1 Chapter 0 Who Was Gandhi

Who Was Gandhi?

Who Was Gandhi? On March 12, 1930, sixty-year-old Mohandas Gandhi set out from his home in Ahmedabad, India, with seventy-eight men and women at his side. They walked 240 miles along winding, dusty roads. It took twenty-four days in the hot sun to reach the town of Dandi on the western coast. Gandhi spoke with villagers all along the way. By the end of his journey, several thousand people had joined him.

When the marchers arrived in Dandi, they prayed. The next morning, April 6, on the shore of the Arabian Sea, Gandhi picked up a lump of salt from the mud. By doing so, he broke the law. This peaceful act was powerful. It united many Indians against the unfair Salt Act laws. The Salt Acts stated that Indians could not gather, make, or sell their own salt.

Instead they had to buy it from the British, who ruled India from 1858 to 1947. Salt was a basic need in Indian households to flavor food. After Gandhi’s small but brave action, Indians all over the country began to gather and sell their own salt. Gandhi’s Salt March started India on a path to freedom from British rule. Mohandas Gandhi fought for freedom in India. But he did not fight with weapons. He believed words and actions were more powerful than violence. Above all, he had a simple message—to find truth through love and caring for others. People called him Mahatma, which means “Great Soul.”