THE SALT THIEF

In 1930, Mohandas K. Gandhi led a nonviolent campaign across India to defy the imperial British salt tax, an effort that ultimately led to Indian independence and demonstrated the power of large-scale civil disobedience.

Bascomb opens with a capsule history of the British Raj (and Indian resistance to it) before zeroing in on Gandhi, his fellows in the Indian National Congress, and British viceroy Lord Irwin. From there, he recounts the planning and execution of the Salt March, drawing on Gandhi’s own words, reporters’ eyewitness descriptions, marchers’ diaries, and the contemporary writings and retrospective accounts of key players both Indian and British. Indeed, one of the book’s strengths is its presentation of the work done by freedom fighters such as Sarojini Naidu, Abbas Tyabji, and Gandhi’s son Manilal. For all the attention to Indian voices and the sheer volume of his research, however, Bascomb’s account falters, beginning with the title, a moniker Gandhi embraced with a heavy irony Bascomb does not convey. Bascomb’s repetition of the slur “Untouchables” in referring to the Dalits—a name he never introduces—is inexplicable. While the epilogue complicates Gandhi’s legacy somewhat, it does not do so with the rigorous scrutiny now underway in India, eliding, for instance, Gandhi’s early anti-Black views. Thaker’s occasional illustrations help readers visualize events.

An uneven effort.