Editing Salt March (section)

==March to Dandi==
[[File:Salt March.ogv|thumb|Original footage of Gandhi and his followers marching to Dandi in the Salt Satyagraha]]
On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 satyagrahis, among whom were men belonging to almost every region, caste, creed, and religion of India,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.inc.in/en/in-focus/dandi-march-date-history-facts-all-you-need-to-know |title=Dandi march: date, history facts. All you need to know |publisher=Website of Indian National Congress |date=25 October 2018 |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802020536/https://www.inc.in/en/in-focus/dandi-march-date-history-facts-all-you-need-to-know |url-status=dead }}</ref> set out on foot for the coastal village of [[Dandi, Navsari|Dandi]] in [[Navsari district]] of [[Gujarat]], 385&nbsp;km from their starting point at [[Sabarmati Ashram]].<ref name="gandhiheritageportal.org"/> The Salt March was also called the '''White Flowing River''' because all the people were joining the procession wearing white [[Khadi]].

According to ''[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]'', the official government newspaper which usually played down the size of crowds at Gandhi's functions, 100,000 people crowded the road that separated Sabarmati from [[Ahmedabad]].<ref>[[#Weber|Weber]], p. 140.</ref><ref>''The Statesman'', 13 March 1930.</ref> The first day's march of 21&nbsp;km ended in the village of Aslali, where Gandhi spoke to a crowd of about 4,000.<ref>{{cite web|author=<!-- - Mahatma Gandhi --> |url=https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/cwmg_redirect/ZW5fX18x/NDNfX185Mw= |title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi |publisher=Gandhi Heritage Portal |access-date=16 August 2018}}</ref> At Aslali, and the other villages that the march passed through, volunteers collected donations, registered new satyagrahis, and received resignations from village officials who chose to end co-operation with British rule.<ref>[[#Weber|Weber]], pp. 143–144.</ref>

As they entered each village, crowds greeted the marchers, beating drums and cymbals. Gandhi gave speeches attacking the salt tax as inhuman, and the salt satyagraha as a "poor man's struggle". Each night they slept in the open. The only thing that was asked of the villagers was food and water to wash with. Gandhi felt that this would bring the poor into the struggle for sovereignty and self-rule, necessary for eventual victory.<ref name="Ackerman & DuVall, p. 86">[[#Ackerman|Ackerman]], p. 86.</ref>

Thousands of satyagrahis and leaders like [[Sarojini Naidu]] joined him. Every day, more and more people joined the march, until the procession of marchers became at least 3&nbsp;km long.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Dandi.html |title=The March to Dandi |publisher=English.emory.edu |access-date=1 August 2012}}</ref> To keep up their spirits, the marchers used to sing the Hindu [[Bhajan]] [[Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram]] while walking.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/26523/mainfiles/dandi.htm |title=The Man – The Mahatma : Dandi March |publisher=Library.thinkquest.org |access-date=1 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330054049/http://library.thinkquest.org/26523/mainfiles/dandi.htm |archive-date=30 March 2012  }}</ref> At Surat, they were greeted by 30,000 people. When they reached the railhead at Dandi, more than 50,000 were gathered. Gandhi gave interviews and wrote articles along the way. Foreign journalists and three Bombay cinema companies shooting newsreel footage turned Gandhi into a household name in Europe and America (at the end of 1930, [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] made him [[Time Person of the Year|"Man of the Year"]]).<ref name="Ackerman & DuVall, p. 86"/> The ''[[New York Times]]'' wrote almost daily about the Salt March, including two front-page articles on 6 and 7 April.<ref>[[#Dalton|Dalton]], p. 221.</ref> Near the end of the march, Gandhi declared, "I want world sympathy in this battle of right against might."<ref>''Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi'' 43: 180, [[#Wolpert|Wolpert]], p. 148</ref>

Upon arriving at the seashore on 5 April, Gandhi was interviewed by an [[Associated Press]] reporter. He stated:
<blockquote>I cannot withhold my compliments from the government for the policy of complete non interference adopted by them throughout the march .... I wish I could believe this non-interference was due to any real change of heart or policy. The wanton disregard shown by them to popular feeling in the Legislative Assembly and their high-handed action leave no room for doubt that the policy of heartless exploitation of India is to be persisted in at any cost, and so the only interpretation I can put upon this non-interference is that the British Government, powerful though it is, is sensitive to world opinion which will not tolerate repression of extreme political agitation which civil disobedience undoubtedly is, so long as disobedience remains civil and therefore necessarily non-violent .... It remains to be seen whether the Government will tolerate as they have tolerated the march, the actual breach of the salt laws by countless people from tomorrow.<ref name="Gandhi & Jack, 1994, p. 238-239">[[#Jack|Jack]], pp. 238–239.</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=<!-- - Mahatma Gandhi --> |url=https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/cwmg_redirect/ZW5fX18x/NDNfX18yMTc= |title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi |publisher=Gandhi Heritage Portal |access-date=2018-08-16}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Gandhi at Dandi 5 April 1930.jpg|thumb|[[Mahatma Gandhi]] at [[Dandi Beach]] 6 April 1930. Standing behind him is his second son Manilal Gandhi and [[Mithuben Petit]].]]

The following morning, after a prayer, Gandhi raised a lump of salty mud and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire."<ref name="Gandhi & Dalton, 1996, p. 72"/> He then boiled it in seawater, producing illegal salt. He implored his thousands of followers to likewise begin making salt along the seashore, "wherever it is convenient" and to instruct villagers in making illegal, but necessary, salt.<ref>[[#Jack|Jack]], p. 240.</ref> The others followed him and [[Sarojini Naidu]] addressing Gandhi, shouted 'Hail, law breaker.' In a letter to her daughter, Naidu remarked:<blockquote>''The little law breaker is sitting in a state of 'Maun' [silence] writing his article of triumph for Young India and I am stretched on a hard bench at the open window of a huge room that has 6 windows open to the sea breeze. As far as the eye can see there is a little Army{{snd}}thousands of pilgrims who have been pouring in since yesterday to this otherwise deserted and exceedingly primitive village of fishermen.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramchandra |title=Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World |publisher=Penguin Allen Lane |year=2018 |isbn=978-0670083886 |pages=336}}</ref></blockquote>After the Gandhi broke the salt laws, about 700 telegrams were sent out from the post office nearest to Dandi, at Jalalpur. Most of them were by the journalists, who were there to break this news.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramchandra |title=Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World |publisher=Penguin Allen Lane |year=2018 |isbn=978-0670083886 |page=337}}</ref>