The progress of salt march can also be traced from another source: The American news magazine Time. This, to begin with, wrote with disdain of Gandhi's "Spindly frame" and his "spidery loins". In its first report, Time was deeply skeptical of the marchers reaching their destination. It claimed that Gandhi "sank to the ground" at the end of the second day's walking; the magazine did not believe that "the emaciated saint would be physically able to much further". Within a week, it had changed its mind. The massive popular following that the march had gathered, wrote Time, had made the British rulers "desperately anxious". Gandhi himself they now saluted as a "saint" and a "statesman who was using "Christian acts as a weapon against men with Christian beliefs". The salt march was notable for at least three reasons. First, it brought Gandhi to world attention, with the march being widely covered by the European and American press. Second, it was the first nationalist activity in which women participated in large numbers. The socialist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay had persuaded Gandhi not to restrict the protests to men alone. Kamaladevi was herself one of numerous women who courted arrest by breaking the salt or liquor laws. Third, and perhaps, the most significant, it was the salt march that forced upon the British the realization that their raj may not last for ever and that they would have to devolve some powers to Indians.
What was the initial response of western press to Ghandhiji's salt march ?
Skeptical
The question asks about the initial reaction of the Western press to Gandhi's salt march. The passage traces this reaction through the American magazine Time. At the start, Time wrote "with disdain" of Gandhi's "spindly frame" and his "spidery loins", and in its very first report it "was deeply skeptical of the marchers reaching their destination". The magazine even doubted that "the emaciated saint would be physically able to (go) much further". These lines make it clear that the earliest attitude of the Western press was one of doubt and disbelief.
This is exactly what the word Skeptical captures, so it is the correct choice.
Why the other options fail: Appreciative is wrong because appreciation came only later. The passage says that only "within a week, it had changed its mind" and began to salute Gandhi as a "saint" and a "statesman" — so praise was the changed, not the initial, response. Deceptive finds no support at all; the passage never suggests the press was trying to mislead anyone. Neutral is also incorrect, because the press was not indifferent or balanced — it wrote with open "disdain" and doubt, which is a negative, not a neutral, stance.
Correct answer: Skeptical
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