire population of the country. He exhorted people to make their own salt as far as possible and to violate that unjust and colonial Act. He disclosed that he would march with 78 inmates of the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, over 200 miles off from Sabarmati.

Dandi, at one time, a lighthouse station, afterwards it was more or less an abandoned seaside village came to prominence as all of a sudden after Gandhi announced his plans.  Natural salt was available on the beach. The batch of satyagrahis was selected from amongst the inmates of the Ashram so as to represent all the provinces of India as also of Nepal and Fiji. There were also men of all classes and religions, and of all languages. From the highest class Brahmin up to the untouchables, all classes of men were included in this batch. "Except for the children and women and a few grown-up workers, the Sabarmati Ashram was preparing itself to march at the appointed hour".

As announced, just a little before daybreak on the morning of 12th March, Gandhi with his 78 volunteers left the Ashram on a campaign of civil disobedience. Their destination was the  village of Dandi on the sea coast near Jalalpur where Gandhi was to break the law regarding the manufacture of salt.

Streams of Khaddar-clad men and women had flowed to the Sabarmati Ashram all through night to have a glimpse of Gandhi and witness the great march. Among them were journalists and cameramen from far and near and correspondents of some British papers as well. It turned out to be a great event, the first of its kind in human history.

The Bombay Chronicle described the situation: "The scenes that preceded, accompanied and followed this great national event, were so enthusiastic, magnificent and soul-stirring that indeed they begged description. Never was  there a wave of patriotism so powerful in the hearts of mankind, as it was on this great occasion which is bound to go down to the chapters of the history of India's national freedom as a great beginning of a Great Movement."

What Gandhi said about his aim created ripples in the minds of many people both in India and abroad, "My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through nonviolence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India. I do not seek to harm your people. I want to serve them even as I want to serve my own".

Gandhi with a gentle smile betokening his undying faith in the justice of the cause he was pursuing and in the success of the great campaign he had embarked upon, began at the head of the procession to march with quick steps. The historic march thus to the sea had begun. The whole of India looked up to Gandhi with breathless admiration and people in thousands lining up the entire route from Sabarmati to Dandi.

Krishnalal Sridharani, one of the marchers recalled, "…it reminded them of the wanderings of the Buddha to free the minds of men. As we marched, people came to us with flowers and coconuts, bedecking as if we were horses of sacrifice".

As the procession marched through village after village, Gandhi spoke at all the halting stations, urging the people to take to Khaddar, to stop drinking of alcohol, to give up co-operation with Government and join the ranks of the Satyagraha. At Aslali he told his followers that he would either die on the way or else keep away from the Ashram until Swaraj had been won.

This was an expression of despair, said his critics; while his own followers were moved to their depths.

"I have no intention of returning to the Ashram until I succeed in getting the salt tax repealed", said Gandhi. He exhorted villagers to take to the spinning wheel, to look to the sanitation of the village and to treat the untouchables with brotherly love.

It was also trying time for Gandhi. He had to walk 12 kilometers a day for 24 days and keep the morale of his followers high. The response from the public was unprecedented and it appeared that the entire country was up in revolt and his brand of nonviolence was under severe test.   Sir P.C Ray said, "Mahatma Gandhi's historic march was like the exodus of Israelites under Moses. Until the Seer seized the Promised Land, he won't turn his back".

Gandhi and his party reached Dandi on the morning of the 5th April. Mrs Sarojini Naidu, a close disciple of Gandhi who was endearingly addressed as the nightingale of India had also gone there to see the Mahatma.  Interviewed by the Associated Press immediately after his arrival at Dandi,   Gandhiji said : God be thanked for what may be termed the happy ending of the first stage in this, for me at least, the final struggle for freedom. I cannot withhold my compliments from the Government for the policy of complete non-interference adopted by them throughout the march.

Gandhi's prayer on the morning of the 6th was more than usually solemn. In the course of his speech he observed that if he was arrested, they should take orders from Mr.Abbas Tyabjee and if he, too, was removed, from Mrs. Sarojini Naidu. He paid a tribute to both these leaders and asked the volunteers implicitly to obey them. Gandhiji concluded his address by asking the visitors not to offer Satyagraha that day, but to do so the next day. 

Gandhi considered his offer of Civil Disobedience as great Yagna and he evidently did not want demonstrations, proceeding out of motives other than spiritual, to be associated with this great movement.

