Marches are a way to reaffirm peace. Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Dandi March in 1930, provided a nonviolent method of resisting injustices. Inspired by the Salt Satyagraha, Jai Jagat campaign employs this unique action to bring justice and peace. Peace marches are one of the methods to counter violence, and call for people to come together in a movement to advance the wellbeing of the planet. Although the salt satyagraha was to make salt from the sea, it was basically a means to counter the injustice of the British Colonial administration’s collection of tax on salt. And thereby provided a nonviolent method of resisting the injustices.
To Commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Global Peace march began on the 2nd October 2019. It is a foot march planned to cover 11,000 Kilometres from New Delhi, India to Geneva, Switzerland over a span of 365 days. The march had been envisaged to go through 10 countries – India, Pakistan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy and Switzerland.
The footmarch is a way to engage and advocate for justice and peace around the four pillars of Jai Jagat to the local people, bureaucrats, politicians, students, teachers, businessmen, civil society and the government body at both the regional and national levels of the respective country. And subsequently to engage in dialogue with the United Nations confederate groups in Geneva, Switzerland through a week long Geneva Forum programme. The walk thereby enabling the foot marchers to communicate various grassroot realities and experiences to the institutions and organisations working on global peace building at Geneva.
It was a movement intended to mobilise and inspire the society especially the young to partake in actions of nonviolence for greater justice and peace.
In India, the foot march completed over 2000 Km from New Delhi (2nd October 2019) to Wardha (30th January 2020). Due to the disturbed global political environment during these four months, the foot march was re-tracked from the southern tip of Armenia in February 2020. Smaller delegations were meanwhile sent to Pakistan and Iran in February 2020 to spread the message of Jai Jagat. And later due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic the march had to be stopped after completing 360 kilometers in Armenia.