The three most important Indian leaders were Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Nehru was very close to Gandhi and loved him very much. He wore Indian clothes and lived a simple life. Jinnah led the Muslims. He was very different from Gandhi. He lived a European way of life and he didn’t like Gandhi’s ideas. He never called Gandhi “Mahatma.”
These three men met British leaders in 98. They wanted to talk about independence. But the British weren’t ready for independence—they wanted to stay in India.
“We have to do something big,” said Gandhi. He thought for a long time and talked to many people. And then he had an idea.
India is a hot country. Life without salt isn’t possible. There is ocean to the west, south, and east of India and there is salt on the beaches. But at that time people had to pay money to the British when they took salt.“This law hurts poor people more than rich people,” thought Gandhi.
He made plans. People heard about his plans and many people came to the Sabarmati ashram. There were writers from newspapers around the world. “What’s he going to do?” they asked. Everybody waited.
At half past six in the morning on March , 90, with seventy-eight men and women from the ashram, Gandhi started to walk to Dandi, a small place by the Indian Ocean. (See the map on page 8.) They walked twenty kilometers every day. Thousands of people stood by the road and shouted Gandhi’s name. Indians everywhere listened to their radios.“We are marching in the name of God,” said Gandhi. They called it the “Salt March.”
Gandhi was 6.“This walk is no problem for me,” he said. It was more difficult for some of the younger marchers. The march arrived at Dandi on April 6. Gandhi looked at the ocean and