Mahatma Gandhi is probably the most famous NRI (non-resident Indian) that India has ever seen. It is no surprise then that a group of NRIs in the US have decided to take a leaf out of Gandhi’s book and wage a war on an unfair system in a similar fashion.
While M K Gandhi, popularly known as the Mahatma (the great soul) in India, began Dandi march in 1930 to protest against the unjust salt tax imposed by the British government on Indian citizens, the NRI group based in the US has decided to use the Gandhi weapon of non-violence to fight the rising corruption in India.
While Gandhi walked a whopping 200 miles from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in Gujarat, the NRI group will walk from San Diego to San Francisco, a distance of
240 miles covering 30 cities.
This march is a part of simultaneous marches planned not just in the US but throughout the world, including in India.
The idea behind the non-violent method of protest was to fight the perception that overseas Indians don’t care about problems faced by citizens of India.
“There is a illusion that NRIs are not really bothered about India. We wanted to break that myth,” Sasidhar Kalagar, a 30-year-old software engineer who is part of the organising group, told a newspaper.
The group is keen to change the ritual of discussing the issues with no action.
While Kalaghar’s team completes their march in the US on 26 March, simultaneous supporting marches are being held in London, Sydney, Banglaore, Hyderbad and Mumbai.
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