NRI Radio, NRIfm.com
presents the only surviving eyewitness account of Mahatma Gandhi's
historic Salt March also known as Dandi March. When Mahatma Gandhi
(a lot of people spell his name as Ghandi) called Indians to break the infamous Salt
Law, many people thought it to be another eccentricity
of the Mahatma. In fact, It was an ingenious idea that
reminded every Indian that an exploiting British government
had even taxed the cheapest food ingredients like salt.
By encouraging Indians to break this law Gandhi wanted
to involve Indian masses, including the poorest of the
poor, to defy the unjust law imposed by an oppressive
foreign government.
The Salt March or Dandhi
March began on the
morning of the 12th March 1930. A 25-year old disciple,
Sumangal Prakash, was then living in Gandhi's Sabarmati
Ashram, Ahmedabad and he was one of those 78
Ashram residents whom Gandhi picked up as fellow
marchers. Vijay Rana, the editor of NRIfm met Sumangal Prakash in 1985 at his
residence in Pahar Ganj in Delhi. He had to search him
for more than an hour and nobody in the neighbourhood
knew him.
To listen to Sumangal Prakash click
here
(Hindi)
Dressed in hand washed
Khadi Kurta, the frail old man was living in pretty
austere conditions. His sitting room barely had any
furniture except a clean white bed and a broken plastic
cane chair, that he offered to his interviewer. His
loving old wife poured tea from an aluminum kettle. It
was an humbling experience to be with them.
While narrating the story
of Dandi March, his voice was filled with such energy
and enthusiasm that I could never imagine from such a
old man. In this extraordinary interview at Radio NRI Sumangal
Prakash gives the graphic account of the morning of 12th
March 1930 and also when Gandhi arrived in Dandi.
(During this research I have found that a lot of people rather incorrectly
spell his name as Mahatma Ghandi)
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On
the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination Radio
NRI editor Vijay Rana recreates the events of that
fateful day in this radio docu-drama. Gandhi’s day begins at
3.30 am, followed by his morning meeting. He then gives final
touches to a new draft constitution for the
 Congress party. He
proposes that Congress should renounce power and dedicate
itself to service of the poor.
And finally he met Sardar Patel
asking him to sort out his differences with Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru. Then ‘a mad man’ put an end to his life,
while he was on way to his evening prayer meeting.
The day ended with Nehru’s announcement to the
nation, ‘The light has gone out of our life…’ Nehru also
hoped that in the coming years ‘that light will give solace
to innumerable hearts’.
Written by Vijay Rana, the radio drama was presented
specially for Radio NRI, by
UK's leading NRI actor KK Tandon and the veteran BBC
broadcaster Mamta Gupta.
To Listen Click
Here (English)
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