smash-pacifism-zine

egan in February 1928, primarily against excessive land
taxes imposed on the peasants. A majority of the 87,000
peasants were organized to not pay the tax.
Despite arrests and the confiscation of property, the
campaign eventually succeeded in gaining reforms from the
government, including the release of prisoners, reduction in
taxes, and even compensation for damages. Although the
movement was organized by local peasants,
Gandhi's advice was sought throughout the
campaign and his public association with it
helped revive his status as a champion of the
poor. Meanwhile, within the INC, new and
younger voices were also rising, calling for
greater action and renewed militancy for
independence.
In December 1928, the INC issued a
resolution calling on the British to accept their
proposal for Dominion status, threatening
another campaign of civil disobedience if it was
not accepted within a year. During that time,
Gandhi worked to expand the boycott of foreign
clothing and to promote the manufacture of
homemade clothing (khadi) through spinningwheels.
He would constantly promote this work,
which he saw as necessary for self-sufficiency,
an act of decolonization, an economic boycott,
and a meditative form of labour. The campaign
had limited success, however. The local clothing
produced was heavy and rough, and not always cheaper
than those imported from England.
Gandhi's extensive speaking tours, during which he
promoted the spinning-wheel and pacifism, also kept him in
the public spotlight and maintained his image as a man of
the people. It also resulted in large sums of money being
raised through donations, which he collected on behalf of
the poor.
By the end of 1929, as the INC awaited a response
from the British on their ultimatum, political tension
increased with revolutionary groups escalating their attacks
on police and government officials. When the British failed
to respond favourably to the INC proposal, Gandhi was
given a mandate to carry out the campaign of civil
disobedience, which he had been planning for during the
previous year. Gandhi chose to focus on the salt tax, a
measure imposed by the British in the 19th century that
forbid the individual manufacture and possession of salt,
similar to taxes on alcohol and opium at the time.
Salt March, 1930
Gandhi's “Salt March” began on March 12, 1930,
with a group of 78 men from his commune in Ahmedabad.
They walked for 24 days over a 241 mile route to Dand, a
coastal village to the south. The march itself has been noted
for its religious symbolism (a shepherd with his staff,
leading his flock, all dressed in white, on a pilgrimage to a
'holy site').
By the time the procession arrived on April 5, there
were several thousand onlookers who followed, but who
were distinctly separate from the tightly controlled pilgrims
of Gandhi's flock. There was also extensive media and film
coverage.
Gandhi ritually cleansed
himself in the sea and then
proceeded to collect salt from
the shoreline. This act of protest
was widely publicized, both
nationally and internationally,
and attracted widespread
support among Indians. It was
a profound propaganda success.
The salt tax was an ideal
target because it was clearly
unjust—salt was naturally
available and yet the British
claimed a monopoly on it.
Some regions of India even
imported salt from England.
The tax was an issue Gandhi
believed could unite all Indians,
irregardless of class, religion,
ethnicity, or gender. As it was
not a critical resource for the
British, it also carried less risk of harsh repression. It also
challenged the legitimacy and morality of an imperial
power that deprived its colonial subjects of a basic, easily
accessible, and essential, native resource. As with many
aspects of Gandhi's satyagraha, the salt tax was not a new
idea. It had been a source of agitation, and a target for civil
disobedience, for decades.
Following the April 5 taking of salt, the second
phase of the campaign began, with widespread collection
and manufacture of salt by previously selected and trained
protesters, at times comprised of crowds forming protective
circles around boiling pots of sea water. Other protests
involved 'raids' on salt quarries.
On May 21, 1930, during a raid on a salt quarry
north of Bombay, scores of protesters were violently beaten
by police armed with lathis (wooden staffs with metal tips).
Some 2-3,000 trained protesters marched to the site and, in
orderly rows, were clubbed down, one by one. According
to one news account of the protest:
“Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to
fend off the blows. They went down like tenpins... From
where I stood I heard the sickening whack of the clubs on
unprotected skulls... Those struck down fell sprawling,
unconscious or writhing with fractured skulls or broken
shoulders... The survivors, without breaking ranks, silently
and doggedly marched on until struck down.”
(Webb Miller, quoted in Gandhi, p. 148)
Gandhi collecting salt to initiate a new
civil disobedience campaign in 1930.
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