Dandi march as seen by his disciple

LONDON: A new version of Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi march has come to light thanks to his disciple Sumangal Prakash, an eye witness to the historic event of March 12, 1930. According to History Talking.com, Britain's leading Asian web-radio, which had an interview with Prakash in June 1985, the facts of the case are quite different. Prakash said, "Our historians have committed a mistake. They have written that Gandhi reached Dandi, and there was salt already lying on the shore. "This is not how it hap- pened. In fact, after full moon, patches of seawater were formed at many places on the shore and from one of these patches, muddy sea water was collected in a tumbler. Then it was boiled on a temporary fireplace made of two bricks. We could extract only about a half a tola or about 5gms of salt. Then in the evening, we had a public meeting in Dandi where that salt was auctioned by Gandhi's secretary Mahadev Bhai. "That little salt was bought for Rs 500 by Ranachhod Bhai, who later became the president of Delhi congress. That's how it happened." Vijay Rana, Editor, History Talking.com, in a statement last night claimed that Prakash, whom he interviewed in June 1985 at his residence in in Delhi, was one of those 78 people Gandhi chose to accompany him in the historic salt march. During the interview, Prakash gave a graphic account of the morning of 12th March 1930. "We could't sleep that night because Sabarmati Ashram was surrounded by thousands of people from all over India. We came out of ashram sharp at five minutes to six. Five minutes later Gandhiji arrived and we began the historic journey."

Agencies

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20050408/0804147.htm