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South Asia

Mar 23, 2005

'Salt march' tainted by controversy
By Raja M

MUMBAI - Reliving a crucial event in India's history, the salt protest is marching again, 75 years after Mahatma Gandhi strode out to non-violently battle the British Empire with a handful of salt. Dubbed the "International Walk for Peace, Justice and Freedom", the commemorative 2005 salt march trudged off from the Mahatma's Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on March 12 and hopes to peacefully conclude in Mumbai on April 7.

Over 300 participants, including about 50 from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, South Africa and the United States, are walking the 385 kilometer journey to Dandi beach in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The oldest participant is a 104-year-old man and the youngest a 13-year-old schoolgirl. Simultaneous marches are also being held worldwide, including in Pakistan, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

But controversy hovered when the organizers - Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar Gandhi, his Mumbai-based Mahatma Gandhi Foundation and the Congress Party - received verbal artillery from Mahatma's surviving followers, who accused Tushar Gandhi of using the 75th anniversary to bolster his stagnant political career. Their allegation was stoked when Congress president Sonia Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi) flagged off the start after prayers at Sabarmati Ashram.

Tushar Gandhi brushed away the controversies. "Even if a political party is involved, what's stopping the Gandhians from being involved in the event? Frankly, they are using politics as an excuse for their non-participation," Gandhi told Asia Times Online during a post-lunch halt in Boriavi, on the fifth day of the march. "They say the younger generation should learn about Bapu [an affectionate honorific commonly used to address Mahatma Gandhi] and it's events like these that bring the young into the Gandhi spectrum."

India's young continue to value Gandhi, according to Deepankar Sadekar, a 26-year-old graphic designer who works with the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. "When I came here first, this was just a job to me," said Sadekar. "But when I came to know more about Bapuji's life, I was very inspired."

Bhavik Shah, a 30-year old Internet entrepreneur, said he still values the Mahatma. But just as in the evening of Gandhi's lifetime, honoring Gandhi in India more often means lip service and anniversary photo-ops for politicians and visiting dignitaries than living the simple life he advocated.

Born as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and dying by an assassin's bullets as the "Father of the Nation", Mahatma (meaning "great soul") Gandhi found himself sidelined in the power struggle that erupted soon after India's independence in 1947. India, a growing economic powerhouse that holds Gandhi in an auto-mode reverence, could do well to remember his famous admonition: "The world has enough for human needs, but not enough for human greed."

On April 6, 1930, the then 61-year-old Mahatma Gandhi used sea salt to change a nation's history. The ruling British government imposed a salt tax and declared that Indians could no longer sell or produce salt available freely from India's long coastline. The poor had to buy salt from a British monopoly.

"I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint," Mahatma Gandhi responded to the salt tax. "As the independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil."

The Mahatma's seemingly innocuous protest march, the salt satyagraha (satyagraha meaning "holding fast to the truth") began from his headquarters at Sabarmati Ashram with 78 volunteers and reached Dandi beach on April 6, 1930. He evaporated seawater, clutched a handful of salt and was recorded as having said, "With this, I am shaking the foundation of the British Empire."

The Mahatma urged anyone willing to risk police assault and a prison stay to likewise produce salt. Over 60,000 protestors courted arrest, with many being killed or wounded by police brutality. After a year of struggle, the British government agreed to negotiate with the Congress.

The salt satyagraha was the first of the nationwide non-violent civil disobedience movement that Mahatma Gandhi successfully waged against British rule. He called the salt protest a battle of "right against might".

In a strange twist of irony, India's salt industry has threatened to disrupt the 2005 Dandi march in protest against the government's new salt tax. Salt is being taxed for the first time since India's independence. A new value added tax (VAT) comes to life from April 1, ignoring opposition from traders and some Indian state governments. The VAT (a consumption tax levied at every stage of production based on the value added to the product at that stage) on salt levies a 4% tax on processed and branded salt. With the new tax, revenues are expected to increase by 20%.

In even deeper irony, Mahatma Gandhi's home state of Gujarat will suffer the most from the new tax as 80% of branded salt that India consumes comes from this Western Indian state. Gujarat is expected to produce 12 million tonnes of salt in 2005, up from 500,000 tonnes at the time of independence.

Trade organizations such as the Gandhidham Salt Manufacturers Association told the media that the industry cannot sustain the tax burden, particularly the smaller salt manufacturing units. The salt industry employs 100,000 directly.

Controversies do not seem to have as yet disrupted the salt march of 2005. Describing the response as "phenomenal", Tushar Gandhi said he was surprised by the extent of warmth with which villagers en route welcomed participants. "What touched me most was the hope that I saw in their eyes," Gandhi told ATol. "It was almost as if they expected another Mahatma to come and solve their problems."

Participation in the march is free of cost and modest facilities are offered. The marchers camp in tents in villages, sleep on mats on the floor and eat simple vegetarian food. "The food supplied, whether cooked or uncooked, should be the simplest possible," Mahatma Gandhi had instructed for his historic march to Dandi. "Sweets, even if prepared, will be declined. Vegetables should be boiled, and no oil, spices be added." For himself, Mahatma Gandhi had asked for goat's milk thrice a day, raisins or dates and three lemons.

A Gandhi look-alike walks on the same trail that a frail old man with a strong stick and and an even stronger heart took 75 years ago to win freedom for his country. Modern day salt taxes or not, the basic idea of the 75th salt satyagraha anniversary march, said the Mahatma's grandson, is to give the world a chance to "find Bapu for themselves".

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