In May of 1930, something incredible happened that changed the world. The people who changed it neither raised a hand in violence or even to protect themselves from violence. They were people of many races and religions, with the simple goal of restoring their sovereign rights. They shook up the ideological foundation of one of the greatest empires in world history. It was in India, under the leadership of Ghandi and others, that a large protest was organized to object to the nature of British rule there.
Had you done polling on British voters a day before the news broke, the idea of a unilateral withdrawal from India would have been unpopular. The British people, by and large were accepting of the official narrative that India was in need of British guidance. The Indian people were not willing to accept that though, but also didn't want violent conflict with the British either.
On the morning of the protest, Ghandi had just been arrested & other leaders were forced to organize without him. Without their beloved leader, the British hoped they would quit and fall in line. They did fall into a line, but not the way the British hoped.
The core issue was access to India's salt supplies. The British used the tactic of controlling salt supplies in several subject lands to exert political power over the native people. Indian citizens were widely critical of the British strategy, and frequently spoke out against it. It came to a head when they began the Salt March in May of 1930, but the true tipping point was the march on the Dharasana Salt Works.
The Dharasana Salt Works was the most important source of salt in India, and the protesters were determined to reclaim it from the British. They also were committed to non-violence. So the plan was to walk toward the lone bridge into the Salt Works and not resist at all if the British guards beat them. Lead by the poet, Sarojini Naidu, almost 3000 people marched in a line 6 men wide, and the British guards beat them severely. As they began to walk forward Naidu said "Last night they took Ghandi from us. They expect us to lose heart, or fight back. We will do neither"
The protesters didn't raise a hand in defense, as was agreed, and the men would rejoin the line if they were able after the first beating. The savage treatment was so extreme and unwarranted that it shocked the British public. It took an American reporter named Webb Miller to break the story on it, and he had to threaten British telegraph operators to get them to send it after they censored his first telegraph report.
The scene is immortalized in the film Ghandi. A clip of this powerful scene will help you understand what happened there:
In our present times, we're again facing what seems like an impossible challenge. There is a political machine that is ghastly in its scale and it is entrenched. We don't know if we can storm the gates. We doubt that trying violence would accomplish anything, and we don't want violence anyway. We want radical change, but we don't want our society to break down in the process. All we can be sure of at this point is that we can keep throwing our ideals at this ghastly wreck, and maybe eventually we will get through.
I think of this scene every time people tell me that Jill Stein won't be president. It isn't about winning. It isn't about fighting. Its about drawing lines and saying we stand for something greater than ourselves. If the people of India or England had been polled right before that incident, very few would have believed it possible that British rule in India would be ended because the British committed an atrocity. They may break us, they may beat us, but the movement will continue, and we will stand for what is right rather than what is convenient. If my vote is a protest vote, then I will throw it in the faces of all those who would suppress my voice. This is our country, and we deserve a government that respects that.
#DemExit #JillStein2016 #TwoPartyFraud #NeverTrump #NeverClinton #GreenParty
Inspirational! Very good to keep in mind in these times as more people ARE rising up to fight and CHANGE our system.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback! That video always gets me. What really happened was actually much more brutal too. When the guards could not get any of them to defend themselves, they beat them harder and harder. They attacked their testicles and tried to choke them. Two of the protesters died, hundreds were left with crippling injuries. It was a massive self sacrifice in the name of self determination. To me it stands as one of the pinnacle moments of true grass roots democracy.
DeleteIndia had way more people than Britain. They could have engaged in a prolonged violent action that would have lead to massive death and criminality. Instead, nearly 3000 people let themselves be tortured and beaten for the whole world to see just how far British loyalists would go.
I really think the Dakota Access Pipe Line is our modern equivalent of the Salt March. They are be blacking out the media, but the truth is making its way out anyway.