SABARMATI - The start of Gandhiji's Walk - 12th March 1930
Sabarmati was the place where the March commenced. On the 11th of March 1930, a crowd of 10,000 had assembled at the evening prayer to hear Gandhiji’s speech. The meeting was conducted on a large sandy expanse of the riverbank below the Ashram, the only place large enough to accommodate the congregation.
For the march, Gandhiji wanted to adhere to the strictest discipline and satyagraha to ahimsa. For this very reason, he took the marchers from the residents of his ashram rather than from Congress Party Members because the residents from his ashram were trained in Gandhiji’s strict standards of discipline. Gandhiji said that these may be the last words of his life on the sacred banks of Sabarmati and said, “I have faith within the righteousness of our cause and therefore the purity of our weapons. And wherein the means are clean, God is surely present with his blessings. And where these three continue, their defeat is an impossibility. A satyagrahi, whether or not or now no longer unfastened or incarcerated, is ever victorious. He is vanquished most effectively whilst he forsakes fact and non-violence and turns a deaf ear to his/her Inner Voice. If therefore, there is such a thing as a defeat for even a satyagrahi, he alone is the cause for it.”
Gandhiji concluded by reminding his faithful army that they had to awaken the unifying essence of Self within as he had done, for “The Self in us all is the same”. In short, to realize the oneness of humanity.
Seventy-eight marchers joined Gandhiji for the march. Some were dressed in a uniform of sorts- one denoting humility. The clothes were of khadi and included the familiar ‘Gandhi cap’. Some marchers were in chappals, dhoti, and kurta, some in full dhoti, naked from the waist up, some in half dhoti with chaddar, and some were barefoot. Gandhiji himself appeared in his half dhoti with his large watch pinned prominently in front, a chaddar around his upper body, and chappals on his feet. His bags were slung over his shoulders.
Kasturba(wife of Gandhiji) applied tilak to Gandhiji’s forehead and garlanded him with a hank of khadi thread. Kalelkar presented Gandhiji with a fifty-four-inch long iron-tipped, lacquered bamboo staff that was to become the trademark during the March.
The daily routine of the residents of the ashram: