Google Has Recreated Mahatma Gandhi's Historic Dandi March, Join In

New Delhi: Internet users can now be part of Mahatma Gandhi's historic Dandi March as Google has digitally recreated the journey. Google has added the Dandi March story to its Google Earth Voyager, which features map data, storytelling and archival photographs. Google claimed that many of these have never been released.

The 24-day journey started on March 12, 1930 to protest against the tax levy on salt by the British. The march added huge momentum to India's independence movement. While 78 people began the almost 400-km march with Gandhiji, many more joined along the way.

Users can now experience the emotion felt on that long trek towards independence, Google said in a statement. "The Voyager story takes you through a journey retracing the steps of Gandhi's Salt March from Sabarmati to Dandi in his campaign for India's freedom," it added.

The story is told in the words of Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi, based on his family knowledge and his own retracing of the march in 2005, the statement said.

Google has created a montage of 22 slides covering each key stage of the journey to specific locations along the way, recounting what happened at that location along with a photograph taken at the time.

The first stop in the journey is at the Gujarat Vidyapeeth University, where viewers learn about the thatched hut built by the people of Vasana, and about the boat owner who ferried almost 400 volunteers and villagers across the Narmada river free of charge. At any time, users can zoom in, and pan around the scene.