Take It With A Grain Of Salt
For almost a century, the self-righteous British Raj ran the sub-continent for the financial benefit of The British East India Company. Each year, the rules became stricter, and more numerous.
Now they were told that they could not go to their ocean, and use their sunshine to evaporate the water. They could no longer “make salt.”
Their leader, the Mahatma, told them that they must non-violently insist on their centuries-old rights. Men were beaten and imprisoned. Bones were broken, and people died. Still the people quietly rose, like the tide itself.
And so, the great Gandhi gave birth to India.
Go to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site, and use her Wednesday picture as a prompt to write a complete story.
Archon's Den 
What a great take on the photo. Very clever. #FridayFictioneers
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I vaguely remembered Ben Kingsley in the movie. It was the only ‘salt’ reference that came to mind. Thanx. 🙂
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The people rising like the tide – great imagery.
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Thank you for the kind words, and welcome to the neighbourhood. 😀
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Great story! I love the image of the people rising and inexorably overwhelming the invaders.
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The day of colonialism had passed. Thanks for reading. 🙂
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Dear Archon,
A great tale about a great man and a beautiful country. Well done.
Aloha,
Doug
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History has proven you right about the man. If only I could afford to travel and prove you right about the country. Thanx for surfing through. 😆
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Dear Archon,
A piece of history well told and worth its salt.
shalom,
Rochelle
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I am so glad you felt it was worth that phrase. Same time and place next week? 😯
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how is this done? you simply copy the picture into your post and write any story about the shot?
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As I remember, you tried a couple of 33-word flash fictions last year.
Yeah, just access Rochelle’s site on Wednesdays, take a look, and write away. Post it on your site, but return to Rochelle’s, and click on the green/blue rectangle with the frog in it, to link in, then others can see and visit and comment. You should have no trouble figuring it out. I posted about a dozen before I found out how to add my gravatar, rather than the weekly picture. Any other questions, feel free to ask. 😀
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Good story — oddly, I too, had a flash in my mind about the Great Salt March of March 12-April 6th, 1930! I loved how you described it.
(And sorry, but I have to make a small correction: It’s Gandhi, not Ghandi, which is one of the odd spellings that crop up so often in the Western Hemisphere!)
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I am amazed at the range of ideas that one picture inspires, so I am more amazed that two of us would think of the same thing.
Sorry about the spelling error. It’s been corrected. I should have known better, but I don’t remember SpellCheck highlighting it. 😦
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Really well-down flash bit of history and this line is so good, “Still the people quietly rose, like the tide itself.”
janet
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Why thank you. While the rest is ‘technically competent’, I was pleased with that metaphor myself. 🙂
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I thoroughly enjoyed this! 🙂
Privately, I was hoping the Scottish vote today would be for independence, for no real reason other than I think shaking things up from time to time is healthy. Oh well.
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Of Scottish heritage myself, I enjoy occasionally tweaking the English tail. I think things have been shaken up as much as the last referendum for Quebec independence. More change is inevitable.
The Scottish Crown took over the English throne centuries ago, but there’s no beating the English bureaucracy. I’m all for independence and self-determination, but the social, political and financial consequences might have been too severe. I love Sean Connery, but, urging Scots to vote yes – from his villa in the Caribbean??! 😯
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You could start the History of the World: The Friday Fictioners Edition.
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I’ve already published a History of the World, here, and here. If some of these good people ever saw it, Chinese smog and North Korean ego would be the least of our problems. Maybe I could slip a bit in. 😕 😯
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Food for thought. Good job.
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And now it’s well seasoned. Thanx for playing, and now, we have some lovely parting gifts. 😆
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Gandhi, salt of the earth. A beautifully worded story.
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I’m glad you liked it. I haven’t seen Angelina Jolie in ‘Salt’, or this little tale might have had a different flavor. 😯
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Well done!
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Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’d take a bow, but it’s like touching my toes – ain’t gonna happen. 😀
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Well told – so much history in 100 words
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While my regular posts still tend to ramble on, these little exercises are teaching me to be more concise. 🙂
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Archon, Good story. They show that movie quite often here in India. It was terrible the way the British of that time treated the Indians. The problem is that some of the bureaucrats in India today do some terrible things to their own people. Well written. 🙂 —Susan.
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I had not realized you resided in the region of Ranchipur (vaguely). Brits were not the only nationality to behave badly, but seemed to excel at it. White folks here in Canada treated our Red Indians as badly for years. Now, White Man’s Guilt enforces better actions, but Indian chiefs and councils live in splendor while schools are infested with mold, and there is no safe drinking water because of sewage contamination.
I’m happy you liked my little tale, and added to my Kollection of Kudos. 😆
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I fully understand why you were anticipating me getting to the Flash Fictions. You should be justly proud of these bits…
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