The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap forward was one of the greatest tragedies in history. 20-30 million people died during the program, which was originally aimed at industrialization through communes (commune dining hall). The idea of the commune was almost utopian. Each commune contained about 5000 families. Once in the commune everything that used to be owned by the individual was now owned by the commune as a whole, including their work. The commune assured that all adults could work by providing school and a nursery for all of the children, and the elderly were moved into "houses of happiness" and provided healthcare. By 1958 700 million people had been placed into 26,578 communes, a feat only possible through skillful propaganda(a card celebrating the Great Leap Forward). However, by 1959 things began to go downhill. The communes were held to impossible standards, and complaining meant you were a bourgeoisie reactionary. The homemade steel and shoddily put together machines were fall apart when used, and caused injury. Also, because the peasants were working on their "back-yard productions" they didn't harvest the desperately needed food but party members would not tell Mao the real numbers in fear of being accused of being a bourgeoisie sympathizer, so the people suffered. Perhaps the real issue with the great Leap forward was that Chairman Mao was unapproachable. Could such a noble movement have been saved if the leader had actually known what was happening. In the respect it is Mao's fault for creating a government where he can't even get accurate statistics. Maybe he would have changed the course of The Great Leap Forward if he knew that instead of making and exceeding their quota the communes were slipping into a state of disrepair and famine.

Proof

After facing discrimination in South Africa Mahatma Gandhi vowed to create justice through non-violence. He developed the concept satygraha he kept to it, never wavering, even when others pressured him to. It is strange, when looking at the Indian revolution that there was so much bloodshed in the end. It makes it difficult to believe that a concept such as peaceful protest could ever work. However, one of Gandhi’s campaign was truly able to show the power of peaceful protest, and that is the salt march.

For people who live in hot climates salt is very important. Gandhi exclaimed his choice by saying the following, “Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life. It is the only condiment of the poor….There is no article like salt outside water by taxing which the state can reach even the starving millions, the sick, the maimed and the utterly helpless. The tax constitutes therefore the most inhuman poll tax that ingenuity of man can devise” ( Dalton 100). Salt is so important because when people sweat they lose salt in their bodies, because people sweat more in hot climates they need more salt to replace what they have lost. Everyone in India was affected, and although people were skeptical Gandhi was correct in his analysis; the march would be for everyone, not just for the wealthy and not just for the poor.

The salt march was the epitome of a peaceful protest, it was merely a mass of people collecting what nature gave them. There was little to no violence performed by the Indians. After a little while the British police began to act. Webb Miller, a journalist who was present at the time, wrote of the tragedies he saw during the March (scroll to paragraph 6). Gandhi had invited many journalists around the world to watch the Salt March, this linked with the non-violent Indians is what really caused the India Acts. Gandhi let the world see the Indians doing nothing but collecting salt from the ocean, it was made obvious that the Indiana did not want to hurt the British, they just wanted to be free from them. This was in contrast to the British, who were beating the unprotected protestors. Because of this the English look horrible to the rest of the world. The only way to set this straight was to grant India some freedom. If Gandhi had not enforced peace then the world could have seen the Indians as violent, and then the British would look justified in their treatment of them. This is why the salt mach is the greatest case for peaceful protest, because without it the March would have been a bust.