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| Sunday, 13 March 2005 |
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Re-enactment of Mahatma Gandhi's "salt march" AHMEDABAD, India, Saturday (AFP) Thousands of Indians and many foreigners began a long march across a vast expanse of arid western India Saturday to honour the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, India's independence hero and apostle of non-violence. The re-enactment of Gandhi's famous "salt march" of 1930 from Ahmedabad to coastal Dandi village in western Gujarat state, was flagged off amid much pomp and show by ruling Congress party president, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi. Similar marches were to be held in 15 cities around the world including in Durban, South Africa where Gandhi took his first political steps. Amid the burst of camera flashlights and the blare of prayer songs, Sonia Gandhi led the first batch of marchers, walking with them for a distance of about five kilometers (three miles) on a freshly washed road strewn with flowers in this major Gujarat city. Cries of "Long Live Mahatma Gandhi" broke the early morning silence at Sabarmati Ashram, a cluster of huts on the banks of Sabarmati river which once served as Gandhi's hermitage and is now a museum. Before setting off, Sonia Gandhi, accompanied by several federal ministers, administered a pledge to those assembled to carry forward the Mahatma's message of "peace and non-violence." The 388-kilometre (241-mile) journey was undertaken by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also called "Mahatma" or "a great soul," to protest the monopoly of the British colonial authorities over the production of salt in India. |
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