From Gandhi To Sonam Wangchuk: The Enduring Power Of Peaceful Protest In India

Protest-Madras-Courier
representational image: public domain.
From Gandhi's satyagraha to Sonam Wangchuk's fast, peaceful dissent has continually strengthened India's constitutional democracy.

On a warm March morning in 1930, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram with seventy-eight followers and began walking towards the Arabian Sea. Their destination was Dandi, a small coastal village in Gujarat. Their purpose seemed almost absurd: to make salt.

The British Empire taxed salt, a basic necessity for every Indian, regardless of class or caste. Gandhi understood that by choosing something so ordinary, he could expose the extraordinary injustice of colonial rule. Twenty-four days later, when he bent down to pick up a handful of salt from the seashore, he did far more than break a law. He transformed protest into one of India’s most powerful political traditions.



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