Dandi March day

 

 On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 satyagrahis, among whom were men belonging to almost every region, caste, creed, and religion of India, set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi in Navsari district of Gujarat, 385 km from their starting point at Sabarmati Ashram. It was to just take a pinch of salt, defying the salt law.

Gandhi had said that he would return to Sabarmathi Ashram only after achieving the freedom of the country.  Unfortunately he could not return to the Ashram in his life time though India gained independence, just months before he was assassinated.

The march, which was initially phoo phooed by the British Administration had shaken them seeing the response of the people on the way and how the crowd swelled. 

There were only 78 sathagrahis who walked along with Gandhi from Sabarmathi Ashram to Dandi.  The others had just joined on the way.  They were selected by Gandhi himself.  They were:

Number	Name	Age	Province (British India)	State (Republic of India)
1	Mahatma Gandhi	61	Porbandar State	Gujarat
2	Pyarelal Nayyar	30		Punjab
3	Chhaganlal Naththubhai Joshi	35	Unknown	Gujarat
4	Pandit Narayan Moreshwar Khare	42	Bombay Presidency	Maharashtra
5	Ganpatrao Godse	25	Bombay Presidency	Maharashtra
6	Prithviraj Laxmidas Asar	19	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
7	Mahavir Giri	20	Darjeeling	Bengal Presidency
8	Bal Dattatreya Kalelkar	18	Bombay Presidency	Maharashtra
9	Jayanti Nathubhai Parekh	19	Unknown	Gujarat
10	Rasik Desai	19	Unknown	Gujarat
11	Vitthal Liladhar Thakkar	16	Unknown	Gujarat
12	Harakhji Ramjibhai	18	Unknown	Gujarat
13	Tansukh Pranshankar Bhatt	20	Unknown	Gujarat
14	Kantilal Harilal Gandhi	20	Unknown	Gujarat
15	Chhotubhai Khushalbhai Patel	22	Unknown	Gujarat
16	Valjibhai Govindji Desai	35	Unknown	Gujarat
17	Pannalal Balabhai Jhaveri	20		Gujarat
18	Abbas Varteji	20		Gujarat
19	Punjabhai Shah	25		Gujarat
20	Madhavjibhai Thakkar	40		Gujarat
21	Naranjibhai	22	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
22	Maganbhai Vohra	25	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
23	Dungarsibhai	27	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
24	Somalal Pragjibhai Patel	25		Gujarat
25	Hasmukhram Jakabar	25		Gujarat
26	Daudbhai	25		Gujarat
27	Ramjibhai Vankar	45		Gujarat
28	Dinkarrai Pandya	30		Gujarat
29	Dwarkanath	30		Bombay Presidency
30	Gajanan Khare	25		Bombay Presidency
31	Jethalal Ruparel	25	Western India States Agency	Gujarat
32	Govind Harkare	25		Bombay Presidency
33	Pandurang	22		Bombay Presidency
34	Vinayakrao Apte	33		Bombay Presidency
35	Ramdhirrai	30	United Provinces
36	Bhanushankar Dave	22		Gujarat
37	Munshilal	25	United Provinces
38	Raghavan	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
39	Shivabhai Gokhalbhai Patel	27		Gujarat
40	Shankarbhai Bhikabhai Patel	20		Gujarat
41	Jashbhai Ishwarbhai Patel	20		Gujarat
42	Sumangal Prakash	25	United Provinces
43	Thevarthundiyil Titus	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
44	Krishna Nair	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
45	Tapan Nair	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
46	Haridas Varjivandas Gandhi	25		Gujarat
47	Chimanlal Narsilal Shah	25		Gujarat
48	Shankaran	25	Madras Presidency	Kerala
49	Yarneni Subrahmanyam	25		Madras Presidency
50	Ramaniklal Maganlal Modi	38		Gujarat
51	Madanmohan Chaturvedi	27	Rajputana Agency
52	Harilal Mahimtura	27		Bombay Presidency
53	Motibas Das	20		Bihar and Orissa Province
54	Haridas Mazumdar	25		Gujarat
55	Anand Hingorani	24	Bombay Presidency
56	Mahadev Martand	18		Mysore
57	Jayantiprasad	30	United Province
58	Hariprasad	20	United Provinces
59	Girivardhari Chaudhary	20		Bihar and Orissa Province
60	Keshav Chitre	25		Bombay Presidency
61	Ambalal Shankarbhai Patel	30		Gujarat
62	Vishnu Pant	25		Bombay Presidency
63	Premraj	35		Punjab
64	Durgesh Chandra Das	44	Bengal	Bengal
65	Madhavlal Shah	27		Gujarat
66	Jyoti Ram Kandpal	30	United Provinces
67	Surajbhan	34		Punjab
68	Bhairav Dutt Joshi	25	United Provinces
69	Lalji Parmar	25		Gujarat
70	Ratnaji Boria	18		Gujarat
71	Chethan Lucky	30		Gujarat
72	Chintamani Shastri	40		Bombay Presidency
73	Narayan Dutt	24	Rajputana Agency
74	Manilal Mohandas Gandhi	38		Gujarat
75	Surendra	30	United Provinces
76	Hari Krishna Mohani	42		Bombay Presidency
77	Puratan Buch	25		Gujarat
78	Kharag Bahadur Singh Thapa	25	Dehradun	United Provinces
79	Shri Jagat Narayan	50		United Provinces

 We remember that great movement today and all those who participated in the great event.

One of the sathyagrahis in the above list happened to be the Uncle of my father whom we called as Raghavji.  His name figures in Sl. No. 38 above. 

He had completed his Graduation with honours, but decided to join Gandhi in the freedom movement.

After India got freedom, he was offered a Cabinet berth by Nehru, but like many of the Gandhians, he preferred to be in the Gandhian movement and dedicated himself to the cause of sarvodaya and khadhi, till he died at the ripe old age of 85.  He remained a chronic bachelor; did not gather any wealth; was of no use to his family members and rather gave away his ancestorial properties for the work of sarvodaya.

Though he seldom stayed at the homes of any of his relatives, during my college days, he had some how come to like me and stayed at our home a couple of times.

Once, I had playfully asked him what he thought about a politician who had declared that he would burn down the Constitution and when threatened with action, had backed down saying that he did not burn the Constitution, but only some papers, Raghav ji paused for some time and with tears brimming in his eyes asked me, ‘whatever the Constitution is, do you know how many sacrificed their lives to get that Constitution?”.  It stirred me no end.

But though the said politician who had said so that day had done it only to say that there were inequalities even as per the Constitution, really he was not in any position to really distort it or destroy it.

But in later years I find that there have been consistent attempts to dilute the provisions of the Constitution and even the basic structure principle which has been held as its foundation, is now being found fault with.

There is a group of people now thinking that winning an election is enough to make any law including throwing away the Constitution and replacing it with another set of laws which they feel is the correct one.

Those belonging to left wing who found fault with the Constitution earlier, have slowly started realising that any move to dilute it will take away the rights and liberties ensured to the citizens as on date and there will be utter chaos.

Similarly, there were many who found fault with Gandhi due to number of reasons.  But, slowly, they have also come around to see that if that icon is removed, we will fall into an abyss.  

Now, only the hindu right wing believes otherwise.

The recent speech of Prashanth Bhushan regarding the need to reclaim the Republic is very relevant at this time.