Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"He had set off with 78 companions, but now there were thousands of men, women, boys, girls, walkers, cyclist, motorists, minstrels, hawkers, photographers, and newsreel cameramen. They had come to witness an act of historic importance. Early the next day, after the tide had receded from the marshy ground, Gandhi picked up a piece of salt deposited by the sea and thereby publicly defied the mighty British Raj" [Furtado: 1001 Days]