The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-05-22
BY WEBB MILLER
United Press staff Correspondent

DHARASANA, Surat District, In
dia, May 21.-Oelayed by Censor)--
Prayers said as white-clad volun-
teers knelt in the moonlight and an
imprisoned speech by the poetess-
leader, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, opened
the mass attack of $500 independ-
ence demonstrations on the Dharas-
ana salt works.
The poeteSS, wearing rough.
homespun robe, and soft slippers,
but no stockings, exhorted her fol-
lowers to the raid in which $50 of
them were injured and which
brought about her own arrest.
although Gandhi's body is in
prison, his soul goes with you," she
cried in an imprisoned voice as
she sent the volunteers to the at
tack.
The volunteers formed into coll
umns, with their leaders carrying
robes and wire cutters. They adj
vanced slowly for half a mile-a
ghoStly procesSion-toward the salt
works.
Heaps of glistening salt surround
ed by the twisted bsrbed wire en-.
tanglements erected by police were
the objective of the brief march.
Directed by British
About 400 native Surat police In
Khaki shorts and turbans stood in
side and outside the entanglements.
Several British officers directed
the police, who had orders to- pre-
vent the assembly Of more than
five persons in the entire area.
The police clutched their lathis
(long sticks and about twenty-five
of them revealed their rifles as
the volunteers approached.
AS the column reached the salt
works at $50 a. m. police charged,
swinging their lathiS and belaboring
the raiders on all sides. The volun-
teers made no resistance.
AS the police swung Justify with
their sticks, the natives simply
dropped in their tracks. Without
even raising their arms to ward off
the blows.
With almost unbelievable meek
ness they submitted to the clubbing
and were carried away by their
comrades who had collected score
of stretchers.
Stretcher bearers, with crude red
crosses of cloth pinned on their
breasts, waded into the bitches of
dirty water surrounding the salt
pans and carried off the injured as
fast as they fell or were hurled
into the mud. Some of the casual
ties were bleeding profusely and
others had fractured arms, or wrists
or with bruises and internal inju-
ries suffered when police jabbed
them in the stomachs with clubs.
Warned by Police
After police had driven the raid
ers back, leaders started stretching
themselves on the ground or sitting
in front of the police as closely as
they could press to the entangle-
ments.
They were warned by police, who
then struck the men sitting in front
of them.
The volunteers who were hit SIM
ply reeled over on the ground
without making cry or an effort
to defend themselves.
Sometimes police became angered
and in few instances they kicked
men who we're sitting before the en-
tanglements.
Mrs. Naidu directed operations
from point near the front of the
struggle.
A police official, accompanied by
three police armed with lathis, APP
preached and placed her under ar
rest.
She slowly picked her way across
the bitches toward the barbed- wire
Enclosure, followed by the police and
was imprisoned with Manilal
Gandhi, son of the mahatma, and
other leaders.
Stretched in Row
AS the heat increased at noon the
operations slackened. About twen~
ty doctors and nurses were working
over prone men stretched in the
shade of a mango tree in a nearby
thicket.
The men lay on the ground in
rows and the treatments were
chiefly applications of iodine.
Congress officials claimed $50 were
injured.
Many Of the volunteers were
college students or clerks from all
parts of Gujerat. Many spoke Eng
fish. The most amazing part Of the
raid was that did not see single
volunteer strike a policeman.