The Meeting in the Pans · The Salt Road · Pulse Beat
Next morning, Mohan called every family to the edge of the pans. They came in their working clothes, in the early glare, two hundred of them, men and women and children, and stood in a half-circle on…
Next morning, Mohan called every family to the edge of the pans.
They came in their working clothes, in the early glare, two hundred of them, men and women and children, and stood in a half-circle on the baked earth. Dhanji had insisted on being carried out in his chair, with a blanket over his knees, and sat at the front, grey-faced, a king of a very small country.
Kavita stood on an upturned crate with a sheaf of papers. She had never spoken in public in her village. She spoke in Gujarati, which she had not used in a year, in the plain, slow words of her childhood.
"They told you the land was sold. It was not. They told you your claim was worth nothing. It is worth more than they have offered. Mrs Dastur in Bhuj has agreed to take the case. If you stay together, you can stay on the land." She stopped, looking at the faces. "I'm not promising it will work. I'm saying: don't sign. Not alone."
A long silence. Then, from the back, a woman's voice: "And if we lose?"
"Then we lose together," said Kavita. "And we will not have been tricked."