Rosel Youssef (newspaper), P.9 (19-10-2008)

The International Day of Non-Violence

By: Shafiq Ahmed Ali

"Mahatma" is a Hindi word means "Saint" or "the Great Soul".
 

This is the meaning of the name of the great Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, who was born on 2/10/1869.

In a measure meant to honour this great personality, the United Nations General Assembly decided on 15/6/2007 to observe the International Day of Non-Violence each year on 2 October –the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who adopted the strategy of passive resistance against all forms of corruption and oppression in the world.

Gandhi started his struggle and passive resistance against the British occupation by the famous salt march, which was meant to break the British monopoly of salt industry. It is worth mentioning that the British occupants, like other occupation forces, used to plunder the resources and wealth of their colonies. 

The story of the salt march began, when the British government imposed Salt Tax Law, which essentially made it illegal for any Indian citizen to sell or produce salt or even extract it for personal use. According to that British Law, any Indian citizen violating these regulations would be sentenced to 6 months in prison. On the announcement of that Salt Tax Law, Gandhi decided to counter such unfair British laws through his approach, namely, civil disobedience. Accordingly, Gandhi sent a letter on March 2, 1930 to the then British Viceroy in India, Lord Irwin in which he said, "…On the 11^th day of this month, I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take to disregard the provisions of Salt laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint…" At the end of his letter, Gandhi said,
 "It is, I know, open to you to frustrate my design by arresting me. I hope there will be tens of thousands ready in a disciplined manner to take up the work after me, and in the act of disobeying the Salt Act lay themselves open to the penalties of a law that should never have disfigured the Statute-book..."

As he did not receive any reply to his letter, Gandhi and 79 of his supporters started on the 12^th of March their historical 24-day salt march towards the sea during which hundreds of thousands of people joined the march. On reaching the shore, Gandhi picked up a handful of salt and other supporters follow suit. This is how the salt march triggered the Indian struggle movement against the British occupation, which ended up with India's independence.

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