Salt March

You know, the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, Earth Day in 1970, the WTO in Seattle in 1999, and it also is about protests all around the world.

Gandhi's Salt March in 1930, a South African anti-apartheid protest in the mid-'80s, Prague 1989, Greta Thunberg and the youth climate strikes in 2018.

Last night I was reminded that there are dozens of small protests against Trump everywhere in the United States, especially against ICE every week.

Rachel Maddow usually reports these on her show on Monday.

And he had great ideas.

For instance, he had the salt march.

He walked nearly 250 miles to the sea to pick up salt to illustrate the iniquities of British rule, because the British were taxing salt, and it was a public event.

This was years, decades before social media, but it was well-covered.

Welcome back! Question 1.

What commodity did Gandhi target in the 1930 salt march? Salt.

The British salt tax made it illegal for Indians to collect or sell salt, a necessity of life.

Gandhi's salt march dramatized the injustice and sparked mass civil disobedience, energizing India's independence movement.

Question 2.

Which author and essay shaped Gandhi's resistance philosophy? Answer Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.

Alright, let's go to the Thought Bubble.

These interconnected ideas of Ahimsa and Satyagraha are best seen in the Salt March of 1930.

So since the mid-19th century, the British had placed taxes on salt.

And since salt, in addition to making food more delicious, is necessary to live, Gandhi saw these laws as a perfect example of how British despotism affected all Indians.

I have no idea.

Uh, who in 1930 protested against the British salt monopoly by going on the Salt March?

Oh my, I'd pass.

According to legend, who cut Samson's hair?

Who was the first American in outer space?

Uh, um, Alan Shepard.

Who, in 1930, protested against the British salt monopoly by going on the Salt March?

Uh, pass.

Uh, so I really think you can't understand Satyagraha, for instance, without looking at these communities and his philosophy of Sarvodaya or universal well-being.

And so the book is demonstrating how it was Gandhi's co-residents, the community members, and their shared communal values that were central to the political actions that Gandhi has become so famous for, like the protest of the Asiatic Registration Act in South Africa and the Salt March or the Quit India campaigns in India.

So that's the first, um, contribution that this book makes.

The second one, um, is that this book examines Gandhi's philosophy of universal well-being, or Sarvodaya.