To commemorate the Great Salt March, the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation re-enacted the Salt March on its 75th anniversary, in its exact historical schedule and route followed by the Mahatma and his band of 80 marchers. The event was known as the "International Walk for Justice and Freedom". What started as a personal pilgrimage for Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi turned into an international event with 900 registered participants from nine nations and on a daily basis the numbers swelled to a couple of thousands. There was extensive reportage in the international media. The participants halted at Dandi on the night of 5 April, with the commemoration ending on 7 April.
Re-enactment in 2005
Salt March
Salt March | Re-enactment in 2005
Yes, on its 75th anniversary. To commemorate the Great Salt March, the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation re-enacted the Salt March on its 75th anniversary, in its exact historical schedule and route followed by the Mahatma and his band of 80 marchers Yes - To commemorate the Great Salt March, the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation re-enacted the Salt March on its 75th anniversary, in its exact historical schedule and route followed by the Mahatma and his band of 80 marchers. Yes, to commemorate the Great Salt March, the "Mahatma Gandhi Foundation" re-enacted the Salt March on its 75th anniversary.
who broke salt law in belgaum in 1930
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
what was the salt march ?
user
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India .
assistant
when di it take place ?
user
From 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930.
assistant
why did it take place ?
user
As a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. Another reason for this march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong inauguration that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi's example.
assistant
what was its impact ?
user
British documents show that the British government was shaken by satyagraha.
assistant
what were its long term effects ?
user
Indian, British, and world opinion increasingly began to recognise the legitimacy of claims by Gandhi and the Congress Party for sovereignty and self-rule. The Satyagraha campaign of the 1930s also forced the British to recognise that their control of India depended entirely on the consent of the Indians – Salt Satyagraha was a significant step in the British losing that consent.
assistant
was it ever re enacted ?
user
The Salt Satyagraha did not produce immediate progress toward dominion status or self-rule for India, did not elicit major policy concessions from the British, or attract much Muslim support. Congress leaders decided to end satyagraha as official policy in 1934, and Nehru and other Congress members drifted further apart from Gandhi, who withdrew from Congress to concentrate on his Constructive Programme, which included his efforts to end untouchability in the Harijan movement. However, even though British authorities were again in control by the mid-1930s, Indian, British, and world opinion increasingly began to recognise the legitimacy of claims by Gandhi and the Congress Party for sovereignty and self-rule.
Salt March | Long-term effect
The Satyagraha campaign of the 1930s also forced the British to recognise that their control of India depended entirely on the consent of the Indians – Salt Satyagraha was a significant step in the British losing that consent. Nehru considered the Salt Satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi, and felt that its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians: Of course these movements exercised tremendous pressure on the British Government and shook the government machinery. But the real importance, to my mind, lay in the effect they had on our own people, and especially the village masses ...
Salt March | Long-term effect
To commemorate the Great Salt March, the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation re-enacted the Salt March on its 75th anniversary, in its exact historical schedule and route followed by the Mahatma and his band of 80 marchers. The event was known as the "International Walk for Justice and Freedom". What started as a personal pilgrimage for Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi turned into an international event with 900 registered participants from nine nations and on a daily basis the numbers swelled to a couple of thousands. There was extensive reportage in the international media. The participants halted at Dandi on the night of 5 April, with the commemoration ending on 7 April.
Salt March | Re-enactment in 2005
The satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi's release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference. Although over 60,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha, the British did not make immediate major concessions. The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of non-violent protest called "satyagraha", which he loosely translated as "truth-force". Literally, it is formed from the Sanskrit words "satya", "truth", and "agraha", "insistence". In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organise the campaign.
Salt March | Introduction
A resolution was passed wherein the delegates present declared 'That this Congress do put on record its disapproval of the recent enhancement of the salt tax as involving a perceptible increase to the burden of the poorer classes, as also the 'partial adoption, in a time of peace and plenty, of the only financial reserve of the Empire.' The 1892 session at Allahabad concluded thus: '... We do not know when the tax will be reduced. So that there is every necessity for our repeating this prayer in the interests of the masses, and we earnestly hope that it will be granted before long'.
History of the British salt tax in India | Early protests against the British salt tax
Gandhi's plan was to begin civil disobedience with a satyagraha aimed at the British salt tax. The 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt, limiting its handling to government salt depots and levying a salt tax. Violation of the Salt Act was a criminal offence. Even though salt was freely available to those living on the coast (by evaporation of sea water), Indians were forced to buy it from the colonial government.
Salt March | Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule
Mass civil disobedience spread throughout India as millions broke the salt laws by making salt or buying illegal salt. Salt was sold illegally all over the coast of India. A pinch of salt made by Gandhi himself sold for 1,600 rupees (equivalent to $750 at the time). In reaction, the British government arrested over sixty thousand people by the end of the month. What had begun as a Salt Satyagraha quickly grew into a mass Satyagraha. British cloth and goods were boycotted. Unpopular forest laws were defied in the Maharashtra, Karnataka and Central Provinces. Gujarati peasants refused to pay tax, under threat of losing their crops and land.
Salt March | Mass civil disobedience
British documents show that the British government was shaken by satyagraha. Nonviolent protest left the British confused about whether or not to jail Gandhi. John Court Curry, a British police officer stationed in India, wrote in his memoirs that he felt nausea every time he dealt with Congress demonstrations in 1930. Curry and others in British government, including Wedgwood Benn, Secretary of State for India, preferred fighting violent rather than nonviolent opponents.
Salt March | Impact
The British authorities turned deaf ears to the massive protests against the salt tax which rocked India during the early 1930s. The Dandi March was only partially successful. Though it forced the British rulers to come to the discussion table, the salt tax continued. It was only on 6 April 1946 that Mahatma Gandhi made a formal request to Sir Archibald Rowlands, the finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, to remove the oppressive salt tax. Rowlands formally issued an order abolishing the salt tax, but the order was vetoed by the Viceroy, Lord Wavell. The salt tax continued in force until March 1947, when it was abolished by the Interim Government of India headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, by the then-Finance Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.
