Eighty three years ago on this day (April 6), Indians led by Mahatma Gandhi broke the British salt laws as part of the Salt Satyagraha which later triggered the Civil Disobedience Movement. In Dehradun, Mahavir Tyagi who went on to become the Minister for Defence Organisation in the late 50s, led citizens to break the salt laws at Kharakhet where ‘Indian’ salt packs were sold for Rs10 and Rs20.
Doon library and Research Centre research staff member Manoj Panjani said that two research projects at the centre on Gandhi and Uttarakhand and the ideological progression of women’s question in colonial India (1820-1947) revealed interesting facts about what happened in Dehradun and elsewhere in Uttarakhand during the Salt Satyagraha and consequent Civil Disobedience Movement.
When he was arrested for manufacturing contraband salt and tried in the court of deputy collector Beni Prasad, Tyagi asked him to make sure that the confiscated substance was salt and not something else. After Prasad tasted it, Tyagi said, “Aaj tak aapne British sarkar ka namak khaya, aaj keh sakte hain ki aapne Gandhi ka namak khaya”.
So impressed was Prasad that he subsequently resigned from his job, said Panjani. He said, “Biharilal Chaudhary, Narayan Dutt Dangwal, Nardev Shastri and Vicharanand Saraswati had also participated in the salt Satyagraha with Tyagi.”
Earlier in October 1929 when Gandhi visited Dehradun, Tyagi promised him a purse of Rs 500 for the Daridra Narayan fund. Tyagi asked his wife Sharmada Tyagi if she could help in collection and she ended up collecting Rs50 daily and insisted that the money collected by women should be given to Gandhi separately.
Tyagi felt men would feel embarrassed if they collected less; so he approached forest contractors Chaudhary Inamullah (after whom the heritage structure Inamullah building is named) and Sunder Singh Rawat for help. In April 1930, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali of Garhwal Rifes refused to open fire on Khudai Khidmatgars in Peshawar and ordered a ceasefire.
During the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930, Sharmada Tyagi and Kartar Kaur picketed foreign clothes shops at Astley Hall, Dehradun. While Tyagi went to jail with her six month old daughter Uma Rani, Shyama Devi, Kumari Saraswati, Bhagwati Devi and Saraswati Soni were also arrested in Dehradun. The then principal of MKP inter-college Chandrawati lakhanpal was also a prominent activist.
In the second phase of the movement in 1932, the police targeted women to hit the movement hard. Rigorous imprisonment sentences were handed out to Atar Kumari, Chandra Devi and Haveli Devi in Roorkee; Ashoka Devi, Vidya Devi and her daughter Vedmati in Haridwar and Surma in laksar,” informed Panjani.