In 1930, Gandhi announced that on March 12, he and 78 participants would set off for the sea to violate the British monopoly on salt. “Those joining the march,” he wrote, “should all be on the spot at 6:20.” Be there ten minutes early. Good advice.
Although the exact route and destination were kept secret, they would end up walking 241 miles before they reached the sea at Dandi. The first seven miles were covered in two hours; a large group of well wishers followed them, and a speech was given at Chandola Lake. Gandhi repeated rumors of his impending arrest, and asked them to be prepared to “offer yourselves” as well.
In an interview at lunch, the 60-year-old Gandhi was asked about the 11 miles he had covered so far. He felt good, Gandhi explained to the reporter, but “I have had no practice for some time in long-distance walking.” It was nearly two decades earlier, in South Africa, that Gandhi had had that practice, walking as many as 50 miles in one day.
In a longer speech that afternoon, Gandhi spoke passionately of the injustice of the salt laws. “We want to establish a government which will be unable to arrest a single individual against the wishes of the people,” he said. “There are two ways of establishing such a government: that of the big stick or violence and that of nonviolence or civil disobedience. We have chosen the second alternative, regarding it as our dharma (duty).”
In hindsight, we know the march succeeded, and the tens of thousands arrested forced the British to negotiate with Gandhi as an equal just to end the civil disobedience. But reading his letters and speeches at the time, he was just waiting to be arrested, as he had been eight years earlier in 1922. Once again, he’d even published an article “When I Am Arrested.” And yet, it didn’t happen. He marched all the way to the sea, right on schedule, timing his arrival to commemorate the anniversary of the first national day of fasting in 1919. Gandhi was a punctual guy.
What event have you worried about, only it never ended up happening?