I VOLUME VI Salt Satyagraha The Watershed SUSHILA NAYAR NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE AHMEDABAD-380014 MAHATMA GANDHI Volume VI SALT SATYAGRAHA THE WATERSHED By SUSHILA NAYAR First Edition: October 1995 NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE AHMEDABAD 380014 MAHATMA GANDHI– Vol. VI | www.mkgandhi.org The Salt Satyagraha in the north and the south, in the east and the west of India was truly a watershed of India's history. The British rulers scoffed at the very idea of the Salt March. A favourite saying in the barracks was: "Let them make all the salt they want and eat it too. The Empire will not move an inch." But as the Salt Satyagraha movement reached every town and village and millions of people rose in open rebellion, the Empire began to shake. Gandhi stood like a giant in command of the political storm. It was not however only a political storm. It was a moral and cultural storm that rose from the inmost depths of the soul of India. The power of non-violence came like a great sunrise of history. ... It was clear as crystal that British rule must give way before the rising tide of the will of the people. For me and perhaps for innumerable others also this was at the same time the discovery of Gandhi and our determination to follow him whatever the cost. (Continued on back flap) MAHATMA GANDHI– Vol. VI | www.mkgandhi.org By Pyarelal The Epic Fast Status of Indian Princes A Pilgrimage for Peace A Nation-Builder at Work Gandhian Techniques in the Modern World Mahatma Gandhi -The Last Phase (Vol. I & II) Mahatma Gandhi -The Early Phase Towards New Horizons Thrown to the Wolves -Abdul Ghaffar Mahatma Gandhi -The Discovery of Satyagraha Mahatma Gandhi -The Birth of Satyagraha By Sushila Nayar Mahatma Gandhi -Satyagraha at Work Mahatma Gandhi -India Awakened MAHATMA GANDHI– Vol. VI | www.mkgandhi.org FOREWORD It is not an easy foreword to write. It is the foreword to Volume VI of Gandhiji's multi-volume biography by no less a person than Dr. Sushila Nayar. This volume bears the significant title Salt Satyagraha - The Watershed. I pressed Dr. Sushila Nayar to write the foreword herself. But I had to yield to her wish and write this foreword. Curiously, I was up to my neck in the Salt Satyagraha movement. In South India, the outstanding leader of the Salt Satyagraha movement was Sri Rajagopalachariar. Just as Gandhiji marched with his Ashram volunteers towards Dandi to break the Salt Law, Rajaji marched to Vedaranyam to break the same law. I had the good fortune to be with him in his march; Rajaji began his march from Tirichinapalli. The whole of Tamilnadu trembled under his gentle and nimble feet. The Salt Satyagraha in the north and the south, in the east and the west of India was truly a watershed of India's history. The British rulers scoffed at the very idea of the Salt March. A favourite saying in the barracks was: "Let them make all the salt they want and eat it too. The Empire will not move an inch." But as the Salt Satyagraha movement reached every town and village and millions of people rose in open rebellion, the Empire began to shake. Gandhiji stood like a giant in command of the political storm. It was not however only a political storm. It was a moral and cultural storm that rose from the inmost depths of the soul of India. The power of non-violence came like a great sunrise of history. It is impossible in a foreword even to mention the many episodes in this non-violent revolution. It was clear as crystal that British rule must give way before the rising tide of the will of the people. For me and perhaps for innumerable others also this was at the same time the discovery of Gandhiji and our determination to follow him whatever the cost. MAHATMA GANDHI– Vol. VI | www.mkgandhi.org Gandhiji had two intimate personal Secretaries. They were Mahadev Desai and Pyarelal. No two people were more different and yet so utterly united in their devotion to Gandhiji. Mahadev Desai was a forthcoming personality. Pyarelal, on the contrary, was a withdrawing personality. But both were scholars given to deep study of subjects dear to the heart of their master. Gandhiji trusted them both implicitly and would entrust matters of importance for them to do. A comparison of the two Secretaries will yield profound knowledge of not only themselves but of Gandhiji and his circle. The Secretaries came to know almost every person of consequence in the Gandhian revolution. I have a feeling that they knew all the great men in India of the time, so much so that they could tell us a story or two about some of them! If you met Pyarelal, you