Short Script of Dandi March

  

                                

                                                 

                  

                               A Short script on: The Dandi march by our great leader Mahatma Gandhi. A man with 

                               one single loin cloth had inspired thousands of      

                               our countrymen to break the salt law. (15 minutes – 1,306 words)

                      

                           A famous event- Dandi march                  

                                                

Voice of narrator: February 5^th 1930. A newspaper reporting Gandhi going for civil       

                                Disobedience movement by defying a salt law.

                                Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Abdul Gaffer Khan, sitting in the  

                                Ashram of Gandhi and Kasturba (Gandhi’s wife) discussing about

                                their dandi march.

Nehru:                    bapu, what is this in today’s paper? What have you      

                                decided to do?

Gandhi:                 (laughs) punishment for you.

Nehru:                    ok, you still feel I should be punished so you talk about dandi (stick)

                                Would you like to use your stick to control me? Well, fine go ahead I

                                am ready (laughs).

Gandhi:                  no, no not for you (laughs) this stick will be use to whip the British  

                                Colonial rule for imposing tax on Indians and burdening the poor

                                people and exploiting our economy.

Sardar :         how will you do this?

Gandhi:                  we will start our march from this Sabarmati ashram to dandi beach  

                                 and make a salt from the water of the sea.

Karsanbhai:           (an ashram inmate) what will happen with that?

Gandhi:                   we want to show to the whole world with the weapon of non-  

                                 Violence we can fight every injustice and exploitation. This is only  

                                 One newspaper reporter reporting our march but I want reporters  

                                 to report of our march-America, India and UK.

Sardar :                  Karsanbhai you make the arrangement for all the reporters. It will  

                                be your duty to see all events are reported.

Gandhi:                 first I will meet viceroy lord Irwin and convince him to agree to all  

                               our eleven demands and if he will not then let us go ahead with

                               our plan. (Aggressively) now nobody can stop us from attaining

                              ‘Purna Swaraj.’

Gaffarkhan:         what are those demands?

Gandhi:                reduction of land revenue assessments, cutting military       

                              expenditure, imposing a tariff on foreign clothes and abolishing the

                              salt law. My strongest appeal will be to abolish a tax levied on salt.

                              I will give him the ultimatum if these demands are not fulfilled

                              then we will proceed for the march.

Nehru:                 as the independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the    

                             land, the beginning will be made with this evil. (Laughs).

Gandhi:               in this march I want to recruit the marchers from the ashram itself                 

                             and no congress party workers.

                            (All surprised): why?

Gandhi:              because the residents of my ashram are well trained and I want        

                            strict discipline during this march. I want people to adhere to    

                            Satyagraha and ahimsa. We must not forget our failure of non-

                            Cooperation movement from 1920-22. we had succeeded in raising

                            millions of heart of Indians but had not the violence broken out at    

                            Chauri- Chaura? So, we still cannot trust because Indians are not yet      

                            ready for non-violence resistance.

Narrator:           Gandhi-Irwin talks failed. Irwin did not take the threat of a salt

                             protest seriously. Then… on 12^th march 1930 Gandhi and 78 male         

                             satyagrahis set out            

                             on foot for the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat, 390km from their

                             starting point at Gandhi ashram. Reporters from all over the

                            Countries reached there.

Narrator:           After the prayer…Gandhi’s speech to the marchers: truth (satya)  

                            implies love and firmness engenders and therefore serves as a  

                            synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement

                            Satyagraha, that is to say, force which is born out of truth and love      

                            or non violence, and gave up the phrase “passive resistance”. If the

                            means employed are impure the change will not be in the direction

                            of progress but very likely in the opposite. Only a change brought

                            by pure means can lead to real progress. The British government in

                            India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but

                            has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and ruined India

                            economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. We must sever

                            all British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete                                

                            independence. This Purna Swaraj will build up unity between

                            Hindus and Muslims by fighting a wrong that have touched all of

                            us. Everybody is prepared for arrest, jail or any physical assault…      

                             Come what may. I want you all to follow peace in silence.

                            Music… bhajan….

Narrator:           the statesman report presented in the newspaper 100,000 people  

                            crowded the road that separated Sabarmati from Ahmedabad. The

                            first day’s march of 21 km ended in the village of Aslali, where

                            Gandhi spoke to a crowd of 4,000. Volunteers collected donations,

                            registered new satyagrahis, and received resignations from village

                            officials to end cooperation towards British.

Sardar:               Gaffarbhai, you go to Lahore and spread non-cooperation movement  

                            by boycotting all British goods and acting against all laws

                            peacefully… and  where is Sarojini Naidu?

Nehru:               she will join us from the next village. Till now she was at Bombay   

                            preparing people to join this march.

Kasturba:          Karsan, have the arrangements by the volunteers been made for a

                            night halt? And ask  the volunteers to tell village people to make

                            arrangement for the simple food and a place to wash and rest.

Karsanbhai:       yes baa, everything is ready but due to huge crowd we all will have

                             to sleep in the open and about food people everywhere on the way

                             have made arrangement for food.

Kasturba:            good!

                             A song …. Hari no

Narrator:            more and more people joined the March everyday more then              

                             thousands came to hear Gandhi’s speech which was held in every  

                             village during evening before prayer and rest. Foreign journalist

                             made him a household name in Europe and America. As they entered            

                             into a village people welcomed them with drums and other musical

                             instruments. People were shouting long live our bapu! Jai hind!

                             Vande mataram! Children cheered Gandhi, many villagers eyes were

                             filled with tears in respect of Gandhi. Everywhere in India, in all

                             other states laws were defied.

                              Suddenly… after two days British officers arrived heavily armed  

                              started blows on satyagrahis.

Sarojini naidu:     all of you keep bapu’s words in mind no violence under any     

                              circumstances you will be beaten, but you will not resists: you will not      

                              raise yours to ward off the blows.

Narrator:             soldiers began clubbing the satyagrahis with steel tipped lathis. Many

                              arrest were made, there was no space left in a jail for more arrest. Not

                              one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows. A sound

                              of sickening whacks of the clubs on unprotected skulls being heard,     

                              people groaned and sucked in their breaths in sympathetic pain at

                              every blow. In two or three minutes the ground was quilted with

                              bodies. They went down like ten pins. The survivors silently marched 

                              until struck down.

                              6^th April 1930, arriving at the seashore…

Nehru:                 at last we have done it. But our many people have faced bravely the  

                              blows of the police officers, many dead in between the route.

Gandhi:                I congratulate all my people for the sacrifices and laying their lives  

                              against injustice. It is an honorable death … people have died a

                              warriors death and warriors death is never a matter of sorrow.

People shouting:   Gandhi broke the salt law! Gandhi broke the salt law!

Gandhi:                 (speech) we have won the holy war. We succeeded a life and death

                               struggle. We are the winners. I thank all my countrymen. And today

                               with this fistful of salt I am breaking the unjust law of salt to which             

                               we have all the rights.

Narrator:              and this way Gandhi boiled the sea water and took the salt and said...

Gandhi:                with this I am shaking the foundation of British Empire, by producing

                              illegal salt and I want all my followers to do likewise, making a salt  

                              along the shore let the world know –I want sympathy in this battle of  

                              “RIGHT AGAINST MIGHT.”

                                            

                                                           music of joy being played.