Low
shows Gandhi and Irwin secured on the beach at Dandi
after the historic 24-day march from Sabarmati Ashram
and exchanging courtesies in the presence of the huge
procession which had followed Gandhi on foot. Gandhi's
advice to the nation was that since the "technical
or ceremonial" breach of the salt law had been
committed, "it is now open to anyone who would take
the risk of prosecution under the salt law to
manufacture salt, whenever he wishes and wherever it is
convenient."
Gandhi
and Co., Salt
THE
SHOP THAT WAS HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD
Year
- 1930
The
Congress Working Committee met in February 1930 and
decided on civil disobedience to promote the objective
of genuine self-rule. But what shape would this protest
take? Gandhi indicated that it would be resistance to
the salt tax. Writing in Young India, his
English weekly, he observed: "There is no article
like salt, outside water, by taxing which the State can
reach even the starving millions, the rich, the maimed
and utterly helpless. The tax constitutes, therefore,
the most inhuman poll tax the ingenuity of man can
devise." His decision aroused worldwide interest,
as this American cartoon shows.
Gandhi
The
European and American Press reported the civil
disobedience movement extensively and with deep
sympathy. Cartoonists in these countries also took up
the cause of Indian independence. In this drawing
which appeared in Kladderadatsch, a very
popular humorous weekly of Berlin between the two
world wars, India is shown moving inexorably towards
freedom under the guidance of Gandhi despite the
frantic efforts of the British establishment to halt
it by brute force.
Move Over
Year
- 1930
Gandhi
reached Dandi on April 5, and soon after prayers the
next morning he broke the salt law by symbolically
picking up a lump of natural salt from the seashore.
This was the signal for civil disobedience on a
national scale. The Government retaliated with
severe, brutal repression. Gandhi was arrested on
May 4. Great sympathy for the satyagrahis was
aroused in many countries, and among those who
expressed support for Gandhi was Governor Al Smith
of New York State, the Democratic candidate for the
presidency of the United States in 1928.
