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 ...
Long-term effect
Salt March
Salt March | Long-term effect
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. 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. 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. It 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. It also forced the British to recognise that their control of India depended entirely on the consent of the Indians.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement.
Salt March | Introduction
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
United Press correspondent Webb Miller reported that:
Salt March | Dharasana Satyagraha and aftermath
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
The use of the customs line to maintain the higher salt tax in Bengal is likely to have had a detrimental effect on the health of Indians through salt deprivation. The higher prices within the area enclosed by the line meant that the average annual salt consumption was just compared with up to outside the line. Indeed, the British government's own figures showed that the barrier directly affected salt consumption, reducing it to below the level that regulations prescribed for English soldiers serving in India and that supplied to prisoners in British jails. The consumption of salt was further lowered during the periods of famine that affected India in the 19th century.
Inland Customs Line | Legacy
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
Historians continue to debate whether the long-term impact of British rule was to accelerate the economic development of India, or to distort and retard it. In 1780, the conservative British politician Edmund Burke raised the issue of India's position: he vehemently attacked the East India Company, claiming that Warren Hastings and other top officials had ruined the Indian economy and society. Indian historian Rajat Kanta Ray (1998) continues this line of attack, saying the new economy brought by the British in the 18th century was a form of "plunder" and a catastrophe for the traditional economy of the Mughal Empire.
British Raj | Economic impact
In Peshawar, satyagraha was led by a Muslim Pashtun disciple of Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan, who had trained 50,000 nonviolent activists called Khudai Khidmatgar. On 23 April 1930, Ghaffar Khan was arrested. A crowd of Khudai Khidmatgar gathered in Peshawar's Qissa Kahani (Storytellers) Bazaar. The British ordered troops of 2/18 battalion of Royal Garhwal Rifles to open fire with machine guns on the unarmed crowd, killing an estimated 200–250. The Pashtun satyagrahis acted in accord with their training in nonviolence, willingly facing bullets as the troops fired on them. One British Indian Army Soldier Chandra Singh Garhwali and troops of the renowned Royal Garhwal Rifles, refused to fire at the crowds.
Salt March | Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre
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)
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 absolute numbers, the hardest hit by post-famine impoverishment were women and landless agricultural labourers. In relative terms, those engaged in rural trade, fishing and transport (boatmen and bullock cart drivers) suffered the most. In absolute numbers, agricultural labourers faced the highest rates of destitution and mortality. The "panicky responses" of the colonial state as it controlled the distribution of medical and food supplies in the wake of the fall of Burma had profound political consequences. "It was soon obvious to the bureaucrats in New Delhi and the provinces, as well as the GHQ (India)," wrote Sanjoy Bhattacharya, "that the disruption caused by these short-term policies – and the political capital being made out of their effects – would necessarily lead to a situation where major constitutional concessions, leading to the dissolution of the Raj, would be unavoidable." Similarly, nationwide opposition to the boat denial policy, as typified by Mahatma Gandhi's vehement editorials, helped strengthen the Indian independence movement.
Bengal famine of 1943 | Economic and political effects
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
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
Merchants as a class were variably affected by the famine, with some wealthier merchants, who had sufficient capital to diversify their holdings, profiteering, even as the poorer ones suffered much distress. At the onset of the famine, the rich salt merchants of the middle "Doab" were immediately able to switch from salt to grain and make windfall profits. The small salt merchants, especially the itinerant merchants, however, did not have such flexibility. According to , a British military officer observed Banjara merchants—who had traditionally traded salt from their region in Rajputana for grain from Rohilkhand to the north-east—returning "from the northern markets of Farrukabad and Shahjahanpur" with no loads of grain on their cattle; the price of grain had been too high for them to turn a profit.
Agra famine of 1837–38 | Merchants
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
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
The farming sector in the state of Maharashtra was badly affected by numerous factors including unseasonal rainfalls, hailstorm, and pest infestations. An estimated 2414 farmers had taken their lives in the state between January 1 and October 31, 2017. Considering these issues, among others, the government had announced a conditional loan waiver amounting to Rs 34,000 crore in 2017, but it was not implemented as promised. The long march was inspired and led by the Kisan Sabha leaders Ajit Nawale, Ashok Dhawale, Jiva Pandu Gavit and Vijoo Krishnan.
Kisan Long March, Maharashtra | Background
Salt was to be sold only at regional offices by licensed producers, and then only to licensed merchants at marked up prices. The distribution by merchants ensured the effects of the policy penetrated into areas where the central government had limited authority. The merchants then passed on the high cost of salt to consumers. Peasants were most affected as they spent a higher percentage of their incomes on basic food goods. By 779, taxation of salt quickly accounted for over half of government revenues.
