Ken’s e-Pistle

May 1, 2024

I’ve been reading a bit about Gandhi lately.  It seems appropriate in the light of all the protesting and violence which have afflicted our college and university campuses lately. I believe that all of us could stand a refresher on his salt-march to the sea.

Ghandi was an admirer of Jesus, though not a disciple.  His response to a query as to why he would not embrace Christianity was simple, “If I could ever find a Christian, I believe I will follow your Christ.”  Humbling, isn’t it?

During the British rule over India, a punishing tax on salt was imposed.  The result was that local business was discouraged and a dependency on imported salt from abroad developed.  You must also understand that salt was not a luxury, in the heat and humidity of India, it was a nutritional necessity as well as a preservative in the days before refrigeration.

In the face of this injustice, Ghandi decided to protest but to do so following the principles of Jesus.  Realizing that the occupying British were Christian in at least a nominal sense, he set out his “turn the other cheek” strategy not to overcome them with violence but to shame them into removing the tax.

On March 12, 1930 he donned a homespun shawl, sandals and walking stick, the traveling attire of the poorest citizens, and began his 24-mile trek to the sea.  His idea was to illegally harvest salt from the sea by boiling water over open fires.

Ghandi was 60 at the time.  He didn’t know if he would make it to the sea. He expected to be arrested and beaten along the way.  Knowing the popularity of Ghandi, the British feared a popular revolt if he was detained in any way.

Nevertheless, the British were waiting for him at the sea. When the first batch of sand had been refined, they turned the pans over and ground the salt into the sand. Nonplussed, Ghandi reached down and picked up a handful of sand and declared, “With this I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire!”

And so he did.  As news of his defiance and the British reaction to non-violent crowds became known around the world, an international uproar ensued. Reports of British abuses were read on the floor of the U.S. Congress.  Winston Churchill would later admit that Ghandi’s non-violent protests “inflicted such humiliation and defiance as has not been known since the British first trod upon the soil of India.”  Eventually, non-violent resistance led to the independence of India.

Somehow, I can’t help but believe that all of us would do well to remember and refine Ghandi’s lessons in light of the present days and in the days ahead.

I bid you peace!