Sra: Imagine It!, Themes, Taking a Stand, Ancient Civilizations Ecology, Great Expectations, Earth in Action, Art and Impact, Level 6

The Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi, now called on all Indian soldiers and civilians to quit British Government service. By 1922, 30,000 people, including nearly all the Congress leaders, had been imprisoned for acts of civil disobedience. Then twenty-two policemen who had attacked the stragglers of a protest march were viciously slaughtered. Realizing that even now the nonviolent nature of satyagraha was not understood, Gandhi called off the campaign, and fasted again, punishing himself for the violence he felt was his fault. He was then put on trial, accused of stirring up trouble.

In court, Gandhi spoke movingly of the people's misery under British rule and of the absurd laws. He said that perhaps in reality he was innocent, but under these laws, he was guilty, so he expected the highest penalty. The judge, although he praised Gandhi "as a man of high ideals and a noble and even saintly life," sentenced him to six years' imprisonment.

Two years later, Gandhi was released. For three weeks, he fasted in protest against the increasing conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Then he turned his attention to social reforms, touring the country by train, cart, and on foot, speaking to vast crowds. Many of his followers considered him a saint, and he was showered with gifts, which he turned into funds for the cause. He taught the importance of equality for women and for people of different classes and religions. He encouraged spinning and discouraged taking alcohol or using drugs.

In 1928, a Royal Commission arrived from Britain to review the situation in India. Since it included no Indian members, it was met by protest meetings, which were broken up by the British authorities. The new proposals would have still left the country subject to British control. Now the Indian National Congress decided it could accept nothing less than complete independence.

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A Pinch of Salt

The Salt March of 1930 began a new round of nonviolent protest. Gandhi walked 322 km (200 miles) to the coast at Dandi. Thousands joined the march, watched by the world's press. On the beach after morning prayers, Gandhi picked up a lump of sea salt.

Salt was taxed; legally, only the Government could extract it from sea water. Gandhi's signal prompted people all along the coast of India to defy the law by manufacturing salt. In cities and villages, illegal salt was distributed. Following this action, about 100,000 people, including Gandhi and other Congress leaders, were imprisoned. Bravely, without violence, they faced police brutality. Many were badly beaten and some died; but eventually, the campaign succeeded, and salt manufacturing was allowed.
Gandhi on the Salt March

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Gandhi discussed India's future at The Round Table conference in London.

Later, Gandhi took part in The Round Table conference in Britain about the future of India. While in London, he chose to stay in an East End hostel for the poor. He visited Lancashire and made friends among the mill workers, even though many were unemployed because of the Indians' boycott of British cloth. He met politicians and celebrities, and went to tea at Buckingham Palace. Everywhere, he impressed people with his sincerity and humor. As for his manner of dress at the Palace, he said, "The King was wearing enough for both of us!"

Only a week later, when he returned to India, he was imprisoned again. Before long, 30,000 others had been arrested too. In prison, Gandhi carried out a prolonged fast against the class divisions among Hindus. He was willing to starve himself to death, if the barriers were not broken down throughout the country. People valued Gandhi's life so greatly that he succeeded in changing traditions that were thousands of years old. For the first time, temples were opened to Harijans, and all Hindus could eat together, drink water drawn from the same wells, and even marry each other.

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Gathering Clouds

After his release, Gandhi turned to educational and welfare work. He toured rural India, speaking on health care, village industries and reorganization, and about land ownership and justice.

Gandhi opposed Indian involvement in World War II (1939-45), believing now that all war was wholly wrong. Leading members of the Indian Congress, including his close friend Jawaharlal Nehru, disagreed. They were willing to cooperate with the British if they could obtain reforms that would lead to self-government. But Britain would give no promise of independence.

Under Gandhi's direction, people made speeches and signed written protests against taking part in the war. Thousands, including Nehru, were imprisoned for up to a year.