Soon after prayers, Gandhi with his volunteers and Seth Punjabhai of Ahmedabad, proceeded exactly at 6 in the morning for a bath in the sea. A large crowd accompanied the party. Gandhi was walking at a slow pace in grave solemnity and entered the water of the sea amidst loud cries of 'Mahatma Gandhi-ki-jai’.

This was a signal for revolt all over India; the only difference being in the weapon being used. Instead of the usual weapons of destruction, Gandhi was appealing people to put to use their power to suffer and not to retaliate even under extreme provocation. The whole of India responded when millions came on to the scene, marched to the nearest sea shores along the long sea belts of India trying to make salt. Thousands were brutalized, beaten without mercy, put behind the bars. The whole of India appeared a vast prison. The Government certainly did not abolish the Salt Act in its entirety.

The question as to what the march achieved is to be answered from the totality of circumstances.

What the world witnessed was the emergence of a new weapon with flawless accuracy and telling effects the use of peaceful militancy. What Tagore wrote in Manchester Guardian after a few days indicated the triumphant mood of the people and the moral victory Gandhi scored over the issue.

There has never been any such issue which touched the general texture of the daily life of  various categories of people which any leader  had taken up to create mass awareness and ensure large scale participation.

The impact of the March which commenced with 79 marchers led by Gandhi, covering a distance of over 200 miles in 24 days was felt the whole length and breadth of the country besides attracting the attention of international media creating the ominous portents of an impending Revolution.

Though the principal focus of the campaign was the abolition of the tax on Salt, initially limited to the campaign tract from Sabarmati to Dandi shores in the Gujrat province, very soon in a few days the campaign assumed the shape of tidal waves sweeping across the whole of India and salt became the symbol of resistance and rallying point of suppressed Indians and slowly was snowballing into a gigantic protest movement against colonial exploitation and suppression of rights.

As the marchers winded their way forward and Gandhi addressed huge meetings en route the Empire and its wrong policies and their refusal to grant freedom to Indians became the talking points.

The 11 point demand Gandhi cleverly made to the Viceroy no longer remained a petition or a political agitator’s bargaining counter but it soon acquired the cutting edge of a sharp arrow crafted carefully by Gandhi. Every line of the letter eloquently expressed the power of nonviolence and reflected the steely determination of a nonviolent crusader whose language was couched in polite expressions.

Addressing the Viceroy as  “Dear friend”, Gandhi took care to maintain stoic firmness  in the articulation of his arguments but  he was polite enough. The demands had the inherent power to cause deeper hemorrhage in the body politics of a bewildering Empire. Let us take a look at the demands:

1)Total prohibition,2)A better rupee/shilling ration,3)Halving of land revenue,4)Abolition of Salt Tax,5)Halving of military expenditure,6)Reduction in official salaries,7)Tariffs on foreign cloth,8)Reservation of coastal shipping for Indian ships,9)Release of political prisoners save convicted for murder or attempted murder,10) Abolition of the Criminal Intelligence Department or control over it by elected representatives,and11)The right of Indians to licensed firearms.

As Jawaharlal Nehru described the impact of the Salt March spread like a “Prairie fire”. It soon assumed the form of the Magna Carta of Indian Freedom Movement.

Louis Fisher’s description was a fairly accurate picture: India bubbled with excitement and curiosity. Scores of foreign and domestic corresponded dogged Gandhi’s footsteps in the ashram: what exactly could he do? Thousands surrounded the village and waited. The excitement spread abroad.Cables kept the Ahmedabad post office humming.”God Guard you”,the Reverend Dr John Haynes Holmes  wired from New York, (the Bombay Chronicle,13 March,1930)

Gandhi, all through his career from earlier days in South Africa to the last act of fasting  for communal harmony a few days before he was assassinated in Delhi on the lawns of the erstwhile Birla House, remained a master tactician and astute judge ‘of popular sentiments’.

And the Salt March continues to be one of the most dramatic and inspired episodes of mass participation in human history. Civil Rights activists, Human Right champions and freedom fighters in several parts of the world were influenced by it. Martin Luther King (Jr),Nelson Mandela, Solidarity Leader Le Walesa, Hochimin and many others  who led successful people’s campaigns against oppression took a leaf from the campaign mode of Gandhi. Some of the ongoing campaigns of today in many countries also seem to have been inspired by the Salt March under Gandhi.