would know at once here was a scholar and thinker at the highest level. Pyarelal's great volumes of Gandhiji's biography will for all time give him a place among the great biographers in any country or language. It is interesting to contemplate that a biographer and the person whose biography he wrote will live together for all time. Every thought and every word spoken or written by Pyarelal was in the service of Gandhiji. I personally knew Pyarelal. He was to me a very lovable person. If you could succeed in getting him to open his heart, you would see nothing there but devotion and love for Gandhiji. I am happy that there is a "Pyarelal Foundation for Gandhian Studies and Research". Nothing could be a better memorial to him. It would also be a sister's homage to her brother who was everything to her. Brother and sister will go down the pathways of centuries in every book or writing on Gandhiji. May their names not fade from our minds as long as we live. G. RAMACHANDRAN MAHATMA GANDHI– Vol. VI | www.mkgandhi.org ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It gives me great pleasure while presenting this volume to the readers, to express my gratitude to all those who have helped me in its preparation. First of all, I would like to thank Shri G. Ramachandran, the veteran freedom fighter, for writing a foreword. I am most grateful to Shri C. N. Patel, Shri Haridev Sharma, Shri Tarlok Singh and Prof. James Hunt for reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions. My grateful thanks are due to Shri M. V. Desai for his editorial assistance. I thank my colleagues in the office, Shri J.P. Uniyal who joined me in February 1989 when I was writing Part-II of this book, and has undertaken the necessary research and helped in preparing drafts, as well as checking references. I thank Shri Ashok Sengar as the typist and Smt. Vimla Khosla, our office assistant, for attending to all odd jobs and keeping the accounts. I also thank Shri Manilal Pathak for typing help and Shri Y. P. Sama for coordinating the work as a labour of love. Shri Surindar Kumar is to be thanked for preparing the accounts for the Auditors and Lodha & Company for auditing them. My most sincere thanks are due to the Indian Council of Social Science Research for their financial support, which has enabled me to carry on this project. It is a labour of love on my part, but the staff has to be paid and the ICSSR grant has enabled me to do so. Shri Jitendra Desai, the Managing Trustee of the Navajivan Trust and his staff at the Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad, must be thanked for undertaking the publication of the book, which I hope will serve to introduce the most poignant chapter of our freedom struggle to the younger generation. New Delhi 25 December 1992 SUSHILA NAYAR MAHATMA GANDHI– Vol. VI | www.mkgandhi.org INTRODUCTION 1 This volume, Salt Satyagraha: The Watershed, covers the period of roughly six and a half years from the latter part of 1925 to the beginning of 1932. It was the most momentous period of India's freedom struggle. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Salt Satyagraha demonstrated, for the first time, the effectiveness of non-violent suffering in bringing about a change of heart in the British people and the Government. Lord Irwin, the Viceroy during the Salt Satyagraha, was so deeply moved by the sufferings of the satyagrahis that he wrote to the Secretary of State saying that he could not turn India into a sepulchre and rule over it. Irwin was emphatic that the British Government had to come to terms with the Indian leaders. It made an impact on London and Gandhi-Irwin parleys followed. For the first time the representative of the King-Emperor, the Viceroy, met the representative of the people of India, Mahatma Gandhi, "the naked fakir", as Churchill called him, on equal terms. The resulting Delhi agreement led to Gandhiji's participation in the Second Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Congress. The Round Table Conference failed but Gandhiji met many leaders in England in all walks of life and removed many misconceptions about India's freedom movement. It was not Gandhiji who sought the interviews in London this time. It was the leadership at all levels, intellectuals, artists, writers, and public men including political leaders who came seeking interviews with Gandhiji. He had not gone to London as a supplicant. He had gone there to meet the people and the leaders and explain India's case to them and he did a very good job of it both in England and wherever he could go in Europe on his way back to India.