In 1942, Gandhi announced a new satyagraha campaign aimed directly at British withdrawal from India. Once again, he was imprisoned. While in prison, he fasted again, coming close to death, in protest against accusations that he had stirred up violence against the British. Kasturbai was one of 100,000 other prisoners. Her health was poor, and in 1944, she died. Feeling her loss keenly, Gandhi himself became ill, recovering only after his release a few months later. With the end of World War II, Indian independence came closer.
Gandhi and Nehru disagreed about Indian involvement in World War II.

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Gandhi had always contested religious divisions. Most Indians were either Hindus or Muslims. In the northwest and northeast of the country, Muslims were in the majority. Their leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, favored the creation of a separate Muslim state there, to be called Pakistan. Congress, like Gandhi, wanted a united India. Nehru was appointed Prime Minister of a provisional Indian Government, which meant Indian rule by a Hindu for that area. Jinnah announced that the Muslim League would hold a day of action to protest. The result was horrifying violence between Muslims and Hindus, with 20,000 killed or injured.

From the rural area of Bengal came reports of Muslim atrocities. Gandhi walked through the villages for four months, seeking desperately to persuade people to end the violence. But soon after, in a neighboring province, there were similar Hindu atrocities to quell.

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In 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten became the last British Viceroy of India. Reluctantly, and against Gandhi's opposition, the Indian National Congress agreed that Pakistan was to become a country in its own right, separate from India. Independence came on August 15, 1947. Gandhi was living in the poorest quarters of Calcutta, where there had been appalling bloodshed, riots and fighting between the Hindu and Muslim communities. While he succeeded in pacifying the people of Bengal, the northwest was in uproar. Millions of people were migrating across the new border separating "Muslim" Pakistan from "Hindu" India. Massacres were widespread, causing almost a million deaths. When violence broke out again in Calcutta, Gandhi undertook a fast "to death," refusing food until the northeast was peaceful. Then, in riot-torn Delhi, came his "greatest fast." Dramatically, it brought a pledge of peace among all the community leaders, and throughout India and Pakistan, the violence ceased.

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Meet the Author

Nigel Hunter

Hunter's life was greatly influenced by a teacher from New England, Edgar Stillman. Stillman showed Hunter how important imaginative writing was in people's lives, and he made Hunter aware of civil rights leaders like Malcolm X, whose writings were a big influence on Hunter. Because of this, it is no surprise that Hunter's books have focused on politics, including books on Martin Luther King Jr., the Cold War, and, of course, Gandhi.

Richard Hook

Hook has been a freelance artist since 1966, when he left a job as an illustrator and designer for Harmon Books. He has illustrated more than fifty books on historical topics, such as Anne Frank, Beethoven, and Louis Braille. When he is not illustrating books, Hook spends time with his wife and three children.
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Taking a Stand: Theme Connections

Within the Selection

1. How did Gandhi's first trip to South Africa change his outlook on life?

2. What kinds of sacrifices did Gandhi make for his cause?

Across Selections

Beyond the Selection

Write about It!

Write about a time you saw someone treated unfairly. How did you feel and what did you do?

Remember to look for pictures of India, South Africa, or Gandhi for the Concept/Question Board.

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Science Inquiry: The Big Deal about Salt

Genre

Expository Text tells people something. It contains facts about real people, things, or events.

Feature

Why would Gandhi and his supporters march 322 km and risk prison over restrictions on making salt? To understand their discontent , you need to know what salt is, how it is used, and why it is so important.

Salt is found in water. Ocean water may contain as much as five percent salt. Many rivers, lakes, and inland seas contain salt as well. The water in the Great Salt Lake is twelve percent salt. In the Dead Sea, between Israel and Jordan, water can be more than thirty percent salt. Because salt is heavier than water, seawater is heavier than freshwater.

Beds of rock salt are found on land. The beds are relics of ancient water bodies that dried up and left the salt behind.

Sodium chloride is constantly forming and moving. Rivers and streams break up rocks, dissolve any chlorides and sodium they contain, and then deposit them as salt. Yet sodium chloride is not evenly distributed over Earth in a form humans can collect.

