Sharma : You mean to say that this hair- splitting was don only by the elite at a higher level ?
Chavan : That was only confined to the Brahmin leader, a great patriot. That was what the people knew. what Gandhiji was doing was continuing his work of fighting against British rule.
Sharma : Who were your political mentions?
Chavan : Well, I won't say there was only one mentor as such or that I learnt from one single individual and imbibed it. I read things, I had known a lot of good things, Iectures I heard, I learnt from many people. I learnt from the general atmosphere and social upheaval that was going on. But I can't point out one individual figure from whom I learnt. I was a typical product of a movement, if I can say so
Sharma : were you ever interested or attracted towards revolutionary movement also?
Chavan : I was There was a romanticism about the terrorist movement-life of Savarkar, then came Bhagat Singh and others. It was the same period. One or two friends of mine were interested in that. But the 1930 movement completely changed my outlook towards the terrorist movement. Because it was a mass movement, a mass upsurge and people's action. I outgrew this terrorist movement. For some time it might have influenced me. But it had not made a definite impact on me.
Gandhiji's Dandi March was an active political movement started from Ahmedabad and every day it went on. I remember, we used to gather in small groups and tried to read every small news that was published in the papers and got influenced by it. Public meetings were held practically every day in my town. we used to go to the meetings and listen to the stories of Gandhiji's life and how he would go on. This certainly built up the atmosphere In my own hometown, one of my friends, who is still living Shri Hari Bhau Lad, was lame, but a very brave person. He broke the salt act and went to jail for six months. And he was our hero. We thought that we had all gone to jail. The main point I am making is that the 1930 movement, the salt Satyagraha, made an impact on the people in the rural areas. For me what was important was that the rural life was getting influenced, because I was, though living in a city, a part of the rural life. Transformation was coming. A completely new movement was taking hold of the people's mind. Whatever impression or attraction was there in my mind for terrorist people ( individually I had admiration for them because they were brave people) Their method never henceforward attracted me.
