Though over eight decades have rolled by since the soul-stirring Vedaranyam Salt Sathyagraha March was taken out in Tiruchi city, this historic event continues to have its impact on every section of society even now.
The Vedaranyam march was re-enacted on Thursday, when a group of 60 members of Gandhi Darshan Kendra, Chennai, Rejuvenate India Movement, Chennai, and other organisations, set out to Vedaranyam in the same route taken by the satyagrahis in April 1930.
Though it was a symbolic agitation to protest the salt tax levied by British, the Vedaranyam march evoked an overwhelming response from the whole society. Vedaranyam march replicated the Dandi march led by Gandhiji in Gujarat a little earlier.
Late Rajaji, considered as Gandhiji's ‘southern warrior', led a group of 100 Congress workers to Vedaranayam and the march commenced at the bungalow of T. S. S. Rajan, a legendary freedom fighter, in the city, at the break of dawn on April 13, 1930. The satyagrahis stayed in camps at various places before reaching Vedaranyam on April 28. Rajaji and other leaders were arrested by the British police when they attempted to manufacture salt at Agasthiampalli salt pans on April 30, 1930.
The participants of the present march will proceed in vehicles via the same route of Srirangam, Koviladi, Grand Anicut, Tirukkattupalli, Tiruvaiyaru, Thanjavur and Tiruthuraipoondi, and will reach the coastal town of Vedaranyam on April 28.
A public meeting will be held on April 29, and the valediction of march will be held on April 30.
P. N. Srinivasan, president of Gandhi Darshan Kendra, who is leading the march, presided over the function held in front of the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagaraha Stupi at the junction this morning.
A. N. Rangarajan, founder and president of Rejuvenate India Movement, and Lakshmikantan Bharathi, former IAS officer, spoke. .
