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Civil Disobedience

85th Anniversary of the Dandi March – March 12, 1930 – Gandhi & The Salt Satyagraha

Mar 11th, 2015
by Frank.
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Gandhi’s SALT MARCH – India 2005 Mini Sheet – 75 Anniversary of Dandi March (Salt March)

The Salt March, which took place from March to April 1930 in India, was an act of civil disobedience led by Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) to protest British rule in India. During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his religious retreat near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea coast, a distance of some 240 miles. The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. India finally was granted its independence in 1947.

SALT MARCH: BACKGROUND
Britain’s Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet. Citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from the British, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also exerted a heavy salt tax. Although India’s poor suffered most under the tax, Indians required salt. Defying the Salt Acts, Mohandas Gandhi reasoned, would be an ingeniously simple way for many Indians to break a British law nonviolently. (British rule of India began in 1858. After living for two decades in South Africa, where he fought for the civil rights of Indians residing there, Gandhi returned to his native country in 1915 and soon began working for India’s independence.) Gandhi declared resistance to British salt policies to be the unifying theme for his new campaign of “satyagraha,” or mass civil disobedience. – The History Channel [www.history.com/topics/salt-march]

The Salt March Monument, New Delhi, India – CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

The Congress Seva Dal will celebrate the 85th anniversary of Dandi Yatra on March 12 by organising a yatra in Baroda. The Congress Seva Dal today said the yatra will start from Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s statue in the city and culminate at Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at Gandhinagar Guru hall. All India Congress Seva Dal secretary Pratap Narayan Mishra and Gujarat Congress Seva Dal chief Mangal Singh Solanki and a large number of activists will take part in the event. Father of the Nation Mahatama Gandhi in 1930 had led the Dandi March or Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal village of Dandi. [news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20140310/2354790.html] – WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015 – Web India 123

Use of Vintage Style Signage in Film – Gandhi (1982) – Sir Richard Attenborough (29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014)

Dec 11th, 2014
by Frank.
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Pietermaritzburg Train Station

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Pietermaritzburg is also famous for an incident early in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. On 7 June 1893, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white man objected to Gandhi’s presence in a first-class carriage, and he was ordered to move to the van compartment at the end of the train. Gandhi, who had a first-class ticket, refused, and was thrown off the train at Pietermaritzburg. Shivering through the winter night in the waiting room of the station, Gandhi made the momentous decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination against Indians there. Out of that struggle emerged his unique version of nonviolent resistance,Satyagraha. Today, a bronze statue of Gandhi stands in Church Street, in the city centre. – Wikipedia

The centennial commemorative statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center of downtown Pietermaritzburg, South Africa – Photo taken by Elefuntboy 2014

Johannesburg

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Mohandas Gandhi, centre, surrounded by workers in his law office in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1902. (Courtesy of the Guardian UK – Photograph: AP

Wemmer Mining Company

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Screenshot from the Academy Award winning film Gandhi (1982) by Sir Richard Attenborough

Mohandas K. Gandhi is arrested as he leads a march of Indian miners in South Africa

Date: 6 November, 1913

On his journey to South Africa in 1893, Mohandas Gandhi had first -hand experience of the discrimination faced by people of colour. His response to this was the establishment of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in 1894. Within three years of his arrival in South Africa, Gandhi had become a political leader, providing hope to many Indians who had no political rights under the dispensation of the time. In 1903, he founded a newspaper, the Indian Opinion, in which his ideas on passive resistance or Satyagraha were spread. Some years later, an act was introduced in which all Indians in the Transvaal were required to carry a pass. Under Gandhi’s leadership, 3000 Indians protested against the law by refusing to register for their passes. This became known as the 1906 Satyagraha Campaign.

By 1913, a tax had been imposed on all former indentured labourers, known as the Indian Relief Bill. In protest of this, Gandhi launched a passive resistance campaign, gaining the support of thousands of mine workers. While leading a march on 6 November 1913, which included 127 women, 57 children and 2037 men, Gandhi was arrested. He was released on bail, rejoined the march and was re-arrested. The Indian Relief Bill was finally scrapped.

Gandhi returned to India, and through his consistent passive opposition to British rule, led his country to independence. His philosophy on passive resistance was drawn on significantly during the fight against apartheid. The Defiance Campaign in 1952 can be seen as an example of this. – South African History Online

Martin Nicholson’s collection of South African goldmines on postcards. CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE [www.martin-nicholson.info/postcardarchive/goldmining/goldmining.htm]

Google Books

Dharasana Satyagraha & Salt Works – Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Violence Legacy

Dec 10th, 2014
by Frank.
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Screenshot from the Academy Award Winning Richard Attenborough film Gandhi (1982)

Courtesy of CalPeacePower dot org

Rare Newspapers dot com

APRIL 7, 1930

THE DAY, New London, Connecticut, April 7, 1930

* Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma) 
* Salt march (salt satyagraha) ends
* Dandi, India

The Salt Satyagraha was a campaign of non-violent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India which began with the Salt March to Dandi on March 12, 1930. It was the first act of organized opposition to British rule after Purna Swaraj, the declaration of independence by the Indian National Congress. Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi march from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt tax free, with growing numbers of Indians joining him along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws in Dandi at the conclusion of the march on April 6, 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians.

Gandhi was arrested on May 5, 1930, just days before his planned raid on the Dharasana Salt Works. The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage. The satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi’s release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference. Over 80,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha. The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitudes toward Indian independence, and caused large numbers of Indians to actively join the fight for the first time, but failed to win major concessions from the British.

The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi’s principles of non-violent protest called satyagraha, which he loosely translated as “truth-force.” In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian independence from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organize the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating of hundreds of non-violent protesters in Dharasana, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice. The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and his fight for civil rights for blacks and other minority groups in the 1960s.

Screenshot from the Academy Award Winning Richard Attenborough film Gandhi (1982)

Screenshot from the Academy Award Winning Richard Attenborough film Gandhi (1982)

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