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How Is Salt Used?

Salt cakes were used for money in ancient Ethiopia and Tibet. Soldiers in the Roman army received salt as payment. (The English word salary comes from the Latin root sal, meaning "salt.")

Today salt no longer pays bills. But it is very important nonetheless. Salt flavors and preserves food. It has many industrial uses, and it is made into a number of household products.

Salt is a source of sodium and chlorine for humans and animals. Sodium aids the nervous system. Both sodium and chlorine are important in controlling fluid balance in the body. Without sodium, a person can lose too much fluid and even die.

However, a diet heavy in salt can lead to various diseases. In the case of salt, too much of a good thing is not good at all.

Think Link

How is the second heading helpful?

How has salt influenced the English language?

What information about salt would you like to investigate further? Why?

Try It!

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Vocabulary: Warm-Up

* self-evident

* creed

* prank

* encounters

* exalted

* segregation

* career

* nourishing

* despair

* discords

Vocabulary Strategy

The founders of the United States said it was self-evident that "all men are created equal." Lucretia Coffin Mott found their creed to be bordering on a verbal prank . The nineteenth century country Mott saw in her various encounters did not match the founders' words. Some men were definitely exalted while the rest were treated with no respect. African American men were enslaved. Unsuspecting Native American men were tricked out of their land and rights.

Also, the founders did not mention women. The nation Mott lived in practiced segregation based on gender. Free white women lacked the right to vote, own property, or write wills. They were not allowed to serve on juries. Many were not educated. Most women did not have a career . Those who did were kept out of most intellectually nourishing jobs. Mott found much that needed fixing in her country.
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Mott tackled the slavery problem first. She helped organize the American Antislavery Society. In 1840 she and her husband went to an antislavery convention. But Mott could not participate because she was a woman.

Mott did not despair , though. She began to work toward equal rights for women. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she organized the 1848 Women's Rights Convention.

Many challenges faced women who worked for equal rights. The idea of women's rights created discords between men and women. It also caused conflicts among women themselves.

The Motts also opposed the Fugitive Slave Laws. These laws treated escaped slaves like stolen property. They made it a crime to help slaves escape. The Motts believed these laws were unjust. Their home became a station of the Underground Railroad. This organization helped slaves escape to freedom.

Mott traveled widely to work for the rights of all oppressed groups. She worked hard to help move her dream of equality into the realm of reality.

Say It! Define It! Use It!

Working with a partner, write each vocabulary word on an index card. Shuffle the cards. Have one partner draw a card, pronounce the word, and give a definition. The other partner takes the card and uses the word in a sentence. Switch roles after each card is used and put aside. Continue until all vocabulary words have been reviewed.

Concept Vocabulary

The concept word for this lesson is belief. Your belief is what you are sure is true. What belief might cause you or people you know to take a stand?

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My Brother Martin

by Christine King Farris
illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.

Genre

* A speech is written to be delivered to an audience; it contains ideas rather than a story.

Comprehension Skill: Author's Point of View

As you read, take note of who is telling the story and controlling the narrative. Ask what a particular point of view's strengths and weaknesses are, and whether the point of view allows you to see the "whole story."
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Focus Questions

How did early life experiences shape the character of Martin Luther King Jr.? Is it possible to be a leader without having a dream?

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We were born in the same room, my brother Martin and I. I was an early baby, born sooner than expected. Mother Dear and Daddy placed me in the chifforobe drawer that stood in the corner of their upstairs bedroom. I got a crib a few days afterward. A year and a half later, Martin spent his first night in that hand-me-down crib in the very same room.

And not long after my brother Martin--who we called M. L. because he and Daddy had the same name--our baby brother was born. His name was Alfred Daniel, but we called him A. D., after our grandfather.

And of course, my brothers and I had each other. We three stuck together like the pages in a brand-new book. And being normal young children, we were almost always up to something.

