Master Strategist Mahatma Gandhi

 Gandhiji on the Salt March

Eighty-one years ago, in the month of March Mahatma Gandhi began his Dandi March, an excellent case study of the meticulous thinking, conviction, thinking and planning that need to go into the making of a great strategic plan. What makes the Dandi March so, is Gandhiji’s synthesis of  the ‘method of action’ and the ‘method of enquiry’ involved in the process of arriving at salt as an evocative symbol of the campaign. His activities were never fragmented in their approach and style, Satyagraha was an important component of his actions but it was not the only act. It was Gandhiji’s  ability to discover and make strands of  interacting relationships and engagements of various streams of public life and politics as a part of his strategy, which mark him out as a master strategist. An example of this is in the manner he planned the form the Dandi campaign should take, the length of the march, and the sea-side town where the protest would be staged.  Let us examine Gandhiji’s approach to strategy and its individual elements in greater detail.

Salt as a symbol For the campaign, Gandhiji wanted a symbol, which was universal; something the poor peasant could understand and identify with. He therefore chose salt and the breaking of unjust British salt laws as the focus of his strategy. Though this choice had its share of sceptics, Gandhiji had sound reasons for his decision. The choice of the salt tax was a deeply symbolic since salt was used by nearly everyone in India. Being a tropical country, sweating necessitated greater intake of salt and such an item of daily use could resonate more with all classes of citizens than an abstract demand for greater political rights. Moreover, the Salt tax represented 8.2% of the British Raj tax revenue, and hurt the poorest Indians the most significantly. Explaining his choice, Gandhi said, “Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life.” Rajaji - the shrewdest of Congress leaders, termed the choice was not salt, but disobedience which was to be manufactured. The Form of the Campaign Having finalised salt as the focus, Gandhiji decided on the march, as the form the campaign would take. The march in Gandhiji's mind was linked to the idea of a pilgrimage. Dandi fitted this imagery not as any association with a holy site but because getting there would be a hard 26 day trek and a tough test of physical endurance and will-power - a reflection of the marchers resolve. The Length of the March The length of the march - a gruelling 390 km, was important for several reasons: it would be taxing in the extreme, and that would bring about a wave of sympathy and support throughout the country. The period would also help in the build-up of publicity, remember this was in the days before the 24/7 media coverage we have now, which can blow up a minor incident into a nation-wide concern. And how brilliant this element of his strategy was, can be gauged from the fact that when the March began, American journalists had come in large numbers to jeer. A whole lot of them stayed on to cheer and alter American opinion, especially about Satyagraha.

Success of the Dandi Strategy

Gandhiji’s meticulous planning resulted in the overwhelming success of his strategy for the Dandi March and marked the launch of a world changing philosophy. Satyagraha, until then was seen as a theoretical construct of Gandhi's writings but after the worldwide publicity and interest the march evoked, it came to be seen as a philosophy that could actually change the world. The March to Dandi planted the seeds of August 15, 1947, and later for what Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela achieved. And what future generations might achieve all over the world.