History of the British salt tax in India | Aftermath
Dharasana Satyagraha was a protest against the British salt tax in colonial India in May, 1930. Following the conclusion of the Salt March to Dandi, Mahatma Gandhi chose a non-violent raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat as the next protest against British rule. Hundreds of satyagrahis were beaten by soldiers under British command at Dharasana. The ensuing publicity attracted world attention to the Indian independence movement and brought into question the legitimacy of British rule in India.
Dharasana Satyagraha | Introduction
Non-cooperation dragged them out of the mire and gave them self-respect and self-reliance ... They acted courageously and did not submit so easily to unjust oppression; their outlook widened and they began to think a little in terms of India as a whole ... It was a remarkable transformation and the Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, must have the credit for it.
Salt March | Long-term effect
Growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians. After making the salt by evaporation at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings on the way. The Congress Party planned to stage a satyagraha at the Dharasana Salt Works, 25 miles south of Dandi. However, Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana. The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage.
Salt March | Introduction
At the finale in Dandi, the prime minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, greeted the marchers and promised to build an appropriate monument at Dandi to commemorate the marchers and the historical event. The route from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi has now been christened as the Dandi Path and has been declared a historical heritage route. Series of commemorative stamps were issued in 1980 and 2005, on the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the Dandi March.
Salt March | Re-enactment in 2005
While many Hindu leaders championed a demand for immediate independence, Gandhi revised his own call to a one-year wait, instead of two. The British did not respond favourably to Gandhi's proposal. British political leaders such as Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill announced opposition to "the appeasers of Gandhi", in their discussions with European diplomats who sympathised with Indian demands. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. Gandhi led Congress celebrated 26 January 1930 as India's Independence Day in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930.
Mahatma Gandhi | Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Vithalbhai Patel, former Speaker of the Assembly, watched the massacre and remarked: All hope of reconciling India with the British Empire is lost forever. I can understand any government's taking people into custody and punishing them for breaches of the law, but I cannot understand how any government that calls itself civilized could deal as savagely and brutally with non-violent, unresisting men as the British have this morning." In response to the beatings and the press coverage, Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, wrote to King George: Your Majesty can hardly fail to have read with amusement the accounts of the severe battles for the Salt Depot in Dharasana.
Dharasana Satyagraha | Aftermath
The march took 25 days to cover 240 miles with Gandhi speaking to often huge crowds along the way. Thousands of Indians joined him in Dandi. On 5 May he was interned under a regulation dating from 1827 in anticipation of a protest that he had planned. The protest at Dharasana salt works on 21 May went ahead without its leader, Gandhi. A horrified American journalist, Webb Miller, described the British response thus:
Mahatma Gandhi | Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Nehru and most of the Congress leaders were initially ambivalent about Gandhi's plan to begin civil disobedience with a "satyagraha" aimed at the British salt tax. After the protest gathered steam, they realised the power of salt as a symbol. Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "it seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released." He was arrested on 14 April 1930 while on train from Allahabad for Raipur. He had earlier, after addressing a huge meeting and leading a vast procession, ceremoniously manufactured some contraband salt. He was charged with breach of the salt law, tried summarily behind prison walls and sentenced to six months of imprisonment.
Jawaharlal Nehru | Salt March: 1930
The civil disobedience in 1930 marked the first time women became mass participants in the struggle for freedom. Thousands of women, from large cities to small villages, became active participants in satyagraha. Gandhi had asked that only men take part in the salt march, but eventually women began manufacturing and selling salt throughout India. It was clear that though only men were allowed within the march, that both men and women were expected to forward work that would help dissolve the salt laws. Usha Mehta, an early Gandhian activist, remarked that "Even our old aunts and great-aunts and grandmothers used to bring pitchers of salt water to their houses and manufacture illegal salt.
Salt March | Women in civil disobedience
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The 25-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. Another reason for this march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong inauguration that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi's example. Mahatma Gandhi started this march with 79 of his trusted volunteers. Walking ten miles a day, the march spanned over 240 miles (384 km), from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, which was called Navsari at that time (now in the state of Gujarat).
Salt March | Introduction
An item of daily use could resonate more with all classes of citizens than an abstract demand for greater political rights. The salt tax represented 8.2% of the British Raj tax revenue, and hurt the poorest Indians the most significantly. Explaining his choice, Gandhi said, "Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life." In contrast to the other leaders, the prominent Congress statesman and future Governor-General of India, C. Rajagopalachari, understood Gandhi's viewpoint. In a public meeting at Tuticorin, he said:
Salt March | Choice of salt as protest focus
In April 1930, Congress leader Chakravarti Rajagopalachari led a salt sathyagraha in Vedaranyam, Madras province. The satyagrahis reached Vedaranyam on the east coast of India on 28 April, where they prepared salt illegally on 30 April.
History of the British salt tax in India | Other salt satyagrahas
It was also from here that on 12 March 1930, Gandhi marched to Dandi, 241 miles from the ashram, with 78 companions in protest at the British Salt Law, which increased the taxes on Indian salt in an effort to promote sales of British salt in India. It was this march and the subsequent illegal production of salt (Gandhi boiled up some salty mud in seawater) that spurred hundreds of thousands across India to join in, either in the illegal production, buying or selling of salt. This mass civil disobedience in turn led to the imprisioning of some 60,000 by the British Raj over the following three weeks.
Sabarmati Ashram | History
A modified salt tax was later introduced, to the Republic of India, via the Salt Cess Act, 1953, which received the assent of the President on 26 December 1953, and was brought into force on 2 January 1954.
History of the British salt tax in India | Aftermath
The Salt Satyagraha formed the highpoint of the Civil Disobedience Movement. While the heavy salt tax was always a burden to the poor peasant, the widespread poverty during the Great Depression made it even more difficult for the commoner to procure salt. In response to this tax, between March 12, 1930 and April 5, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi marched with over 30,000 followers to the coastal town of Dandi in Gujarat, where they illegally manufactured salt and defied the Government monopoly on salt. Subsequently, similar satyagrahas were organized at Dharasana and Vedaranyam. The Government responded with a massive roundup, but by then, the march and the media coverage had radically moulded international opinion.
