A Pinch of Salt Rocks An Empire

Chapter - 3

Gandhiji started making preparations for the civil disobedience campaign. And as March 11 drew nearer, India bubbled with excitement.
Gandhiji explained what he meant by satyagraha and what a satyagrahi was expected to do. A satyagrahi looked upon all men as brothers. He believed that the practice of love and self-suffering would bring about a change of heart in his opponent. He had faith that the power of love was great enough to melt the stoniest heart.
Satyagraha was a peaceful way and did not create bitterness as violence did.
Gandhiji declared that cowardice and love "do not go together any more than water and fire". A satyagrahi must have courage and love to be able to face violence and still love his opponent and try to change his heart. A satyagrahi's lack of fear and his faith in truth gave him the courage to challenge evil, no matter how great the odds against him. A satyagrahi appealed to the commonsense and morality of his adversary through words, purity, humility, honesty and self-suffering.
Gandhiji believed that ends and means should be equally pure. Based on this thinking, Gandhiji published in Young India the rules for satyagrahis. Some of these were as follows:-

1. A satyagrahi, that is, a civil resister, will harbour no anger.
2. He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
3. He will put up with assaults from the opponent but will not retaliate.
4. When a person in authority seeks to arrest him, he will submit to the arrest.
5. A civil resister will not insult his opponent.
6. A civil resister will not salute the Union Jack, nor will he insult it.

In the course of the struggle if anyone insults or assaults a government official, a civil resister will protect him. Gandhiji also laid down rules of conduct for satyagrahis who were arrested and sent to prison. As a prisoner, a satyagrahi was to behave courteously to prison officials and follow the prison discipline. A satyagrahi was not to behave in a superior manner to ordinary prisoners, nor was he to ask for special treatment. He was to eat prison food if it was cleanly cooked and served and refuse to eat food served insultingly or in unclean vessels.
On going to prison or losing his life a satyagrahi was not to expect maintenance for his family and dependents. Last, but not least, a satyagrahi was not to take part in communal quarrels. In case of such a quarrel he was not to take sides, but was to help whoever was in the right.
In Young India was also published the punishment for breaking the salt law so that thesatyagrahis might know what to expect.
Mahatma Gandhi set a high standard of conduct for himself and expected the same from his followers. He wanted political power for India so that the life of the masses could be improved, but he was sure in his mind that if power could only be got by wrong means, he would rather do without it. So, a satyagrahi had to follow the highest standards of conduct and to believe in truth and non-violence.
Satyagraha could take various forms like fasting, non-violent picketing, non-cooperation, civil disobedience and willingness to suffer legal penalties. But no matter how the satyagrahi was treated, he should not be violent or have hatred for his opponent.
Gandhiji insisted that all satyagrahis should wear khadi.
It was Mahatma Gandhi's intention to march to the sea and pick up the salt lying there. It lay in great white sheets along the seashore, a gift from the sea that the people were forbidden to pick up and use.
It took several days to select the place where the Salt Satyagraha would start. A three-member selection committee was formed and it visited several places on the Gujarat coast. Various places in Surat district were considered before Dandi, near Navsari, was chosen. One drawback was that this remote village did not have enough drinking water. But the citizens of Navsari promised to send drinking water to Dandi in tankers. The three-member team recommended the village to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of his earliest associates in the freedom struggle, who got it approved by Gandhiji.
Meanwhile, the All India Congress Committee too was preparing for the campaign. Volunteers were being enrolled and given training, especially in controlling large crowds. They drilled regularly, but without arms.
Though Gandhiji was yet to set the date for the march, people flocked to Ahmedabad as they knew that it could not be long delayed. News of the Satyagraha had spread all over the world and Indian and foreign newspaper correspondents crowded into Ahmedabad and the Sabarmati ashram.
On January 1, 1930, a foreign newspaper had written, "In England and India the crisis is not yet a topic of general conversation...... and in India itself millions of people know nothing about it."
But by March almost everyone in England, India and much of the rest of the world knew what was happening.
Letters and telegrams kept pouring into the Ahmedabad post office. From New York, the Reverend Dr. John Haynes Holmes sent a message to Gandhiji, "God guard you". From Germany a doctor wrote, "A humble fellow pilgrim is praying for you and your work every morning and evening."
The days were tense. Sardar Patel had gone to Borsad to prepare the villagers to give Mahatma Gandhi and his band of satyagrahis a fitting welcome. He made stirring speeches, telling the people, "Give up your wedding festivities; a people at war with a mighty government cannot afford to indulge in these pastimes... I know some of you are afraid of your lands being confiscated. What is confiscation? Will they take away your land to England?..... I want to inoculate you with fearlessness."
For making such spirited speeches, Sardar Patel was arrested at Ras. Hearing of it, a crowd of 75,000 people gathered on the sands of the Sabarmati and passed a resolution:
"We the citizens of Ahmedabad determine hereby that we shall go the same path as Vallabhbhai Patel and we shall attain full independence while attempting to do so. Without achieving freedom for our country we shall not rest in peace, nor will we give the government peace."
While everyone else was tense and excited, Gandhiji carried on with his usual routine of spinning, answering letters, writing in his diary, meeting visitors, playing with the ashram children and holding prayer meetings.
At the prayer meetings there would be recitations from the Gita, the Koran and the Bible. Gandhiji believed in one God, no matter by what name people called Him and how they worshipped Him. And the hymn that he asked the crowd to sing, "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram", laid emphasis on this. After prayers, Gandhiji would address the crowd.
On March 10, Gandhiji spoke at his prayer meeting about the coming march and the non-violent nature of the struggle. He told the people:
"Though the battle is to begin in a couple of days how is it that you can come here quite fearlessly? I do not think any of you would be here if you had to face rifle shots or bombs. But you have no fear of rifle shots or bombs. Why?
"Supposing I had announced that I was going to launch a violent campaign, do you think the government would have left me free until now? Can you show me an example in history where the state has tolerated open defiance of authority for a single day? But here you know the government is puzzled. And you have come here because you have been familiarized by now with the idea of seeking voluntary imprisonment."
The people listened attentively as Gandhiji continued: "I would ask you to go a step further. Suppose ten men in each of the seven lakhs of villages in India come forward to manufacture salt and to disobey the Salt Act, what do you think this government can do? Even the worst autocrat would not dare to blow regiments of peaceful resisters out of a cannon's mouth. If only you bestir yourself just a little, I assure you we should be able to tire this government out in a very short time.
"I don't want any money from you.... I want you to take your courage in both your hands and contribute in men towards the struggle....May God give you the strength to rise to the occasion."