Q6
“Gandhiji and ‘Salt Satyagraha’ had made the British rulers desperately anxious.” Analyze the statement of Times, American news magazine in this context.
Solution
Secret reports were filed by the police officials who monitored Gandhiji’s movements. They also reproduced the speeches that he gave at the villages en route, in which he called upon local officials to renounce government employment and join the freedom struggle. The police spies of the British reported about Gandhiji’s meetings and also who all attended them. They observed that thousands of volunteers were flocking to the nationalist cause. Among them were many officials, who had resigned from their posts with the colonial government. Writing to the government, the District ‘ Superintendent of Police remarked, “Mr Gandhi appeared calm and collected. He is gathering more strength as he proceeds.”
The American newsmagazine, ‘Time’ was deeply skeptical of the Salt March reaching its destination and scorned Gandhiji's looks, writing with disdain of his “spindly frame” and his “spidery loins”. It claimed that Gandhiji “sank to the ground” at the end of the second day’s walking. The magazine did not believe that “the emaciated saint would be physically able to go much further”.
But within a week it had changed its mind and wrote that the massive popular following that the march had made the British rulers “desperately anxious”.
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