Great Depression in India | Salt Satyagraha
The Salt March lead by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a protest in response to the unfair tax and standing up to the rule of the British Monarch, the protest resulted in the independence of India in 1948 .
Salt tax | India
There were further protests throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries culminating in Mahatma Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha in 1930. This sathyagraha was followed by other sathyagrahas in other parts of the country. After the arrest of Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu led the sathyagrahis to Dharasana Salt works in Gujarat and was arrested by the police officers. C. Rajagopalachari broke the Salt Laws at Vedaranyam, in Madras Province in the same year. Thousands courted arrest and were imprisoned in large numbers. The administration eventually relented and invited Mahatma Gandhi to England to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhi's Dandi March got wide news coverage and proved to be a turning point in the history of India's independence movement.
History of the British salt tax in India | Introduction
At the historic Lahore session of the Indian National Congress on 26 December 1929 in which "Purna Swaraj" was declared, a passing reference was made to the infamous and oppressive salt law and resolved that a way should be found to oppose it. In the first week of March 1930, Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin apprising him of the prevailing social, economic and political conditions in the country. On 12 March 1930, Mahatma Gandhi embarked on a sathyagraha with 79 followers from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the Arabian Sea coast. This march, known as the "Dandi March", was sensationalized by the international press; film clippings and pictures of Mahatma Gandhi were relayed to distant corners of the world.
History of the British salt tax in India | Gandhi's Salt March
After his early release from prison for political crimes in 1924, over the second half of the 1920s, Gandhi continued to pursue "swaraj". He pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-co-operation with complete independence for the country as its goal. After his support for the World War I with Indian combat troops, and the failure of Khilafat movement in preserving the rule of Caliph in Turkey, followed by a collapse in Muslim support for his leadership, some such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh questioned his values and non-violent approach.
Mahatma Gandhi | Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
On 5 February, newspapers reported that Gandhi would begin civil disobedience by defying the salt laws. The salt satyagraha would begin on 12 March and end in Dandi with Gandhi breaking the Salt Act on 6 April. Gandhi chose 6 April to launch the mass breaking of the salt laws for a symbolic reason—it was the first day of "National Week", begun in 1919 when Gandhi conceived of the national hartal (strike) against the Rowlatt Act. Gandhi prepared the worldwide media for the march by issuing regular statements from Sabarmati, at his regular prayer meetings and through direct contact with the press.
Salt March | Preparing to march
Initially, Gandhi's choice of the salt tax was met with incredulity by the Working Committee of the Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dibyalochan Sahoo were ambivalent; Sardar Patel suggested a land revenue boycott instead. "The Statesman", a prominent newspaper, wrote about the choice: "It is difficult not to laugh, and we imagine that will be the mood of most thinking Indians." The British establishment too was not disturbed by these plans of resistance against the salt tax. The Viceroy himself, Lord Irwin, did not take the threat of a salt protest seriously, writing to London, "At present the prospect of a salt campaign does not keep me awake at night." However, Gandhi had sound reasons for his decision.
Salt March | Choice of salt as protest focus
He was arrested under an 1827 regulation calling for the jailing of people engaged in unlawful activities, and held without trial near Poona (now Pune). The Dharasana Satyagraha went ahead as planned, with Abbas Tyabji, a seventy-six-year-old retired judge, leading the march with Gandhi's wife Kasturba at his side. Both were arrested before reaching Dharasana and sentenced to three months in prison. After their arrests, the march continued under the leadership of Sarojini Naidu, a woman poet and freedom fighter, who warned the satyagrahis, "You must not use any violence under any circumstances. You will be beaten, but you must not resist: you must not even raise a hand to ward off blows." Soldiers began clubbing the satyagrahis with steel tipped lathis in an incident that attracted international attention.
Salt March | Dharasana Satyagraha and aftermath
At Aslali, and the other villages that the march passed through, volunteers collected donations, registered new satyagrahis, and received resignations from village officials who chose to end co-operation with British rule. As they entered each village, crowds greeted the marchers, beating drums and cymbals. Gandhi gave speeches attacking the salt tax as inhuman, and the salt satyagraha as a "poor man's struggle". Each night they slept in the open. The only thing that was asked of the villagers was food and water to wash with. Gandhi felt that this would bring the poor into the struggle for sovereignty and self-rule, necessary for eventual victory.
Salt March | March to Dandi
In Midnapore, Bengalis took part by refusing to pay the chowkidar tax. The British responded with more laws, including censorship of correspondence and declaring the Congress and its associate organisations illegal. None of those measures slowed the civil disobedience movement. There were outbreaks of violence in Calcutta (now spelled Kolkata), Karachi, and Gujarat. Unlike his suspension of satyagraha after violence broke out during the Non-co-operation movement, this time Gandhi was "unmoved". Appealing for violence to end, at the same time Gandhi honoured those killed in Chittagong and congratulated their parents "for the finished sacrifices of their sons ... A warrior's death is never a matter for sorrow."
Salt March | Mass civil disobedience
Gandhi sent an ultimatum in the form of a polite letter to the viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on 2 March. Gandhi condemned British rule in the letter, describing it as "a curse" that "has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of progressive exploitation and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration... It has reduced us politically to serfdom." Gandhi also mentioned in the letter that the viceroy received a salary "over five thousand times India's average income." British violence, Gandhi promised, was going to be defeated by Indian non-violence. This was highlighted by the Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where, together with 78 volunteers, he marched from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself, with the declared intention of breaking the salt laws.
Mahatma Gandhi | Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Gandhi reached Dandi on 6 April 1930. After his morning bhajan, he waded in to the sea shore and picked up a handful of salt, proclaiming that with the handful of salt he was proclaiming the end of the British Empire. The police arrived and arrested thousands of national leaders including Gandhi. Gandhi's bold defiance of the salt law encouraged other Indians to break the law as well.
History of the British salt tax in India | Gandhi's Salt March
Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating by British police of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in Dharasana, which received worldwide news coverage, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice. The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American activists Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and others during the Civil Rights Movement for civil rights for African Americans and other minority groups in the 1960s. The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation movement of 1920–22, and directly followed the Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930.
