Sharma : Did the 1930 movement affect women also?
Chavan : It did because I found a large number of women had started coming out and some of them were addressing those meetings. It was quite a liberating force in 1930. Gandhiji was a liberator of women in more than one sense. of course, that was the beginning, but it came in a big way leter on in the 1940s.
Sharma : Coming of women into public life, was it a new phenomenon in Maharashtra ?
Chavan : Well, the movement for women's education and liberation had started quite early in Maharashtra. in fact, Mahatma phule was the first man who started talking about women's education and also D.K. Karve even before Mahatma Gandhi, Karve did many things in this respect. And Gandhiji also confined himself to those ideas and made a mass impact on the people.
Sharma : Did Gandhiji become quite populat among non-Brahmins also?
Chavan : Oh, yes. He was the first national leader who made them forget non-Brahmini and made that impact that the nation was something more important. And within three or four years, ( 1930 to 1934 ), there was one election and the congress won it straightaway. N. V. Gadgil, who was the Brahmin candidate, won that election. And this sort of thing no longer affected the people.
Sharma : What do you think was the secret of Gandhiji's Popularity all over India, in all classes and all castes? How would you explain this phenomenon?
Chavan : Well, you see, people thought that he was the man who had sacrificed everything and led a simple life – his life was completely an open book for everyone to see. He had complete identification with people's life.
