Gandhi stunned onlookers by bathing at an “untouchable” well at the village of Dabhan, and during another stop in Gajera, he refused to begin his speech until the untouchables were allowed to sit with the rest of the audience. In addition to lambasting the Raj, Gandhi also used his speeches to lecture on the injustices of the Indian caste system, which labeled the lowest classes “untouchable” and deprived them of certain rights. The New York Times and other media outlets began following the walk’s progress, quoting Gandhi as he denounced the salt tax as “monstrous” and chided the British for “being ashamed to arrest me.” “A government job gives you the power to tyrannize over others.”Īs Gandhi and his followers inched toward the western coastline, thousands of Indians joined their ranks, transforming the small cadre of protestors into a miles-long procession. “What is government service worth, after all?” he asked during a stop at the city of Nadiad. He also encouraged government workers to embrace his philosophy of noncooperation by quitting their jobs. Gandhi paused at dozens of villages along the route to address the masses and condemn both the Raj and the salt tax. With Gandhi setting a brisk pace at its head, the column crossed the countryside at a rate of roughly 12 miles per day. Gandhi, fourth from the left, walking with followers on the Salt March toward Dandi where they plan to break the English backed salt laws. The 60-year-old expected to be arrested or even beaten during the journey, but the British feared a public backlash and elected not to quash the march. There, he planned to defy the salt tax by illegally harvesting the mineral from the beachside. Clad in a homespun shawl and sandals and holding a wooden walking stick, he set off on foot from his ashram near Ahmedabad with several dozen companions and began an overland trek to the Arabian Sea town of Dandi. Irwin offered no formal response, and at dawn on March 12, 1930, Gandhi put his plan into action. “My ambition,” he wrote, “is no less than to convert the British people through nonviolence and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.” If ignored, he promised to launch a satyagraha campaign. On March 2, he penned a letter to British Viceroy Lord Irwin and made a series of requests, among them the repeal of the salt tax. Its effects cut across religious and class differences, harming both Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor. Another colleague compared the proposed protest to striking a “fly” with a “sledgehammer.” Yet for Gandhi, the salt monopoly was a stark example of the ways the Raj unfairly imposed Britain’s will on even the most basic aspects of Indian life. “We were bewildered and could not fit in a national struggle with common salt,” remembered Jawaharlal Nehru, later India’s first prime minister. Many of Gandhi’s comrades were initially skeptical. Since salt was a nutritional necessity in India’s steamy climate, Gandhi saw the salt laws as an inexcusable evil. Īs with many other commodities, Britain had kept India’s salt trade under its thumb since the 19th century, forbidding natives from manufacturing or selling the mineral and forcing them to buy it at high cost from British merchants. My best wishes to all for a peaceful and restful week.Female members of the Indian National Congress during the Gandhi inspired Indian independence uprising known as the Salt March. Note: I will be away for the next week camping at the beach. This is a worthy summer reflection for those of us who give advice to others in the name of educational change. Gandhi lived in such integrity that he would not allow himself to give advice unless he was living by it himself. Mother, two weeks ago I was still eating sugar myself.” Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here to see you?” The boy’s mother turned to Gandhi and asked, The boy nodded and promised he would not continue this habit any longer. He looked directly at the boy and said,īoy, you should stop eating sugar. Gandhi motioned for them to come forward. Two weeks later she returned, boy in hand. She took the boy by the hand and went home. The woman looked perplexed and wondered why he had not asked the boy to stop eating sugar. Gandhi listened to the woman carefully, turned and spoke to her son, Would you please advise him to stop eating it?” She approached the great leader respectfully and said, Totally frustrated, she decided to take her son to see his great hero Mahatma Gandhi. No matter how much she chided him, he continued to satisfy his sweet tooth. There is a story of a woman in India who was upset that her son was eating too much sugar. Why? Because we are required to model the behaviors we want other to adapt. No one is required to change more than those of us who present ourselves as leaders of educational reform and transformation.
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