Salt March | Introduction
We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. We believe therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain "Purna Swaraji" or complete sovereignty and self-rule. The Congress Working Committee gave Gandhi the responsibility for organising the first act of civil disobedience, with Congress itself ready to take charge after Gandhi's expected arrest.
Salt March | Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule
Rukmini Lakshmipathi, who was imprisoned for one year, became the first woman to serve a jail term for participating in the Salt Satyagraha movement. Kamaraj was arrested for exhorting 300 people to volunteer the march and inciting them to prepare salt. Since he did not refute the charges, he was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment. At first, he was sent to the Trichinopoly before being transferred to the Bellary Central Jail. As a result of the Gandhi Irwin Pactsigned on 4 March 1931the Congress suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement and the British, in turn, released all the prisoners.
Vedaranyam March | Aftermath
It has developed very close relationship with the Indian National Congress and its activities since 1920 onwards. Consequently in 1930, the Sabha organized the Salt Satyagraha movement on 22 April in Madras George Town, Esplanade, High Court and Beach areas. The members of the Sabha were attacked savagely by the British police and shed their blood for the national cause. As the Sabha insisted on a legal enquiry about the injustice done towards the participants of the Satyagraha, a three-man commission under the leadership of Justice T.R Ramachandra Iyer has enquired thirty people and submitted its report to the government.
Madras Mahajana Sabha | History
Gandhi himself avoided further active involvement after the march, though he stayed in close contact with the developments throughout India. He created a temporary ashram near Dandi. From there, he urged women followers in Bombay (now spelled Mumbai) to picket liquor shops and foreign cloth. He said that "a bonfire should be made of foreign cloth. Schools and colleges should become empty." For his next major action, Gandhi decided on a raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat, south of Dandi. He wrote to Lord Irwin, again telling him of his plans. Around midnight of 4 May, as Gandhi was sleeping on a cot in a mango grove, the District Magistrate of Surat drove up with two Indian officers and thirty heavily armed constables.
Salt March | Dharasana Satyagraha and aftermath
In early 1930, the Indian National Congress declared "Purna Swaraj", or independence from the British Raj. As their first act of civil disobedience, or satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi chose a nationwide non-violent protest against the British salt tax. Congress officials were convinced that Gandhi would quickly be arrested, and chose Tyabji as Gandhi's immediate successor to lead the Salt Satyagraha in case of Gandhi's arrest. On 4 May 1930, after the Salt March to Dandi, Gandhi was arrested and Tyabji placed in charge of the next phase of the Salt Satyagraha, a raid on the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat. On 7 May 1930 Tyabji launched the Dharasana Satyagraha, addressing a meeting of the satyagrahis, and beginning the march with Gandhi's wife Kasturba at his side.
Abbas Tyabji | Salt satyagraha
Since the introduction of the first taxes on salt by the British East India Company, the laws were subjected to fervent criticism. The Chamber of Commerce in Bristol was one of the first to submit a petition opposing the salt tax: The salt tax was criticized at a public meeting at Cuttack in February 1888. In the first session of the Indian National Congress held in 1885 in Bombay, a prominent Congress member, S. A. Saminatha Iyer pleaded against the tax. At the Allahabad session of the Indian National Congress in 1888, Narayan Vishnu, a delegate from Poona vehemently opposed the Indian Salt Act.
History of the British salt tax in India | Early protests against the British salt tax
Many Indians had fought with the British in the First World War and they expected much greater concessions. The Indian National Congress and the Muslim League had recently come together demanding self-rule. The 1919 reforms did not satisfy political demands in India. The British repressed opposition, and restrictions on the press and on movement were re-enacted through the Rowlatt Acts introduced in 1919. These measures were rammed through the Legislative Council with the unanimous opposition of the Indian members. Several members of the council including Jinnah resigned in protest. These measures were widely seen throughout India as a betrayal of the strong support given by the population for the British war effort.
Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms | Reception in India
In 2008, Lewis earned a grant to retrace the steps of Mahatma Gandhi’s infamous 1930 Salt March: a nonviolent protest to the salt tax , which had provided a British monopoly resulting in extreme pricing of salt to colonial Indians, who were prohibited to manufacture salt on their own. Gandhi, who started with 80 followers called "satyagrahis", or “truth-force,” walked 241 miles from his home (the Harijan Ashram) to the coastal city of Dandi, where Gandhi picked up some grains of salt, thereby sparking the civil disobedience movement which eventually led to India's independence. According to an article in Pulse (a Cincinnati newspaper which has since gone out of print), Lewis ran the heritage trail in 10 days, averaging just over 20 miles per day.
Harvey Sweetland Lewis | Gandhi’s Salt March
In 1920, after the British government refused to back down, Gandhi began his campaign of non-cooperation, prompting many Indians to return British awards and honours, to resign from the civil services, and to again boycott British goods. In addition, Gandhi reorganised the Congress, transforming it into a mass movement and opening its membership to even the poorest Indians. Although Gandhi halted the non-cooperation movement in 1922 after the violent incident at Chauri Chaura, the movement revived again, in the mid-1920s. The visit, in 1928, of the British Simon Commission, charged with instituting constitutional reform in India, resulted in widespread protests throughout the country.
British Raj | 1920s: Non-cooperation, "Khilafat", Simon Commission, Jinnah's fourteen points
A similar sort of protest was also issued at the Congress session at Ahmedabad. The salt tax was also protested by eminent people like Dadabhai Naoroji. On 14 August 1894, he thundered in the House of Commons:
History of the British salt tax in India | Early protests against the British salt tax
Despite numerous obstacles, the group reached Vedaranyam on 28 April 1930, 15 days after setting out. When Gandhi was informed he wrote back: "It is good that our hands and feet are tied so that we can sing with joy. God is the help of the helpless." The police, despite their previous failures, tightened the security at Vedaranyam to prevent the marchers from collecting salt. As soon as the group reached Vedaranyam, Rajagopalachari called for more participants and publicly declared that the salt laws would be broken on 30 April. Pillai offered accommodation to the group by constructing a camp on the shore.