Salt Commission | Effects
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
Britishers had built the Salt House in 1847–48 and the Collectorate was functioned from this house till new building was built. River 'Kathajodi' was the main transit source for the commercial commodities. The length of the buildings is 190' with 66 pillars. Presently the building is used as Courts of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrates. The building had an aristocratic look with 3 guns standing as guards. Unfortunately, the architecture of the building has been completely disfigured with many brickworks and structures.
Cuttack | Salt House
On 12 March 1930, Gandhi and 78 satyagrahis, among whom were men belonging to almost every region, caste, creed, and religion of India, set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat, over from their starting point at Sabarmati Ashram. The Salt March was also called the White Flowing River because all the people were joining the procession wearing white khadi. According to "The Statesman", the official government newspaper which usually played down the size of crowds at Gandhi's functions, 100,000 people crowded the road that separated Sabarmati from Ahmadabad. The first day's march of ended in the village of Aslali, where Gandhi spoke to a crowd of about 4,000.
Salt March | March to Dandi
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
The Government finally sought to foster an honourable agreement for both parties. The tax for the year in question, and the next would be suspended, and the increase in rate reduced, while all confiscated property would be returned. People also worked in cohesion to return the confiscated lands to their rightful owners. The ones who had bought the lands seized were influenced to return them, even though the British had officially said it would stand by the buyers.
Kheda Satyagraha of 1918 | Result
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
Inside the fort the British considered the stocks, put everyone on half ration and calculated that they could hold out for two and a half months or about the middle of June.
Shuja ul-Mulk | Political turmoil and provisional recognition
He nominated Gandhi to succeed him as Congress President during his absence in jail, but Gandhi declined, and Nehru then nominated his father as his successor. With Nehru's arrest the civil disobedience acquired a new tempo, and arrests, firing on crowds and lathi charges grew to be ordinary occurrences.
Jawaharlal Nehru | Salt March: 1930
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
His stay in Mymensingh was also cut short when he failed to give orders as required by him by the British Indian Government to deal with protesters against The Salt Act imposed by the Government. M.K.Gandhi had called for a satyagraha against this Act. He was transferred to Birbhum by telegram (then the fastest means of communication), which was an unprecedented way of dealing with an ICS officer in those days.
Gurusaday Dutt | Controversies
Consequently, many small farmers, dependent on the whims of those markets, lost land, animals, and equipment to money-lenders. More tellingly, the latter half of the 19th century also saw an increase in the number of large-scale famines in India. Although famines were not new to the subcontinent, these were particularly severe, with tens of millions dying, and with many critics, both British and Indian, laying the blame at the doorsteps of the lumbering colonial administrations.
History of the British Raj | Effects on the economy
The defeat of the Dutch at the Battle of Chinsurah resulted in Britain moving to have Jafar replaced with his son-in-law, who was considered more favourable to the EIC. One of the most important long-term effects of the battle was that the British received the diwan – the right to collect taxes in Bengal which was granted in 1765.
Great Britain in the Seven Years' War | Plassey
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 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
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
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
There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines, and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians. There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption. The railway network provided critical famine relief, notably reduced the cost of moving goods, and helped nascent Indian-owned industry. After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served, a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol.
India | Modern India
The British influx brought with it a large number of alien customs such as cricket, skating, and steeplechase. The sudden swelling of the city's population caused prices for food and goods in the bazaars to skyrocket, at the same time as Shujah had greatly increased taxation on the population, leading to a large scale economic depression among the lower class. At the urging of Shah Shuja, the British and Indian troops had agreed to relocate their encampment out of the city walls, setting up a series of cantonments outside the city. Burnes however, chose to remain within the heart of the old city, taking up residence in a walled house with a handful of other senior officers including his brother Lieutenant Charles Burnes, and Major William Broadfoot.
Alexander Burnes | Final Months and Death
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
In 1930, he joined the movement against the British decision to impose tax on salt production. He was jailed. Hardly had he come out of prison than he was again arrested. He gave his own house for Congress work where he lived and a Congress office, and an ashram also functioned. He was released in 1932 and became Dictator (organisational post in the Indian National Congress) of the United Provinces. On 2 July, he was arrested again and sentenced to one year in jail. On his release, he founded a farmers' organisation. Once again, he was sentenced to a year in jail for calling for non-payment of rent, but the sentence was quashed by the High Court.
