The birthday of Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in the town of Porbander in the state of what is now Gujarat (India) on the 2nd of October 1869.
In his characteristic approach to subversive politics, to protest the oppressive salt tax the 61-year old Gandhi set out with 78 others on a 241 kilometer (150 mile) march to the coastal city of Dandi on March 12th, 1930 with the deliberate goal breaking the law (therefore referred to as the Dandi March). There are several excellent accounts of the march on the web, including a
book.
Here is a link to a rarer account of the socio-economic climate in the state of Orissa prior to this event: The Story of Salt, Mohinder Singh, Gandhi Marg, October-December 2002,Volume.24, No.3
Two faded photos of the march from Kamat's archives of theIndian National Congress [Photo-1][Photo-2])
posted @ 2:46 PM
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http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/gandhi.html
Interesting article on Gandhi, by Salman Rushdie.
I don't know whether you mentioned this in your salt entry, and I would check, but my browser is very slow and can only allow one browser window at a time...
Before the French Revolution, there existed a salt tax called 'la gabelle' in France(how deceitful, gabelle. That has graceful, genteel overtones, like gazelle.) With the Revolution, it was abolished, but apparently, Napoleon reimposed it to in order to fund one of his numerous wars. Apparently, it lasted till 1949 when it was reabolished. Remarkable Napoleonic legacy, not so?
:) It's funny that you mention it -- I was just reading about la gabelle this morning in the book "Salt: A world history" (by Mark Kurlansky). The account in the book focusses more on the history of the gabelle leading up to the Revolution but apart from mentioning Napoleon's reimposing this tax it doesnt say anything more about the consequences. It lasted till 1949?!!! That's incredible.
There is something even more bizarre that I stumbled on -- apparently in the 19th century the British built a hedge 1500 miles long through the middle of India. The reason: to prevent salt smuggling. Having grown up in India I'm amazed that I've never heard about it especially since it isnt exactly a small structure. So, at the moment I'm still a bit skeptical and trying to get my hands on the book "The Great Hedge of India" (by Roy Moxham) that provides a detailed account of this hedge. His website even has maps of this hedge.
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