Vedaranyam March | Defiance of salt laws
At its annual session in Lahore, the Indian National Congress, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, issued a demand for "Purna Swaraj" (Hindustani language: "complete independence"), or Purna Swarajya. The declaration was drafted by the Congress Working Committee, which included Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, and Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari. Gandhi subsequently led an expanded movement of civil disobedience, culminating in 1930 with the Salt Satyagraha, in which thousands of Indians defied the tax on salt, by marching to the sea and making their own salt by evaporating seawater. Although, many, including Gandhi, were arrested, the British government eventually gave in, and in 1931 Gandhi travelled to London to negotiate new reform at the Round Table Conferences.
British Raj | 1929–1937: Round Table conferences, Government of India Act
The Salt Satyagraha succeeded in drawing the attention of the world. Indian, British, and world opinion increasingly began to recognise the legitimacy of the claims by the Congress party for independence. Nehru considered the salt satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi, and felt that its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians: Of course these movements exercised tremendous pressure on the British Government and shook the government machinery. But the real importance, to my mind, lay in the effect they had on our own people, and especially the village masses.… Non-cooperation dragged them out of the mire and gave them self-respect and self-reliance.… They acted courageously and did not submit so easily to unjust oppression; their outlook widened and they began to think a little in terms of India as a whole.… It was a remarkable transformation and the Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, must have the credit for it.
Jawaharlal Nehru | Salt satyagraha success
Reintroduced in 1641 in the Commonwealth period there was such outcry that they were withdrawn on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and not reinstated till 1693 under William III, with duty set at two shillings a bushel on foreign salt, one shilling on native salt with exemption for fishery salt. In 1696 the tax was doubled and remained in force till abolished in 1825. There were probably 600 full-time officials employed in the collection of the taxes.
History of the British salt tax in India | Taxation of salt
Gandhi's commitment to non-violence was redeemed when, between 1930 and 1934, tens of millions again revolted in the Salt Satyagraha which made India's cause famous worldwide for its unerring adherence to non-violence. The Satyagraha ended in success. The demands of Indians were met and the Congress was recognized as a representative of the Indian people. The Government of India Act 1935 also gave India its first taste in democratic self-governance.
Non-cooperation movement | Savings
The Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, publicly issued the Declaration of Independence, or "Purna Swaraj", on January 26, 1930. The Salt March to dandi, concluding with the making of illegal salt by Gandhi on April 6, 1930, launched a nationwide protest against the British salt tax. On May 4, 1930, Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, explaining his intention to raid the Dharasana Salt Works. He was immediately arrested. The Indian National Congress decided to continue with the proposed plan of action. Many of the Congress leaders were arrested before the planned day, including Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Dharasana Satyagraha | Background
Earlier, in 1925, non-violent protests of the Congress had resumed too, this time in Gujarat, and led by Patel, who organised farmers to refuse payment of increased land taxes; the success of this protest, the Bardoli Satyagraha, brought Gandhi back into the fold of active politics.
British Raj | 1920s: Non-cooperation, "Khilafat", Simon Commission, Jinnah's fourteen points
The 24-day march would pass through 4 districts and 48 villages. The route of the march, along with each evening's stopping place, was planned based on recruitment potential, past contacts, and timing. Gandhi sent scouts to each village ahead of the march so he could plan his talks at each resting place, based on the needs of the local residents. Events at each village were scheduled and publicised in Indian and foreign press.
Salt March | Preparing to march
Today, India is one of the leading producers of salt in the world, coming in third behind the US and China. However, the British implementation of the salt tax in India was one of the highest of its kind. In 1835, the British East India Company implemented the first taxation of salt in India, the British East India Company was taken over by the crown in 1858 as a result of the plentiful revenue. Due to India’s large population, not everyone was able to afford salt thus often resulting in salt deprivation , many Indians died as a result of the expensive salt taxation, this and other surrounding political problems influenced the Salt March in 1930.
Salt tax | India
Soon after the conclusion of the Salt sathyagraha at Dandi, Gandhi intended to lead a pack of sathyagrahis to the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat, but was arrested by the police. A few days later, Congress leader Abbas Tyabji was also arrested. So the mantle fell upon Sarojini Naidu to lead the sathyagrahis at Dharasana. The sathyagrahis marched to Dharasana, where they were stopped by a deportment of the police. The non-violent sathyagrahis proceed to confront the police and were beaten down. American journalist Webb Miller, who witnessed the gruesome scene, counted around 320 bodies. Miller's reporting of the violence at the Dharasana Salt Works was later credited for helping turn world opinion against British colonial rule of India.
History of the British salt tax in India | Other salt satyagrahas
In response to a nationwide protest of the British salt tax, Mahatma Gandhi decided to initiate a march to Dandithen a small village in the Bombay Presidencyon the western coast of India. When Gandhi's choice of salt was not welcomed by his peers, C. Rajagopalachari ably supported the idea and took part in the Salt March, which was organised on 12 March 1930. A month later, Rajagopalachari was unanimously elected as the president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) at the conference held in Vellore. T. S. S. Rajan was elected as the secretary, while Panthulu Iyer, Swaminatha Chetty, Lakshmipathi, A.
Vedaranyam March | Background
An eyewitness remarked "It was a most solemn spectacle to see this Grand Old Man with his flowing snow-white beard marching at the head of the column and keeping pace in spite of his three score and sixteen years." On 12 May, before reaching Dharasana, Tyabji and 58 satyagrahis were arrested by the British. At that point, Sarojini Naidu was appointed to lead the Dharasana Satyagraha, which ended with the beating of hundreds of satyagrahis, an event that attracted worldwide attention to India's independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi appointed Tyabji, at age seventy-six, to replace him as leader of the Salt Satyagraha in May 1930 after Gandhi's arrest.
Abbas Tyabji | Salt satyagraha
In 1923, under the viceroyalty of Lord Reading, a bill was passed doubling the salt tax. However, another proposal made in 1927 was subsequently vetoed. It was one of Finance Member Basil Blackett's first deeds when producing his first budget in February 1923.
