The Dandi March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, began on
12th March 1930 and was an important part of the Indian independence movement. 
Original vedio
The idea of the Salt March against oppressive
British laws was for Mahtama Gandhi to show the world how the Raj unfairly
imposed Britain's will on even the most basic aspects of Indian life.
Not many know that it was Dr Pranjivandas
Jagjivandas Mehta, a Kathiawadi who Mahatma Gandhi described as his “greatest
friend and benefactor“, with whom Bapu had intense discussions on the idea of
the Salt March almost a decade before he set off on it. History books today
have little to say about this associate of Gandhi, who had a profound impact on
Bapu's life and his Satyagraha movement in India.
“In a letter to the Mahatma, dated 8 September
1920, Pranjivandas urged Bapu the recognize the urgent necessity of a
widespread and vigorous agitation against the salt tax, a question he had been
interested in for years,“ says S R Mehrotra, in his book `The Mahatma and the
Doctor The Untold Story of Dr Pranjivan Mehta'. Mehrotra is a retired historian
from Himachal Pradesh University who is a visiting fellow at St John's College,
Cambridge University. He says Pranjivandas had been a close friend of Gandhi
since the latter's days in London to study law. “Mehta was greatly excited when
Gandhi launched the non-co operation movement in 1921 and wanted to return to
India to take part in it. He was terribly concerned about the poverty of India,
especially of the debt-ridden peasantry , and often sent Gandhi suggestions for
social and economic improvement of the masses, especially the rural poor,“ says
Mehrotra, in a recent essay . Mehta suffered a major stroke by the mid-1920,
while at his home in Burma. He had to spend most of 1920 and 1921in Europe for
treatment.
Mehta came to India in 1926 and again in 1929,
to discuss the Salt March and other issues. Exactly one year before Gandhi
embarked on the historic march, he visited Mehta in Burma in March 1929. Mehta,
was crippled and in poor health. When Gandhi announced that he would embark on
the march to Dandi, Mehta secured his permission to come to India and join the
salt satyagraha.His poor health however prevented this. Mehta died in 1932. On
August 4, 1932 Gandhi wrote to his friend and associate Henry Polak, “I have
lost a lifelong faithful friend.“
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
