When Gandhi called Indians to break the infamous Salt
Law, many people thought it to be another eccentricity
of the Mahatma. In fact, It was an ingenious idea that
reminded every Indian that an exploiting British government
had even taxed the cheapest food ingredients like salt.
By encouraging Indians to break this law Gandhi wanted
to involve Indian masses, including the poorest of the
poor, to defy the unjust law imposed by an oppressive
foreign government.
The march began on the
morning of the 12th March 1930. A 25-year old disciple,
Sumangal Prakash, was then living in Gandhi's Sabarmati
Ashram, Ahmedabad and he was one of those 78 lucky
Ashram residents whom Gandhi picked up to accompany him
during the march.
Vijay Rana, the editor of
History Talking.com met Sumangal Prakash in 1985 at his
residence in Pahar Ganj in Delhi. He had to search him
for more than an hour and nobody in the neighbourhood
knew him.
Dressed in hand washed
Khadi Kurta, the frail old man was living in pretty
austere conditions. His sitting room barely had any
furniture except a clean white bed and a broken plastic
cane chair, that he offered to his interviewer. His
loving old wife poured tea from an aluminum kettle. It
was an humbling experience to be with them.
While narrating the story
of Dandi March, his voice was filled with such energy
and enthusiasm that I could never imagine from such a
old man. In this extraordinary interview Sumangal
Prakash gives the graphic account of the morning of 12th
March 1930 and also when Gandhi arrived in Dandi.
This is perhaps the only
surviving eyewitness account of the historic Dandi
March.
To listen click
here
(Hindi)
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