16 military, police veterans to retrace Dandi March route in January to experience history

Lucknow, Dec 28 (PTI) A group of 16 retired military and police officers will retrace Mahatma Gandhi's historic Dandi March route in January next year as an exercise in reconnecting with Gandhian values, a former Army officer said.

From January 3 to 17, the participants -- all aged above 62 and hailing from different parts of the country -- will undertake a 405-kilometre walk from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi.

The group, consisting of 15 former armed forces officers and one retired IPS officer, will pass through villages and towns Gandhi traversed during the 1930 Salt Satyagraha, Lt Gen (Retd) Anil Puri, a former Army officer who is part of the event, told PTI.

The other participants are Cols (Retd) Jayachandran Nair and R K Singh from Pune, Brig (Retd) Tushar Misra from Bhubaneswar, Brig (Retd) S K Chaturvedi from Dehradun, Lt Gen (Retd) M V Suchindra Kumar and Lt Col (Retd) Srinivasan from Bengaluru, Col (Retd) M J S Pathania from Jammu, Brig (Retd) Girish Joshi and Col (Retd) Girish Bhandari from Noida, Col (Retd) Subhash Chand from Delhi, Maj (Retd) Ashish Chadha from Gurgaon, Col (Retd) Lalit Gairola and Maj Gen (Retd) N D Prasad from Hyderabad, and Lt Gen (Retd) P N Ananthanarayanan and retired IPS officer Sengathir Selvaraj from Chennai.

Lt Gen Puri, who now serves as a member of the Armed Forces Tribunal in Lucknow, said the march was being undertaken for "reasons that went far beyond covering distance on foot." It was meant to honour history by experiencing it rather than merely remembering it, he explained.

The original Dandi March, he said, symbolised "moral courage, discipline and clarity of purpose" and retracing the route helped transform history from a textbook lesson into a lived experience.

The retired officer said the walk was also intended to underline the power of "quiet resolve", noting that Gandhi demonstrated how change could be achieved through perseverance and inner strength rather than force or noise.

Walking 25-30 kilometres a day, he added, was not about proving endurance but about showing that age was not a barrier to purpose or fitness, in keeping with the spirit of Fit India.

"This march strips life to its essentials: steady steps, shared meals, conversation and silence," he said, adding that such simplicity was grounding in a fast-paced, distracted world.

Another key aim, he said, was to inspire younger generations by demonstrating that "patriotism, fitness and commitment do not retire at 60".

The organisers said the walk was neither an attempt to recreate history nor driven by ideological messaging, but a modest effort to understand, in a personal way, what Gandhi may have experienced physically and emotionally during the long march.

Quoting Gandhi's dictum "You must be the change you wish to see in the world", Puri said the participants hoped to internalise the idea through lived experience rather than speeches or slogans.

Health and safety arrangements have been planned, with participants preparing over several months, carrying basic first-aid and medicines, and relying on local government medical facilities if required. Accommodation will be arranged at Dandi Path Yatri Nivas and other locations where Gandhi stayed during his 24-day march, including Santram Mandir at Nadiad.

An important component of the journey will be interaction with school and college students, NCC cadets, village sarpanches and ex-servicemen along the route.

"These will be conversations, not lectures," Puri said, adding that the group hoped their quiet effort would inspire others to rediscover endurance, connection and purpose. PTI MAN CDN RUK RUK