Webb Miller, the only American journalist who covered Dandi March

In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi embarked on the Salt March to Dandi, there was one man with a notebook and a camera lens who accompanied him: Webb Miller.

Webb Miller was an American war correspondent and journalist. He had an incredible track record as a someone reporting and recording some of the most crucial moments in human history.

Wars Miller reported on

Miller reported on several historical events across the world such as World War I, the Spanish Civil War and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, to just name a few. He also reported on the Phoney War, and the Russo-Finnish War of 1939.

A long walk

Miller travelled 12,000 miles through the Middle East and India in 1930 and interviewed Mahatma Gandhi. He remained in India to report on the Salt Satyagraha. It was during this march that Miller witnessed first-hand the brutal Dharasana Salt Works attack, during which over 1,300 unarmed Indians were assaulted by the colonial British forces.

Miller's energetic dispatches

Webb Miller's coverage and strong reportage from the Dandi March stunned the world. This also, as Mahatma Gandhi himself later admitted, helped frame international support for India's freedom movement.

Miller's energetic dispatches conveyed the mood of the non-violent resistance, giving the world an insight into what was one of the most unique struggles for freedom anywhere in the world.

Miller's Mahatma interview

Subsequently, Webb Miller also interviewed Mahatma Gandhi himself, providing the world with an intimate portrait of the man who was spearheading India's struggle for freedom.

A special signature

One interesting anecdote from Miller's interactions with Mahatma Gandhi is that Gandhi signed his name on Miller's cigarette case. However, this signature came with a rider. Gandhi asked Miller to give the guarantee that the cigarette case would never be used to carry cigarettes again, a vow Miller honoured.

During the course of the next decade, as Webb Miller travelled across the world to report on some of the most historic event and interacted with the key historical figures of that era, the case became a special memento. Over the years, Miller got signatures from the likes of Mussolini, Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, and writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.

Miller, the bridge

Through his reporting of the Dandi March and the Indian struggle for freedom, Miller became the bridge between Gandhi’s salt-laden fistful of defiance and the conscience of the world.