Recreating history

We always associate IITians to making innovations in the field of science and technology. Thus it came as a pleasant surprise to see that there are some who take the effort to track history and use their knowledge and intellect towards giving us back some of our history, our very roots.

We all know about the historical Dandi march led by Gandhiji, which is many ways was the turning point of our freedom movement. But what about all the others who were part of that historical march? So this group of IITians, from Mumbai have stepped in and they are currently working on a project to track down the others and commemorate them too, giving them also a rightful place in history.

Two years of rigorous research has already gone in and they have managed to track down 80 marches who had walked alongside Gandhiji. They are now in the process of putting up a memorial , preparing life-size sculptures of these 80 marchers. They have hunted around for any picture or portrait of each of these 80 marchers, through friends, relatives, teachers and many more.

h 1930, Mohandas Gandhi led a group of 80 individuals from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat on a 24-day walk to reach Dandi where they broke India’s then salt laws. The Dandi March has an iconic status in the history of modern India but apart from Gandhi, very little is known about who the other marchers were. Professor Kirti K Trivedi, convener of the memorial, along with students from IIT’s Industrial Design Centre and the staff of consultancy firm Design & People, pored over books and periodicals of that time, sought help from research institutes, went through video footage of the march, and visited the places where the marchers were supposed to hail from. They interviewed as many surviving family members and friends they could find.

The Ministry of Culture has backe d this heart-warming project , titled Dandi Salt Satyagraha Memorial. Apart from the 80 sculptures, it will also feature a 15-foot statue of Gandhi and 24 murals depicting important scenes from the march. Currently all this is being put up in Mumbai which once completed, the memorial will be rightfully shifted to Dandi.

Wish more and more youngsters take this path and unearth our rich history as this is the true treasure of India, not the GDP or economic progress.