Our best prank prank involved a fur piece that belonged to our grandmother. It looked almost alive, with its tiny feet and little head and gleaming glass eyes. So, every once in a while, in the waning light of evening, we'd tie that fur piece to a stick, and, hiding behind a hedge in front of our house, we would dangle it in front of unsuspecting passersby. Boy! You could hear the screams of fright all across the neighborhood!

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Then there was the time Mother Dear decided that her children should all learn to play piano. I didn't mind too much, but M. L. and A. D. preferred being outside to being stuck inside with our piano teacher, Mr. Mann, who would rap your knuckles with a ruler just for playing the wrong notes. Well, one morning, M. L. and A. D. decided to loosen the legs on the piano bench so we wouldn't have to practice. We didn't tell Mr. Mann, and when he sat ... CRASH! down he went.

But that's just what his life did.

Atlanta, Georgia, the city in which we were growing up, had those laws. Because of those laws, my family rarely went to the picture shows or visited Grant Park with its famous Cyclorama. In fact, to this very day I don't recall ever seeing my father on a streetcar. Because of those laws, and the indignity that went with them, Daddy preferred keeping M. L., A. D., and me close to home, where we'd be protected.

We lived in a neighborhood in Atlanta that's now called Sweet Auburn. It was named for Auburn Avenue, the street that ran in front of our house. On our side of the street stood two-story frame houses similar to the one we lived in. Across it crouched a line of one-story row houses and a store owned by a white family.

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When we were young all the children along Auburn Avenue played together, even the two boys whose parents owned the store.

... and ran with M. L. and A. D. to the firehouse on the corner where they watched the engines and the firemen.

The thought of not playing with those kids because they were different, because they were white and we were black, never entered our minds.

Well, one day, M. L. and A. D. went to get their playmates from across the street just as they had done a hundred times before. But they came home alone. The boys had told my brothers that they couldn't play together anymore because A. D. and M. L. were Negroes.

And that was it. Shortly afterward the family sold the store and moved away. We never saw or heard from them again.
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Looking back, I realize that it was only a matter of time before the generations of cruelty and injustice that Daddy and Mother Dear and Mama and Aunt Ida had been shielding us from finally broke through. But back then it was a crushing blow that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Why do white people treat colored people so mean?" M. L. asked Mother Dear afterward. And with me and M. L. and A. D. standing in front of her trying our best to understand, Mother Dear gave the reason behind it all.

Her words explained the streetcars our family avoided and the WHITeS ONLY sign that kept us off the elevator at City Hall. Her words told why there were parks and museums that black people could not visit and why some restaurants refused to serve us and why hotels wouldn't give us rooms and why theaters would only allow us to watch their picture shows from the balcony.

But her words also gave us hope.

She answered simply, "Because they just don't understand that everyone is the same, but someday, it will be better."

And my brother M. L. looked up into our mother's face and said the words I remember to this day.

He said, "Mother Dear, one day I'm going to turn this world upside down."

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In the coming years there would be other reminders of the cruel system called segregation that sought to keep black people down. But it was Daddy who showed M. L. and A. D. and me how to speak out against hatred and bigotry and stand up for what's right.

And Daddy practiced what he preached. He always stood up for himself when confronted with hatred and bigotry, and each day he shared his encounters at the dinner table.

When a shoe salesman told Daddy and M. L. that he'd only serve them in the back of the store because they were black, Daddy took M. L. somewhere else to buy new shoes.

Another time, a police officer pulled Daddy over and called him "boy." Daddy pointed to M. L. sitting next to him in the car and said, "This is a boy. I am a man, and until you call me one, I will not listen to you."

These stories were as nourishing as the food that was set before us.

Years would pass, and many new lessons would be learned. There would be numerous speeches and marches and prizes. But my brother never forgot the example of our father, or the promise he had made to our mother on the day his friends turned him away.

And when he was much older, my brother M. L. dreamed a dream ... that turned the world upside down.

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