Page 55 - GANDHI A Biography for Children and Beginners

GANDHI – A Biography for children and beginners

sugar. That was all. Gandhi himself had to serve the rations, since no one else

could deal with the men who were angry and hungry. The rules of the march

were read out. The marchers had to be disciplined. They should be non-violent.

They should do nothing to provoke the white men in the areas through which

they passed. They should observe good sanitary habits. Otherwise they may

cause epidemics.

They would cover the 200 miles from Charlestown to the Tolstoy Farm in eight

days, walking 24 miles a day. Kallenbach, Polak and others helped him to
organize and conduct the march. The long march was perhaps the first long

march in recorded history. It started on the 6th of November 1913 at the break

of dawn. It bore witness to the heroism and determination of the Indians. While

the marchers forded a river at one point, a child perched on the hip of a
mother slipped into the swirling waters of the river. The mother did not wait to

wail and mourn, but kept up the march with others.

There were no incidents involving the white population or the Police till the
marchers reached the frontier. There Gandhi was arrested at night and

removed, but released on bail. He and his leading colleagues were arrested,

released on bail and rearrested when they resumed the march.

At Balfour, three special trains were waiting. The marchers were arrested. But

now something unexpected happened. The workers were not taken to prison.

Instead they were taken back to the mines. The mines were declared part of
the premises of the prisons of New Castle and Dundee. The white managerial

staff of the mines were vested with the powers of jailors. Workers refused to go

down the pits. They were whipped. They refused. They were forced down and

beaten with iron chains. They refused to pick up tools and work. They persisted
in their defiance. Wherefrom did these indentured labourers who were

condemned as cowards and slaves get the iron will to resist without raising

their arms?

The news of the atrocities that followed shocked the capitals of the world, and

sparked off 'hartals' and strikes by Indians all over South Africa. The

Government inducted mounted military police. They were ordered to shoot at

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