Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Vedaranyam March to be re-enacted today

TRIBUTES:Three journalists from Belgium and a Chennai-based social work consultant (second from left) paying tributes at the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha memorial before commencing their march in Tiruchi on Saturday.

TIRUCHI: Eight decades have rolled by since the soul-stirring event was witnessed in Tiruchi city.

It had an impressive impact on the youths, aged, students, women all alike. It was this day that age that Vedaranyam Salt Satyagaraha March, on the lines of Dandi March led by Mahatma Gandhi, was launched here.

Though it was symbolic agitation to protest the salt tax levied by British, it evoked an overwhelming response from all sections of the society which not only created panic in the mighty British regime, but also attracted the world's attention to non-violent freedom struggle. This march was a very spectacular event which formed one of the important episodes of the national movement.

The Dandi March commenced from Sabarmathi Ashram on March 12, 1930 and culminated at Dandi on April 6. The late Rajaji, considered as Gandhiji's ‘southern warrior', led a group of 100 selected Congress workers to Vedaranayam and the march commenced from the bungalow of T. S. S. Rajan, a legendary freedom fighter, in the city at the break of dawn on April 13, 1930.

Well known Congress leaders Rukmini Lakshmipathi, Mattapparai Venkataramaiyar, A.N. Sivaraman, G. Ramachandran, Padmanabhan, Rajan, T. V. Swaminatha Sastri and K. Santhanam participated in the march. They covered 16 kms a day. The satyagrahis stayed in camps at various places before reaching Vedaranyam on April 28.

The British on noticing impressive response for the march from the local people, unleashed repression throughout the 242-km route. Sardar Vedarathinam Pillai made secret arrangements for the supply of food and drinking water through women and children. The enthusiasm among the villagers was so much that they defied the police to provide the satyagrahis food and shelter and courted arrest. In some places, the locals tied food pockets to tree branches and the information was passed on by women in the guise of passersby.

The volunteers reached Vedaranyam on April 28. Sardar Vedarathinam Pillai, made secret arrangements for Rajaji to reach the Agasthiampalli salt pans before daybreak on April 30, when he was arrested.

The salt satyagraha continued for the next few days. Rajaji was imprisoned for a year. The government not only imprisoned Pillai for supporting the agitation but also confiscated his property.

The Vedaranyam Salt Satyaraha March remains fresh in the minds of foreigners even now. A group of journalists from Belgium re-enacted the march in the same route in February 2008.

The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee has planned to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha in a grand manner by re-enacting the march. Thangkabalu, TNCC president, will flag off the march from the Salt Satyagraha Memorial in the city on Tuesday morning. Central Ministers from Tamil Nadu and other leaders are expected to take part in the re-enactment of salt satyagraha at Vedaranyam on April 30.

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