History of the British salt tax in India | Taxation of salt by the British authorities
And then they would shout at the top of their voices: 'We have broken the salt law!'" The growing number of women in the fight for sovereignty and self-rule was a "new and serious feature" according to Lord Irwin. A government report on the involvement of women stated "thousands of them emerged ... from the seclusion of their homes ... in order to join Congress demonstrations and assist in picketing: and their presence on these occasions made the work the police was required to perform particularly unpleasant." Though women did become involved in the march, it was clear that Gandhi saw women as still playing a secondary role within the movement, but created the beginning of a push for women to be more involved in the future.
Salt March | Women in civil disobedience
While Gandhi marched along India's west coast, his close associate C. Rajagopalachari, who would later become sovereign India's first Governor-General, organized the Vedaranyam salt march in parallel on the east coast. His group started from Tiruchirappalli, in Madras Presidency (now part of Tamil Nadu), to the coastal village of Vedaranyam. After making illegal salt there, he too was arrested by the British.
Salt March | <a href="Vedaranyam">Vedaranyam</a> salt march
Expectations were heightened by his repeated statements anticipating arrest, and his increasingly dramatic language as the hour approached: "We are entering upon a life and death struggle, a holy war; we are performing an all-embracing sacrifice in which we wish to offer ourselves as oblation." Correspondents from dozens of Indian, European, and American newspapers, along with film companies, responded to the drama and began covering the event. For the march itself, Gandhi wanted the strictest discipline and adherence to satyagraha and ahimsa. For that reason, he recruited the marchers not from Congress Party members, but from the residents of his own ashram, who were trained in Gandhi's strict standards of discipline.
Salt March | Preparing to march
The following year Gandhi launched two more Satyagrahas—both in his native Gujarat—one in the rural Kaira district where land-owning farmers were protesting increased land-revenue and the other in the city of Ahmedabad, where workers in an Indian-owned textile mill were distressed about their low wages. The satyagraha in Ahmedabad took the form of Gandhi fasting and supporting the workers in a strike, which eventually led to a settlement. In Kaira, in contrast, although the farmers' cause received publicity from Gandhi's presence, the satyagraha itself, which consisted of the farmers' collective decision to withhold payment, was not immediately successful, as the British authorities refused to back down.
British Raj | 1917–1919: "Satyagraha", Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, Jallianwalla Bagh
The march went ahead as planned, with Abbas Tyabji, a 76 year old retired judge, leading the march with Gandhi's wife Kasturbai at his side. Both were arrested before reaching Dharasana and sentenced to three months in prison. After their arrests, the peaceful agitation continued under the leadership of Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Some Congress leaders disagreed with Gandhi's promotion of a woman to lead the march. Hundreds of Indian National Congress volunteers started marching towards the site of the Dharasana Salt Works. Several times, Naidu and the satyagrahis approached the salt works, before being turned back by police.
Dharasana Satyagraha | Dharasana march
The Rann of Kutch came under the control of the British Raj, who imposed a ban on salt harvesting. This ban was protested and overturned by Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi. More recently, the residents of the Rann of Kutch began holding the Rann Utsav festival, a 3-month long carnival, which marks the peak tourist season.
Rann of Kutch | Colonial and Modern Periods
The Act was repealed by the British government shortly after enactment (after some lobbying by a delegation led by Mahatma Gandhi), but it was re-enacted again in 1908.
Asiatic Registration Act | Resistance to legislation
During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the Dandi Salt March. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the Quit India Movement.
Ahmedabad | History
Taxation of salt has occurred in India since the earliest times. However, this tax was greatly increased when the British East India Company began to establish its rule over provinces in India. In 1835, special taxes were imposed on Indian salt to facilitate its import. This paid huge dividends for the traders of the British East India Company. When the Crown took over the administration of India from the Company in 1858, the taxes were not replaced. The stringent salt taxes imposed by the British were vehemently condemned by the Indian public. In 1885, at the first session of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, a prominent Congress Leader, S.A.Swaminatha Iyer raised the issue of the salt tax.
History of the British salt tax in India | Introduction
For Gandhi, satyagraha went far beyond mere "passive resistance" and became strength in practising nonviolent methods. In his words: Truth (satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or nonviolence, and gave up the use of the phrase "passive resistance", in connection with it, so much so that even in English writing we often avoided it and used instead the word "satyagraha" ...
Salt March | Satyagraha
It was under the Defence of India act that the Ali brothers were imprisoned in 1916, and Annie Besant, a European woman, and ordinarily more problematic to imprison, was arrested in 1917. Now, as constitutional reform began to be discussed in earnest, the British began to consider how new moderate Indians could be brought into the fold of constitutional politics and, simultaneously, how the hand of established constitutionalists could be strengthened. However, since the Government of India wanted to ensure against any sabotage of the reform process by extremists, and since its reform plan was devised during a time when extremist violence had ebbed as a result of increased governmental control, it also began to consider how some of its wartime powers could be extended into peacetime.
British Raj | 1917–1919: "Satyagraha", Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, Jallianwalla Bagh
The National Salt Satyagraha Memorial or Dandi Memorial is a memorial in Dandi, Gujarat, India, that honors the activists and participants of the Salt Satyagraha, an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India which was led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. The memorial is spread over a and is located in the coastal town of Dandi, where the Salt March ended on 6 April 1930 and the British salt monopoly was broken by producing salt by boiling sea water. The project was developed at an estimated cost of .
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Introduction
United Press correspondent Webb Miller reported that:
Salt March | Dharasana Satyagraha and aftermath
Gandhi had a long-standing commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience, which he termed "satyagraha", as the basis for achieving Indian sovereignty and self-rule. Referring to the relationship between "satyagraha" and "Purna Swaraj", Gandhi saw "an inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree". He wrote, "If the means employed are impure, the change will not be in the direction of progress but very likely in the opposite. Only a change brought about in our political condition by pure means can lead to real progress." Satyagraha is a synthesis of the Sanskrit words "Satya" (truth) and "Agraha" (insistence on).
