Dandi’s Long March

People come to Dandi for picnics,not for Gandhi,” says Sunilbhai,the auto-rickshaw driver. His observation is prompted by the appearance of a large,concrete,saffron board on the two-lane highway from Navsari city to Dandi. Erected by Gujarat’s tourism department,the sign reads,“Retrace the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi at Dandi. 10 kms.” Below that are three logos: Vibrant Gujarat,Gujarat Tourism and Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited.

Eighty years ago,Dandi flagged off a freedom movement that shook the foundations of the British Empire in India. The place has changed a lot since then. But a few things remain the same. You still come across khadi-clad Gandhians,strolling on neat roads flanked by multi-storied bungalows that come in all colours — pink,green,violet,orange,sky-blue.

In the first quarter of the last century though,Dandi was a creek-formed island,so remote that even Mahatma Gandhi shifted to a nearby village a few days after launching the Salt Satyagraha. It was impossible to coordinate a nationwide agitation from a place where there was only one pucca house and supplies were difficult to get.

In fact,three days before he reached Dandi,Gandhi warned his followers: “I told you about the scarcity of water in Dandi. We shall have to use water as if it was milk. I must also tell you that they are finding it very difficult to arrange for our meals. So after reaching Dandi all that you will be given three times a day would be half seer of gram,half seer of puffed rice,and boiled water with a tola of ghee and jaggery added.”

It is hardly surprising then that most of the residents have now built their bungalows with money earned from working abroad. The first to build a pucca house near the Gandhi campus — a demarcated area where Gandhi picked up salt — was Keshubhai Patel,who worked for three decades in New Zealand before making Dandi his home. “Everyone went abroad. There was nothing here to get money out of,” he says.

Over a loud Gujarati song,Sunilbhai holds forth on tourism in Dandi. “This place is going to be developed as a picnic spot,with a sports complex,big hotels. People will like it,” he says. The government has big plans for Dandi. But for months now,a fight has been simmering between Gujarat’s Tourism Department and Gandhians —including former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Saifee Villa,the house in which Gandhi spent the night of April 5,1930,the eve of the historic day when he broke the Salt Law,is currently being renovated by the Archaeological Survey of India. The fight is for the immediate surroundings of Saifee Villa.

Gujarat’s Tourism Department plans to promote Dandi as a tourism site,and is currently building a state-of-the-art exhibition hall a few metres from Saifee Villa. A tender floated by the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited in October 2009 for the project — ‘Destination Development of Dandi’,part of the larger ‘Dandi Heritage Corridor Project’ — pegs the total cost of the project at Rs 2 crore. The project aims to cover not just Dandi but 21 locations in six districts that lie along the original route.

A village official,who requested anonymity,said there are plans to connect the Gandhi campus with a beach and picnic spot a few hundred metres away,and to promote the entire area as a tourism spot. Gandhians,on the other hand,contend that the department is “hijacking” the memory of the Salt March,which they feel should be preserved and remembered in the spirit of simplicity and self-denial. They have written repeatedly to the Ministry of Culture,requesting that not just Dandi,but the entire 300-km route of the Satyagraha March be developed as a heritage site rather than a tourism corridor.

Sudershan Iyengar,Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith,a university founded in Ahmedabad by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919,says: “The point we are making is that there is a difference between a heritage spot and a tourist spot.”

Meanwhile in Dandi,visitors throng the beach near the Gandhi campus. A 10-minute walk away from the beach,visitors pose in front of Saifee Villa and a statue of Gandhi,captured in the act of picking up salt from the ground. And it’s for this stretch of land that the residents of Dandi have joined the fight.

Gosaibhai Patel,a 90-year-old freedom fighter,recalls meeting Gandhi and the satyagrahis. Patel went on to become a politician. He was elected MLA three times and also served as the chief whip of the BJP in the Assembly for a while. He claims that he was at the helm of Dandi’s development.

In 1930,Saifee Villa stood next to the sea and massive deposits of salt surrounded the compound. The sea crept into the land during high tide through a creek that once flowed around Dandi. “Dandi village was like a little island,” said Gosaibhai. “The creek was 35-ft deep and 200-ft wide when Gandhi came here,” says Patel. The creek is now barely two metres wide and trickles over the stones on the bed.

In the early 1950s,villagers formed a cooperative called the Dandi Vibhag Kheti Sahakari Mandali following the advice of then chief minister of Bombay State,Morarji Desai. The villagers had asked Desai for money to reclaim the land for agricultural purposes,but Desai advised them to work through a cooperative instead.

Heeding his advice,the cooperative built a 4.5-km long bandh in 10 sections — which snake across the terrain even today — to reclaim 2,716 hectares of land for agriculture.

Water from the Tapi river was soon re-directed towards Dandi through canals,and the area saw a boom in agriculture. “We experimented. People were excited and spent money. We succeeded. We produced enough food for ourselves,” says Patel. “We were the producers of the second best quality of rice in the entire state. But after ten years,the canal water was stopped to give water to Navsari city. This was a very bad decision and it damaged our scheme. Our efforts were ruined,” he adds.

Then came a change in the village’s primary occupation — prawn farming. The village prospered once more. Trucks lined the area most days,and shuttled back and forth between the village and Mumbai. Prawns from Dandi were exported. But that soon stopped too. In 2005,villagers allege,more than 100 acres of land was acquired “without their consent” under the directions of the Navsari Collector.

Patel and another Gandhian,Ranjitbhai Desai,are currently working towards preserving sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi in the area,such as The Gate of Mahatma Gandhi,or Gandhi Smriti¸ from where Gandhi was arrested by the British at midnight,May 4,1930.

The Frontier Mail was stopped in a place where there was no station,and Gandhi was hauled onto it and taken away. The place where this happened is now a railway crossing,with a small structure to commemorate the event. A festival in memory of the time Gandhi visited the area is celebrated as a mela each year.

“Dandi should be developed as a place of pilgrimage,” said Desai. “It is as important as the Gateway of India. It is the gateway of freedom.” Desai too is opposed to a tourist spot to commemorate the Salt March. “Five-star hotels should not come up at Dandi because liquor and non-vegetarian food might enter the area. You cannot deny development of this area,like building roads,but you must keep this in mind. “

In Dandi,there is palpable resentment against a government perceived to be interested in making money by using the name and history of the area but which has on the other hand,provided little help in encouraging,even allowing,the residents to make money. Villagers often complain that “(Chief Minister Narendra) Modi has never even visited Dandi. He has visited Karadi,but he has never come here”.

Gandhians often refer to Karadi,a village about five kilometres from Dandi,as a place that still exhibits the “true spirit of the Dandi March”. Gandhi retired to Karadi 10 days after the launch of the Salt Satyagraha,where he stayed in a hut and wrote many letters to coordinate the movement. It was from here that he was arrested and hauled onto the Frontier Mail.

The hut at Karadi has not changed much since then — it’s still a simple thatched hut,maintained by villagers through a trust even though the complex houses school buildings,a library,even an exhibition hall. Inside the hut there are just three objects — a kerosene lamp,a small writing table and a painting re-creating a photograph of Gandhi sitting on the floor,leaning on a cushion and poring over a letter.

Perhaps,the simplicity of the hut captures the Gandhian spirit best.