Gandhi’s Salt March, Cesar Chavez' And Martin Luther King's Impact On The World 

Mohanadas Gandhi, a former Indian Rights Leader once said, “Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used.” (1) Gandhi was born October 2, 1869 in Polar, India. Mohanadas married Kasturba Gandhi and had 4 boys together; Harilal, Devadas, Manilal, and Ramdas Gandhi. After studying law at the University of London, Gandhi became the leader of the nationalist movement against Great Britain's rule over India. Overtime Gandhi’s supporters rapidly increased and followed him across some 240 miles, commonly known today as the Salt March. Gandhi successfully led thousands of supporters on the famous Salt March to protest against Britain’s harsh salt taxes.

Throughout history protests have presented themselves in many different forms. It is evident that a nonviolent approach to a protest has shown to be very affected to the cause but not right away. Nonviolent protests show the law enforcement or government that the marchers are not going to force change. Rather, the protestors will try to change their subjects mind in the way they think of the subject. On the other hand, violent protests tend to get results in a lot less time. Here, the protestors are showing their victims they’re not to be taken lightly and they will do whatever it takes to get what they desire. Kjonach explains that the first type of protest is “passive action”. Passive action includes: displaying sings, distributing flyers, petitions, passive picketing, and soap boxing. Passive action coming from the word, passive, means that you accept what happens with active response or resistance. In these types of protests, the followers do not attack when something happens, the action they do take is simply keep going about with their business and no violence. Protestors have shown that they can both use a type of passive action or another form called direct action as a way of protest. Kjonach says the second type of protest is “direct action”. Direct actions are: lockdowns, occupations, disruptive picketing, demonstrations, boycotts, sit- ins, and strikes. The direct action for of protesting tend to be the more hands on and violent type of protest. In these protests, the followers tend to take what they feel to be necessary actions to accomplish their goal. Even though the direct action form of protest tend to have more physical action, these protests are not always violent.

Throughout time, there have been many protest leaders that have followed Gandhi’s non-violent methods. Gandhi as well as many other protestors have learned that a more peaceful approach to the cause is more effective. The marches and protests may not see the outcome they desire at first, they may even be punished for taking a stand for what they deserve. Surely though, with time, the protestors always take necessary steps of action to find the change they are working for. According to Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute states, “A testament to the revolutionary power of nonviolence, Gandhi’s approach directly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., who argued the Gandhian philosophy was “the only morally and practically sounds method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.” (1)Taking a look at Martin Luther King, Jr. fight for equal rights in the 1960s, King used the same tactics as Gandhi. King referred to this as the Gandhian philosophy, where Dr. King and his follows practiced a peaceful, non-violent protest. Throughout the protest, just like Gandhi, there were some marchers who lost control and acted out in a violent manor. These acts of violence only turned out bad for the protests and the cause they were marching for. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi had many similar tactics that they used in their protests. These two were not the only one who led peaceful protests, Cesar Chavez was the leader of an American protest using similar tactics and Gandhi and King. Cesar Chavez, an American civil rights activist, once said, “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of humanity, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non violent struggle for justice” (Werft 1). Chavez used the peaceful protest method during his 25 day hunger strike, along with thousands of supporters, to put an end to the abuse of American farm workers in the 1960s. During this protest, Chavez collected more than 17 million farmers, to put an end to the financial abuse the farmers were receiving. Nearly after 5 grueling years, Chavez was able to successfully give the farmers more appealing wages, safety for farm workers, and the security of unions.

With every victory, there will always be some sort of consequence just lurking around the corner. Just like in Dr. Kings protest for equal rights, African-Americans gained there equal rights and the abolishing of all segregation across the United States. In the case of the Salt March, there were many consequences that would follow resulting in their protest. Britannica’s Kenneth Pletcher, the senior editor, geography, and History for Encyclopedia Britannica, states that “For the next two months, exhorting other Indians to break the salt laws by committing acts of civil disobedience. Thousands were arrested and imprisoned, including Jawaharlal Nehru in April and Gandhi himself in early May after he informed Lord Irwin (the viceroy of India) of his intention to march on the nearby Dharasana salt works.” (Pletcher 1) Although there are many forms of punishment for an offense as great as the one in this situation, the Indian protestors are lucky that they were only arrested. Many have committed a similar crime before in the past and have resulted in much more severe consequences have come as an outcome. As a result of the salt march, being arrested was not the worst punishment that marchers received. Gandhi himself had a far worse outcome. History.com’s editors state, “The 78- year old Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist less than six months later, on January 30, 1948” (History 1)Unfortunately in this scenario, a man who believed in the Hindu culture so much, he was triggered to go as far as kill the great leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi let the Indian country in a peaceful revolt against their ruler, Britain. A situation just like this goes to show that with every victory, there tends to be a pretty severe consequence following the accomplishment.

After a 25 day march through pain and prosperity, the protest finally ended on April 6, 1930. The supporters that followed Gandhi knew the journey they were going to face was not going to easy by any means. It took lots of courage and faith to go through with the mission. Once Gandhi and his followers reached the ocean and collected the pinch of salt. According to History.com Editors, “In August of that year, Gandhi traveled to the conference as the sole representative of the nationalist Indian National Congress. The meeting was a disappointment, but British leaders had acknowledged Gandhi as a force they could not suppress or ignore.” (1)When Gandhi met with Lord Irwin, he did not leave with the answer that he was seeking for. Although there was no change being made at the time, Britain knew that Gandhi was not to be taken lightly due to the fact that Gandhi and his followers were not going to give up until they achieved their goal. The first meeting Gandhi had with the British government was unsuccessful. The second meeting the two had resulted in a different outcome. Johnny Simon and Benjamin Landy, both writers for MSNBC, stated, “Gandhi eventually reached an agreement with India’s British viceroy in 1931 to end the protests exchange for an end to the salt tax and the release of political prisoners. Colonial rule remained intact, but Britain was shaken. India was awakened to the dream of independence, helping fuel the years of struggle that finally led Britain to partition the country into India and Pakistan in 1947” (1)After some time of arguments going back and forth between Gandhi and India’s British viceroy the two came to an agreement. With this agreement the salt tax was revoked and all of the political prisoners were to be released.

Mohanadas Gandhi successful Salt March was made possible through his very effective nonviolent protests against Britain’s harsh salt taxes. Throughout history, there have been two types of protests. Marchers have shown passive action through signs and petitions. Others show direct action in the form of strikes and boycotts. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez have used similar methods to their protest in the form on nonviolent marchers, peaceful protests, and boycotts. Just like King and Chavez, Gandhi’s protest was not successful at first. After their first loss Gandhi stuck with his plan and kept protesting, after the second meeting with the British government the two came to an agreement to eliminate the salt tax and get rid of British rule in India. Unfortunately, with every win there is some sort of loss. In Gandhi’s Salt March, thousands on thousands of marchers were arrested with Gandhi. After Gandhi was released, only a few months later a Hindu extremist took matters into his own hands by assissinating Gandhi. There are many ways to accomplish your set goal, Gandhi’s non violent protests came with its ups and downs. In the end, Gandhi was able to successful free India from British rule.