Salt March | Satyagraha
In order to reinstate the virtue of Self-sufficiency reinforced by Gandhi in the Freedom Struggle, the memorial is made self-sufficient for its energy needs. To achieve this 40 Solar Trees are installed. This makes this memorial a net zero-energy project. The energy produced during the day is exported to the electricity grid and during the night, the energy required is imported back from the grid. This system avoids need to install and maintain expensive batteries.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Solar trees
The following day, shops all over the province remained closed. Despite repeated arrests and the use of brutal force by the police, people continued to make salt at Vedaranyam. The collector, Thorne, who at first had been confident of his ability to prevent the march, was forced to report to his superiors: "If there ever existed a fervid sense of devotion to the (British) Government, it is now the defunct". Despite repeated arrests, people continued to make salt and Thorne ordered the police to lathi charge the crowd. Eventually he ordered a "wholesale" arrest, which led to 375 people in the district being arrested for protesting against the British.
Vedaranyam March | Aftermath
While the Act was a reflection of the demand for a greater role in government by Indians, it was also very much a reflection of British fears about what that role might mean in practice for India (and of course for British interests there). The experiment with dyarchy proved unsatisfactory. A particular frustration for Indian politicians was that even for those areas over which they had gained nominal control, the "purse strings" were still in the hands of British officialdom. The intention had been that a review of India's constitutional arrangements would be held ten years on from the 1919 Act.
Government of India Act 1935 | Background
It was from his base here that Gandhi led the Dandi march also known as the Salt Satyagraha on 12 March 1930. In recognition of the significant influence that this march had on the Indian independence movement the Indian government has established the ashram as a national monument.
Sabarmati Ashram | Introduction
The limit of income-tax exemption was raised from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 per annum, and the salt tax – the burden of which upon the masses had been a subject of perennial criticism of government (see History of the British salt tax in India) – was reduced from 2 Rupees 8 annas. (equivalent to 3s. 4d.) to Rs. 2 per maund. In the budget of 1905–6, promulgated after Law left office, but for the framing of which he was mainly responsible, the salt tax underwent a further reduction of 8 annas., and the district boards (roughly corresponding to the English county councils) received a material annual subvention.
Edward FitzGerald Law | India
It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement.
Salt March | Introduction
In 1930, Gandhiji launched the Salt Satyagraha and 5 May 1930 he was arrested at Karadi near Dandi for violating Salt Law, section 144 was imposed in the country. Mohan Lal led the protest against his arrest in Hardoi and he was taken in custody along with five of his colleagues. All five, except Mohan Lal gave an apology in writing to the British Government. As a result of his defiance, he was sentenced to 4 months in jail. Jail sentence did not stop this young student from continuing his fight against the British rule. He was again sent to jail by the British in 1932 for 6 months.
Mohan Lal Verma | Contribution to the Indian independence movement
When Gandhi was ordered to leave by the local British authorities, he refused on moral grounds, setting up his refusal as a form of individual Satyagraha. Soon, under pressure from the Viceroy in Delhi who was anxious to maintain domestic peace during wartime, the provincial government rescinded Gandhi's expulsion order, and later agreed to an official enquiry into the case. Although the British planters eventually gave in, they were not won over to the farmers' cause, and thereby did not produce the optimal outcome of a Satyagraha that Gandhi had hoped for; similarly, the farmers themselves, although pleased at the resolution, responded less than enthusiastically to the concurrent projects of rural empowerment and education that Gandhi had inaugurated in keeping with his ideal of "swaraj".
British Raj | 1917–1919: "Satyagraha", Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, Jallianwalla Bagh
The committee was to be chaired by Retd. Justice Amal Kumar Sarkar (along with two Congress chief ministers, two Congress Ministers of State, four central bureaucrats, and three nominees of SGMS—the Shankaracharya of Puri, Golwalkar, and R. P. Mookerji, elder brother of Syama Prasad Mukherjee), and the offer was accepted by all parties, with minimal negotiations. In the meantime, Gandhi once again recommended on 5 January 1967 that states enact their own bans on cow slaughter. Shankaracharya broke his fast; it had lasted 73 days and was longer than any other hunger strike in recorded Indian history.
1966 anti-cow slaughter agitation | Aftermath
The centres of salt Satyagraha in the district were Chatua, Kaliapata, Paradeep, Erasama and Daradia. Apart from the organisation of salt Satyagraha, marches, boycott of foreign cloth, propagation of Khadi, picketing before excise shops and other constructive programmes formed part of the civil disobedience movement. This movement was withdrawn in May 1934. Sarala Devi was the first woman freedom fighter and satyagrahi from Jagatsinghpur in the freedom struggle. On 8 August 1942, the All India Congress Committee in its meeting at Bombay passed the Quit India resolution and gave a call for mass struggle to achieve freedom. Centres of Congress movement like Swaraj Ashram at Cuttack, Bari Ashram at Binjharpur, Alaka Ashram at Jagatsinghpur, Kendupatana Spinning Centre, etc.
Jagatsinghpur district | Independence movement
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi had written his first article on the salt tax in 1891 in the periodical "The Vegetarian". While in South Africa, he wrote in "The Indian Opinion": In 1909, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his "Hind Swaraj" from South Africa, urging the British administration to abolish the salt tax.
History of the British salt tax in India | Mahatma Gandhi and the salt tax
It became a flashpoint of political discontent and nationalist agitation, culminating in the Rowlatt Satyagraha. The act was re-enacted during World War II as Defence of India act 1939. Independent India retained the law in a number of amended forms, which have seen use in proclaimed states of national emergency including Sino-Indian War, Bangladesh crisis, The Emergency of 1975 and subsequently the Punjab insurgency.
Defence of India Act 1915 | Introduction
Meanwhile, Montagu and Chelmsford themselves finally presented their report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding trip through India the previous winter. After more discussion by the government and parliament in Britain, and another tour by the Franchise and Functions Committee for the purpose of identifying who among the Indian population could vote in future elections, the Government of India Act 1919 (also known as the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) was passed in December 1919. The new Act enlarged the provincial councils and converted the Imperial Legislative Council into an enlarged Central Legislative Assembly. It also repealed the Government of India's recourse to the "official majority" in unfavourable votes.
