WARDHA: Eighty years after Mahatma Gandhi led the historic Dandi march, walking 390 kilometres from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to the coastal town of Dandi in Gujarat, a British social activist plans to do the same.
While Gandhi walked this weary distance as a symbolic gesture of defiance towards the British salt tax law, Jill Beckingham, 60, will be doing so to raise funds. The money she generates will be used for the betterment of leprosy patients, tribals, hearing impaired as well as for a school next to a garbage dump in Mumbai.
After starting on November 18, Jill aims to complete the walk in 14 days, taking 10 days fewer than Gandhi who started the march on March 12, 1930. "It will be quicker as unlike Gandhiji, I won't have speeches to deliver on the route," she told TOI from Mumbai. "If Gandhi could do it at 61, why can't I do it 60," said Jill.
Jill is the wife of the British deputy high commissioner (Western India) Peter. "Though not an official affair, some representatives of the high commission would also be present for the walk," said Peter in Wardha on Tuesday. He announced the plan during the inaugural function of a joint meeting between the British High Commission and Indian department of science on bridging the rural and urban divide, both in India and the UK.
"Jill has already walked a distance of 60 miles from London to Brighton for raising money. Now, as she is working in India, a group of British scholars in Vadodara asked her to take up the cause of leprosy patients. Dandi was chosen on account of its historical importance," Peter said.
Read more: Jill to do Dandi March for charity - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jill-to-do-Dandi-March-for-charity/articleshow/6778223.cms#ixzz12rrnOPmJ
While Gandhi walked this weary distance as a symbolic gesture of defiance towards the British salt tax law, Jill Beckingham, 60, will be doing so to raise funds. The money she generates will be used for the betterment of leprosy patients, tribals, hearing impaired as well as for a school next to a garbage dump in Mumbai.
After starting on November 18, Jill aims to complete the walk in 14 days, taking 10 days fewer than Gandhi who started the march on March 12, 1930. "It will be quicker as unlike Gandhiji, I won't have speeches to deliver on the route," she told TOI from Mumbai. "If Gandhi could do it at 61, why can't I do it 60," said Jill.
Jill is the wife of the British deputy high commissioner (Western India) Peter. "Though not an official affair, some representatives of the high commission would also be present for the walk," said Peter in Wardha on Tuesday. He announced the plan during the inaugural function of a joint meeting between the British High Commission and Indian department of science on bridging the rural and urban divide, both in India and the UK.
"Jill has already walked a distance of 60 miles from London to Brighton for raising money. Now, as she is working in India, a group of British scholars in Vadodara asked her to take up the cause of leprosy patients. Dandi was chosen on account of its historical importance," Peter said.
Read more: Jill to do Dandi March for charity - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jill-to-do-Dandi-March-for-charity/articleshow/6778223.cms#ixzz12rrnOPmJ
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