Read the passage and answer the question :
The volume of information being gained daily shows how wickedly the salt tax has been designed. In order to prevent the use of salt that has not paid the tax which is at times even fourteen times its value, the Government destroys the salt it cannot sell profitably. Thus it taxes the nation's vital necessity; it prevents the public from manufacturing it and destroys what nature manufactures without effort. No adjective is strong enough for characterising this wicked dog-in-the-manger policy. From various sources I hear tales of such wanton destruction of the nation's property in all parts of India. Maunds if not tons of salt are said to be destroyed on the Konkan coast. The same tale comes from Dandi. Wherever there is likelihood of natural salt being taken away by the people living in the neighbourhood of such areas for their personal use, salt officers are posted for the sole purpose of carrying on destruction. Thus valuable national property is destroyed at national expense and salt taken out of the mouths of the people.
Progress of Gandhi's March to the seashore can be traced from which of the following documents.
(A) Secret reports filed by the police
(B) 'Time' News Magazine
(C) Kesari
(D) Vividh Vritt
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (B) only
(A) Secret reports filed by the police — Correct. The progress of Gandhiji’s march to the seashore can be traced from the secret reports filed by the police officials deputed to monitor his movements. These reports reproduce the speeches he gave at the villages on the way.
(B) ‘Time’ News Magazine — Correct. The progress of the Salt March can also be traced from the American newsmagazine, Time. It first mocked Gandhiji’s looks and doubted that he would reach the sea, but within a week it wrote that the march had made the British rulers “desperately anxious”.
(C) Kesari — Incorrect. Kesari was a newspaper of the Bombay Presidency. The police Fortnightly Reports of 1930 quote it only for its opinion on whether the Government should arrest Gandhiji; it is not one of the sources from which the progress of the march is traced.
(D) Vividh Vritt — Incorrect. Vividh Vritt was a moderate paper. The same police report records only its view that the movement was futile and could not achieve its end; it does not trace the march either.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.1 Dandi … In the wake of the Salt March, nearly 60,000 Indians were arrested, among them, of course, Gandhiji himself. The progress of Gandhiji’s march to the seashore can be traced from the secret reports filed by the police officials deputed to monitor his movements.… 3.1 Dandi … The progress of the Salt March can also be traced from another source: the American newsmagazine, Time. This, to begin with, scorned at Gandhiji’s looks, writing with disdain of his ‘spindly frame’ and his ‘spidery loins’. Thus in its first report on the march, Time was deeply sceptical of the Salt March reaching its destination.…” |