Vishwambhar Dayalu Tripathi | Prison
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
In local terms, British control rested on the Indian Civil Service (ICS), but it faced growing difficulties. Fewer and fewer young men in Britain were interested in joining, and the continuing distrust of Indians resulted in a declining base in terms of quality and quantity. By 1945 Indians were numerically dominant in the ICS and at issue was loyal divided between the Empire and independence. The finances of the Raj depended on land taxes, and these became problematic in the 1930s. Epstein argues that after 1919 it became harder and harder to collect the land revenue. The Raj's suppression of civil disobedience after 1934 temporarily increased the power of the revenue agents but after 1937 they were forced by the new Congress-controlled provincial governments to hand back confiscated land.
British Raj | 1929–1937: Round Table conferences, Government of India Act
Contracts were given to deliver salt to depots, and merchants were required to buy from these depots. The outrage was expressed by the authorities in England who declared:
History of the British salt tax in India | Taxation of salt by the British East India Company
When General Dyer arrived "he was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the gathering that he had walked in on" and assumed it was a rebellion. Wagner explains that the British response was of "racialized fear and violent suppression". Afterwards, there was no British help with removing the dead or medical assistance for the injured. Instead, the British authorities imposed curfews, a crawling order and martial law and those suspected of being involved in the 10 April riots were arrested and tortured. British censorship ensured suppression of the details of the Amritsar troubles and the massacre, until October 1919. In July 1920, the matter was discussed in the House of Commons.
Amritsar 1919 | Jallianwala Bagh
Schools and private businesses, which due to their limited storage capacities tended not to stockpile large amounts of fuel, also began to close within the first week, unable to provide heating. Under guidelines agreed between the NUM, the NCB and the government, dispensation was given to allow fuel to be transported to "priority consumers" – hospitals, nursing homes for the elderly, and orphanages. Schools were added to the list on 12 January. On 7 February, four weeks into the strike, the effective blockade placed on fuel stockpiles led to the CEGB cutting the voltage across the National Grid and warning of impending power outages.
Battle of Saltley Gate | Background
2 per maund (about 37 kg). With the levy of the heavy salt tax and acquisition of the Sambhar salt works in Rajputana (present Rajasthan) by the government, the Sultanpur salt became uneconomical and by 1903-04 the salt industry was struggling for survival with salt export having fallen to 65,000 maunds or 1,750 tons leading to severe setback to the economy of Sultanpur area. Finally, in 1923 the British shut down the office of the salt superintendent at Sultanpur, had all the mounds of salt thrown back into the wells and shut down the salt industry leading to considerable economic misery to the people.
Farrukhnagar | Economy
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
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
On the morning of 16 May 1976, he addressed a gathering of people at the Madrash Maidan, Rajshahi, from where the Long March commenced. Hundreds of thousands of people walked more than 100 kilometers on foot for days. The March continued up to Kansat, a place near the India-Bangladesh border, close to the Farakka barrage.
Farakka Long March | Introduction
By 10 June, he was believed to be leading around twelve thousand to fifteen thousand Indian soldiers. The British held out in their makeshift fort for three weeks with little water and food supplies. Many died as a result of sunstroke and lack of water. As the ground was too hard to dig graves, the British would pile the dead bodies of their killed outside the buildings, and drag and dump them inside a dried well during the night. The lack of sanitation facilities led to spread of diseases such as dysentery and cholera, further weakening the defenders. There was also a small outbreak of smallpox, although this was relatively confined.
Siege of Cawnpore | Attack on Wheeler's entrenchment
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 Government of India adopted a protective trade policy which, though beneficial to the United Kingdom, caused great damage to the Indian economy. During the period 1929–1937, exports and imports fell drastically crippling seaborne international trade. The railways and the agricultural sector were the most affected. The international financial crisis combined with detrimental policies adopted by the Government of India resulted in soaring prices of commodities. High prices along with the stringent taxes prevalent in British India had a dreadful impact on most Indians. The discontent of farmers manifested itself in rebellions and riots. The Salt Satyagraha of 1930 in which Gandhi ji walked 240 miles with his followers and it was one of the measures undertaken as a response to heavy taxation during the Great Depression.
Great Depression in India | Introduction
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
The speech galvanised demonstrators who were already frustrated with the president's inability to reduce militancy and improve the economy of Pakistan.
Long March (Pakistan) | Background
The National Salt Satyagraha Memorial, a memorial museum, dedicated to the event was opened in Dandi on 30 January 2019.
Salt March | Memorial
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
On the same day, when Rajaji and 16 others moved to the Edanthevar salt swamp, which was about from the camp. A police force led by the District Superintendent arrived at the spot and asked the group to surrender. When they refused, Rajagopalachari was arrested under section 74 of the Salt Act, and was produced before the district magistrate Ponnusamy Pillai. He was sentenced to six-months of imprisonment and was sent to the Trichinopoly Central Prison.
Vedaranyam March | Defiance of salt laws