Recently our fight against the British rule is proving to be stronger. We are each day getting closer to our goal. On March 12, 78 male satyagrahis and I launched the Satyagraha March to protest against the salt taxes that the British started and the law against manufacturing our own salt. Salt is necessary for our culture, and comes from our soil. Why is the British claiming it is theirs to sell? Our salt can be cultivated on our beaches, on our land. But we must pay the British? This is just one of their many ways of exploiting us. We had walked a total of 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi, in a span three weeks. Not only were the 78 men involved but woman were too. Woman were involved by protesting and selling our own salt. We collected sea salt, as well. The salt march involved all classes but mostly peasants because the salt tax had a bigger impact on them. I am very proud of the people who fought for our independence. Although I feel like we have accomplished our goal, I know that there is yet to be an actual change in the minds of the colonists. Because our protest was peaceful, we have put the British in a difficult situation for if they were to interfere how would it look to the rest of the world. “I cannot withhold my compliments from the government for the policy of complete non interference adopted by them throughout the march ....I wish I could believe this non-interference was due to any real change of heart or policy. The wanton disregard shown by them to popular feeling in the Legislative Assembly and their high-handed action leave no room for doubt that the policy of heartless exploitation of India is to be persisted in at any cost, and so the only interpretation I can put upon this non-interference is that the British Government, powerful though it is, is sensitive to world opinion which will not tolerate repression of extreme political agitation which civil disobedience undoubtedly is, so long as disobedience remains civil and therefore necessarily non-violent .... It remains to be seen whether the Government will tolerate as they have tolerated the march, the actual breach of the salt laws by countless people from tomorrow(1)” Although it seems like we have won, we know that the British’s are afraid of the consequences and of critizm from the rest of the world if they violently fight back. This is proving our strategy of peace, is a strategy that is working to our benefit.
(1) Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi 43: 180, Wolpert, p. 148
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvuo_NZcjo
^ This is a video with clips from the Salt March
