New York: Mahatma Gandhi-led ‘Salt Satyagraha’ during India’s independence struggle has been named among the ‘Top 10 Most Influential Protests’ in the world by the prestigious Time magazine.
In March 1930, Gandhi embarked on a 24-day march from Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad to the small seaside town of Dandi to produce salt to protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India.

The non-violent campaign triggered the wider Civil Disobedience Movement against British rule.

Known as the salt “satyagraha” — a Sanskrit term loosely meaning “truth-force” — it carried the emotional and moral weight to break British empire, the Time said.

The magazine said Britain’s centuries-long rule over India was, in many ways, first and foremost a regime of monopolies over commodities like tea, textiles and even salt.

Under colonial law, Indians were forbidden to extract and sale their own salt, and instead were forced to pay the far costlier price of salt manufactured and imported from the UK.

That act — for which more than 80,000 Indians would get arrested in the coming months — sparked years of mass civil disobedience that came to define both the Indian independence struggle as well as Gandhi himself, the Time said.

The January 25 Egyptian revolution against the regime of Hosni Mubarak has also made it to the list.

After 30 years in the top spot, Mubarak received his first serious challenge on January 25, 2011 when more than one million protesters, fuelled by political unrest, massive unemployment and social media, assembled in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the Time said.

The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, and labour strikes.

Mubarak finally stepped down on February 11. The Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989 is also on the list. There were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The movement used mainly non-violent methods and can be considered a case of civil resistance.

As crowds swelled to 100,000, similar gatherings across the country joined their pleas for change. Finally, on June 4, 1989, the government gave the green light for troops and tanks to open fire on the square.

The Boston Tea Party Civil Rights 1773; March on Washington, 1963; Stonewall Inn, 1969; Moratorium Against the Vietnam War, 1969; Muharram protests in Iran, 1978; People Power protests, 1986 and Purple Rain Protest in Cape Town 1989 are other movements that have been named in the list.

Tags : Salt Satyagraha, Indian Satyagraha movement 1930, Gandhiji Salt Satyagraha movement, Indian freedom fight

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Aravinda Ackroyd Ghosh was born on August 15, 1872, in Calcutta. His father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, a civil medical officer in Bengal, added the middle name Ackroyd because a Miss Ackroyd, a visitor from England, was present at his birth. His mother, Swarnalata Devi, was the daughter of nationalist Rajnarayan Bose. Aravinda’s father attained his M.D. from the University of Aberdeen in England. By the time Krishnadhan returned to India, he was so westernized that he vowed to bring his children up as Englishmen.

Ghosh’s goal was to capture the public through writing. He made an extensive study of Indian literature and papers on the Indian freedom struggle. Armed with fluency in Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali, he then transcribed his views in papers like the Indu Prakash, Bande Mataram, Dharma, and Karma Yogin.

His writing became the ideal for the Indian youth. He called on the young to serve the nation as “karmayogins.” He wanted the youth to devote all their energies toward freeing Mother India. He told the youth that, “if you will study, study for her sake; train yourself body and mind and soul for her service; work so that she may prosper; suffer so that she may rejoice.”

Ghosh formed secret revolutionary societies which enveloped Bengal. He asked members of these secret societies to take a solemn oath to “secure the freedom of Mother India at any cost.” He stoked the fire of revolution by organizing a huge rally on November 9, 1905, in Calcutta. In the meantime, the Bande Mataram, a paper Ghosh edited, won the praise and admiration of all. The British, in an effort to curb the growing dissent, prosecuted the Bande Mataram and arrested Ghosh, who was charged with propagating sedition. The British resorted to caning anyone chanting “Bande Mataram”. Aravinda was acquitted for lack of proof.

Ghosh was again arrested and put in jail in the Lal Bazar police station on May 5, 1908 as an undertrial prisoner for what came to be known as the Alipore bomb conspiracy. An attempt on Lord Kingsford’s life, a presidency magistrate in Calcutta known for his harsh and prejudiced verdicts against Indians, was made by revolutionaries. The attempt went awry when the bomb intended for Lord Kingsford landed in the carriage of two English ladies. Both the ladies died. Ghosh had often proposed the use of an open rebellion to attain freedom. His secret societies practiced bomb making along with the study of revolutionary literature and the Gita. Ghosh’s brother, Barin, opened a center in Ghosh’s Maniktala Gardens residence in Calcutta. Following the bombing, Ghosh’s residence was raided on May 2, 1908. Barin was arrested along with his associates. Ghosh was arrested at his Grey Street residence.

What began was a grueling trial in which Ghosh was defended by the renowned Calcutta lawyer Chittaranjan Das. Ghosh exhibited his abhorrence for terrorist style militant resistance. He had propagated the idea of an open armed revolt. In his statement, Ghosh said, “The whole of my case before you is this. It is suggested that I preached the idea of freedom to my country which is against the law, I plead guilty to the charge. If it is an offence to preach the idea of freedom, I admit I have done it. I have never disputed it… I felt I was called upon to preach to my country to make them realize that India had a mission to perform in the comity of nations.” Ghosh denied having engineered the attempt on Lord Kingsford’s life, declaring the act as being against everything he stood for. Due to Chittaranjan Das’s professional defense, Ghosh was acquitted.

On his release from jail, Ghosh came out a changed man. He seemed confident that India would attain her freedom. He now decided to devote his life to the liberation of the whole of the human race. On the advice of some friends, like Sister Nivedita, disciple of Swami Vivekananda, Ghosh left British India and moved to French Pondicherry on April 4, 1910 to avoid confrontation with the British.

Ghosh came to be known as Sri Aurobindo to the world. Aurobindo completed his “Savitri”, which he began writing in 1899 and published in 1954. Savitri represented, in Sri Aurobindo’s own words “a means of ascension. I begin with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level… .” He wrote in the “Savitri”:

“A mightier race shall inhabit
the mortal’s world.
On nature’s luminous tops,
On the spirits ground,
The Superman shall reign
as a King of life,
Make earth almost the mate
and peer of heaven.”
-  Savitri

On Independence Day, Sri Aurobindo’s message to the nation was, “August 15, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation, an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity.”

Sri Aurobindo died on December 5, 1950 in Pondicherry.

Proud to be an Indian

Source : www.liveindia.com