Gandhians and activists associated with a number of institutions and children from local schools and college students on Thursday participated in a three-km march holding the Tricolour in their hands, reliving the moment of the historic Dandi March under the Civil Disobedience Movement on this day in 1930.
The 3-km-long silent match, from Shaheed Memorial to the Gandhi Vatika here on Wednesday, symbolised the 240-mile historic march from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi (Navsari). This completed in 24 days on this day 96 years ago that introduced the world to the power of the
Gandhian weapon of non violence in fight against injustice and repression.
“It was not the matter of making a handful of salt that Gandhi ji did to break the British monopoly. The march, the most important component of the Civil Disobedience Movement, gifted the world a powerful and the most effective weapon of non-violence struggle against injustice and repression”, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said while leading the march held under the joint aegis of the Bharat Seva Sansthan, Bharat Seva Foundation, and other Gandhian institutions. Gehlot himself, known for his Gandhian ways of politics, is also one of the founders of the Bharat Seva Sansthan.
The method of this non violent disobedience had weakened the authority of the mighty British rulers and consolidated strength and expanded the support base of non violent national freedom movement in the country, he said. “Today, when the democracy has been confronting against varied sorts of new challenges, (we) all are needed to adopt Gandhian tenets of the Truth(Satya), non- violence(ahimsa) and Gandhian values of mass movement for restrengthening the democracy”, he added.
The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajasthan Assembly Tika Ram Jully, Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra, Gandhian Sawai Singh, Giridhari Singh Bafna and several dignitaries also participated in the march.