History of the British Raj | Montagu-Chelmsford Report 1919
By collecting salt directly from the sea the marchers broke the salt law. As a part of the march, Rajagopalachari created awareness among the people by highlighting the importance of "khādī" as well as social issues like caste discrimination. The campaign came to an end on 28 April 1930 when the participants were arrested by the police. Its leader Rajagopalachari was imprisoned for six months. The march along with the ones at Dandi and Dharasana drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement.
Vedaranyam March | Introduction
Gandhi completed the walk in 25 days. Prior to the trip, Lewis emailed the president of the Harijan Ashram (now a museum honoring Gandhi) to explain his intentions. When Lewis and his two companions, who accompanied him on bicycle, arrived, they were the subject of unanticipated media attention and ceremony.
Harvey Sweetland Lewis | Gandhi’s Salt March
On the wall of one of the structure Gandhi's quote dated 5 April 1930 which was written at Dandi, is superscribed in his handwriting which reads:
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Miscellaneous
At midnight on 31 December 1929, the Indian National Congress raised the tricolour flag of India on the banks of the Ravi at Lahore. The Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, publicly issued the Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule, or Purna Swaraj, on 26 January 1930. (Literally in Sanskrit, "purna", "complete," "swa", "self," "raj", "rule," so therefore "complete self-rule".) The declaration included the readiness to withhold taxes, and the statement: We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth.
Salt March | Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule
He complied with all governmental instructions, disbanding the RSS military department and avoiding the Quit India movement. The British acknowledged that the organisation "scrupulously kept itself within the law, and refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August, 1942".
M. S. Golwalkar | Reorientation
In total he imprisoned 80,000 Indian activists. Without most of their leaders, protests were uneven and disorganised, boycotts were ineffective, illegal youth organisations proliferated but were ineffective, more women became involved, and there was terrorism, especially in the North-West Frontier Province. Gandhi remained in prison until 1933. Willingdon relied on his military secretary, Hastings Ismay, for his personal safety.
History of the British Raj | Willingdon imprisons leaders of Congress
Although the plan envisioned limited self-government at first only in the provinces—with India emphatically within the British Empire—it represented the first British proposal for any form of representative government in a non-white colony. Earlier, at the onset of World War I, the reassignment of most of the British army in India to Europe and Mesopotamia, had led the previous Viceroy, Lord Harding, to worry about the "risks involved in denuding India of troops". Revolutionary violence had already been a concern in British India; consequently, in 1915, to strengthen its powers during what it saw was a time of increased vulnerability, the Government of India passed the Defence of India Act 1915, which allowed it to intern politically dangerous dissidents without due process, and added to the power it already had—under the 1910 Press Act—both to imprison journalists without trial and to censor the press.
British Raj | 1917–1919: "Satyagraha", Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, Jallianwalla Bagh
Montagu was saved largely due to a strong speech in his defence by Winston Churchill. The Amritsar massacre further inflamed Indian nationalist sentiment ending the initial response of reluctant co-operation. At the grass roots level, many young Indians wanted faster progress towards Indian independence and were disappointed by lack of advancement as Britons returned to their former positions in the administration. At the Indian National Congress annual session in September 1920, delegates supported Gandhi's proposal of swaraj or self-rule – preferably within the British Empire or out of it if necessary. The proposal was to be implemented through a policy of non-cooperation with British rule meaning that Congress did not field candidates in the first elections held under the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms in 1921.
Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms | Reception in India
The Defence of India act 1915 was re-enacted in a more severe form at the onset of World War II as the Defence of India act 1939. It was enacted on 29 September 1939 but deemed to come into force from 3 September 1939, the day when the Second World War began. The act was used notoriously during the war in subduing the independence movement. It expired six months after the termination of the war and was ultimately repealed by the Repealing and Amending Act, 1947(Act II of 1948).
Defence of India Act 1915 | 1939 act
Gandhi noted: Facing problems in the British mainland and unable to muster enough forces of collaboration or coercion, the Cabinet mission of 1946 was sent to negotiate the transfer of power. Some historians cite Auchinleck's own assessment of the situation to suggest this shortened the Raj by at least fifteen to twenty years. Clement Attlee, the British prime minister, reflecting on the factors that guided the British decision to relinquish the Raj in India, is said to have cited the effects of the INA and Bose's activities on the British-Indian Army and the Bombay Mutiny as being the most important.
Indian National Army | Indian independence
It also marked the beginning of the organised anti-colonial movement. When the Liberal party in Britain came to power in 1906, he was removed. Bengal was reunified in 1911. The new Viceroy Gilbert Minto and the new Secretary of State for India John Morley consulted with Congress leaders on political reforms. The Morley-Minto reforms of 1909 provided for Indian membership of the provincial executive councils as well as the Viceroy's executive council. The Imperial Legislative Council was enlarged from 25 to 60 members and separate communal representation for Muslims was established in a dramatic step towards representative and responsible government.
History of India | British Raj (1858–1947)
The Swaraj Party which had been the Justice party's main opposition merged with the Indian National Congress in 1935 when the Congress decided to participate in the electoral process. The Madras Province Congress party was led by S. Satyamurti and was greatly rejuvenated by its successful organisation of the Salt Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience movement of 1930-31. The Civil Disobedience movement, the Land Tax reduction agitations and Union organizations helped the Congress to mobilize popular opposition to the Bobbili Raja government. The revenue agitations brought the peasants into the Congress fold and the Gandhian hand spinning programme assured the support of weavers.
1937 Madras Presidency Legislative Assembly election | Resurgence of the Congress
Celebrating the 85th anniversary of the iconic march, the great grandson of Rajaji, C. R. Kesavan, and the grandson of the Sardar, A.Vedaratnam, along with volunteers held a march from Vedaranyam to Agasthiyampalli in 2015.
Vedaranyam March | Re-enactment in 2015
The Madras legislature also passed resolutions demanding the removal of the statue. The agitation lost steam after a few months and was dropped to make way for the Simon Commission boycott. Neil's statue remained in the same place and was moved to the Ripon Building campus for a few years. In 1937, when the newly elected Congress government (under the 1935 act) of C. Rajagopalachari moved it to the Madras museum after a resolution demanding its removal was passed in the Madras Corporation. As of 2011, it still remains in the Anthropology section of the museum.
Neil Statue Satyagraha | Introduction