Artists to retrace Dandi March

The Salt Prints is a contemporary artists' march, which aims to relive the historical Dandi March (a 387-km walk from Sabarmati to Dandi), which launched the Civil Disobedience campaign headed by Mahatma Gandhi, in 1930.

First held on July 6, 2011, by four artists - Ajit Bhadoriya, Edson Dias, Chaitanya Guttikar, and P Madhavan - the idea was to collect and capture photographs throughout the walk and to develop a visual narrative of people's personal and collective memoirs of Gandhi and his philosophy. The second edition of the walk begins on November 6, from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad and will end in Dandi, Gujarat on November 30.

A representation of the Dandi Marchu00a0

The title, The Salt Prints, is derived from Gandhiji's salt march, which combined with the Alternative Photography process. Salt prints were a 19th century photography process created by British photographer William Henry Fox Talbot.

The project has been initiated by the Goa Center for Alternative Photography (Goa-CAP), an organisation that researches 19th century photography processes.

Mahatma Gandhi claimed that the Salt March was designed to achieve a three-fold purpose. Firstly, it was to be a pilgrimage; secondly, it was to get the people's blessings and lastly, it was the method of initiating a non-violent revolution against the British Raj. Artist P Madhavan explains the connect, "After 80 years of the Salt March, we designed The Salt Prints project to achieve a three-fold purpose: to take up a journey of search, ideas, inspiration and a creative perspective; to connect artists with the people and the landscape and to create awareness regarding the life and message of Mahatma Gandhi."

Goa-CAP announced an international call for the walk in the last week of October and are open to applications. The final list of participating artists will be announced on October 30. Madhavan adds, "I am deeply inspired by Gandhiji's life and messages. Of the many books and literature, I have read about him, one book by Thomas Weber, titled On the Salt March, motivated me to organise the first walk in 2011."

How to register
> Aspirants must log on and agree to the Marcher's Code (https://sites.google.com/site/saltprints/marcher-s-code). Only four to five marchers will be selected.
> To check route: https://goo.gl/maps/x4TGn
> Log on to https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-SALT-Prints/197702143607923
> Last date to register: October 29