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Thousands begin replay of Gandhi protest march
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-13 09:29
Thousands of people began the long march across a vast expanse of arid
western India to honour the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, India's independence hero
and apostle of non-violence.
Congress Party
members set off on the reenactment of the Salt March on the 75th
anniversary of the famous Salt March (Dandhi March) in Ahmedabad, in the
western state of Gujarat. Thousands of people began the long march across
a vast expanse of arid western India to honour the legacy of Mahatma
Gandhi, India's independence hero and apostle of non-violence.
[AFP] | The re-enactment of Gandhi's famous "salt
march" of 1930 from Ahmedabad to coastal Dandi village in western Gujarat state,
was flagged off amid much pomp and show by ruling Congress party president,
Italian-born Sonia Gandhi.
Similar marches to mark the 75th anniversary of one of the first acts of
defiance in India's fight for independence from Britain were to be held in 15
cities around the world including in Durban, South Africa where Gandhi took his
first political steps.
Amid the burst of camera flashes and the blare of prayer songs, Sonia Gandhi
led the first batch of marchers, walking with them for a distance of about five
kilometers (three miles) on a freshly washed road strewn with flowers in this
major Gujarat city.
Cries of "Long Live Mahatma Gandhi" broke the early-morning silence at
Sabarmati Ashram, a cluster of huts on the banks of Sabarmati river which once
served as Gandhi's hermitage and is now a museum.
Before setting off, Sonia Gandhi, accompanied by several federal ministers,
administered a pledge to those assembled to carry forward the Mahatma's message
of "peace and non-violence."
Congress party
President Sonia Gandhi, center, participates in the Dandi Yatra, a
re-enactment of the historic march undertaken by mahatma Gandhi in 1930,
in Ahmadabad, India, Saturday, March 12, 2005.
[Reuters] | Cheered by schoolchildren waving
national flags, she and her followers reached the city main square where she
garlanded a statue of the freedom fighter before seeing off the batch of
marchers who will trek all the way to Dandi.
The 388-kilometre (241-mile) journey was undertaken by Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi, also called "Mahatma" or "a great soul," to protest the monopoly of the
British colonial authorities over the production of salt in India.
After traveling through numerous villages and small towns, sleeping under the
open sky and eating frugal meals, Gandhi, then aged 61, reached Dandi, a natural
salt-producing beach, on April 6.
Watched by thousands, he picked up a lump of salt and broke it in defiance of
a ban on Indians producing salt. The act sparked mass civil disobedience across
India, leading to thousands of arrests including that of Gandhi.
But it is credited as having marked the turning point in the independence
movement, with the British administration eventually being forced to open formal
talks with Indian freedom fighters and granting independence in 1947.
Seventy-five years later, however, Congress leaders lamented that not much
had changed since 1930.
"Why do we need a Dandi march today? Because his (Gandhi's) dreams have yet
to be fulfilled," said federal Sports Minister Sunil Dutt.
"I have done three trips to Dandi for this march and I was pained to see that
much has not changed since 1930," said Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma
Gandhi who now runs the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, a co-organiser of the march.
"The villages are perhaps as poor as they were in 1930. We have not been able
to provide the poor even basic sanitation facilities," he said.
Several foreigners from countries such as Australia, Britain, China and the
United States joined in the march.
"I believe in Gandhi's philosophy and I have come to walk in this march which
I see as a spiritual cleansing exercise," said Linda Kataley, a Florida-based
builder.
The 26-day journey will break overnight at all the same places where Gandhi
stopped. Food will be simple and beds will be piles of hay under the open sky or
on mats inside tents.
Keeping in mind the sensitivities of conservative rural India, foreign
nationals particularly women have been asked not to wear shorts or thin fabric
tops.
But in a distinctly modern twist, a makeshift Internet cafe on a cart drawn
by camels will accompany the marchers so they can send off emails and
journalists can file stories, organisers said.
"It's wrong to say that this is a hi-tech yatra (journey)," said a Congress
leader, Pankaj Shankar.
"The purpose of this march is to spread awareness about Gandhi among the
younger generation. If it is taking place at a time when everyone has a mobile
phone then it is not our fault."
Sonia Gandhi was born in Italy but married into the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty,
which is not related to the famed freedom fighter.
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