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:
Choice of salt as protest focus
Salt March
Salt March | Choice of salt as protest focus
The salt that is used daily. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. Salt made by the evaporation process, at Dandi.
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
Yes, on its 75th anniversary.
assistant
are there any memorials based on this event ?
user
Yes, the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial.
assistant
which type of salt was used ?
user
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
The National Salt Satyagraha Memorial, a memorial museum, dedicated to the event was opened in Dandi on 30 January 2019.
Salt March | Memorial
To the left of the main memorial there is a life sized statue of Gandhi with 79 volunteers. These statues are made of bronze. An Open Call for sculptors was made and 40 sculptors were selected from India, Austria, Bulgaria, Burma, Japan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, UK and United States. Each sculptor created two sculptures each. After the clay sculptures had been completed, molds and fiber casts were made and the sculptures were cast in silicon-bronze alloy by Studio Sukriti in Jaipur.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Depiction of march
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
In order to engage the visitors, solar salt making pans are installed. As a memento of a visit to the memorial visitors are allowed to take a pinch of salt back home. The activity is aimed at celebrating the strategic brilliance of the Mahatma, who used the powerful metaphor of salt to lead towards independence.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Solar salt-making pans
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
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
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
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
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
It is sculpted by Sadashiv Sathe.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Monument
The monument is a steel frame in "A" shape, symbolizing two hands. In order to protect it from sea coast weather, it is made up of a non-corroding material. At the apex of the monument, there is a glass cube representing the salt crystal. The cube is illuminated by laser lights at night which creates the illusion of a pyramid. Under the canopy of the cube, there is a high statue of Gandhi projecting the forward march. In 2014, the statue was cast in sixty separate pieces at Mumbai, assembled into one statue and transported to Dandi, taking more than two years to complete.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Monument
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)
The project to develop the National Salt Satyagrah Memorial was conceived and advised by the High Level Dandi Memorial Committee (HLDMC) and was endorsed by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The IIT Bombay provided services as a Design Coordination Agency. The memorial was inaugurated on 30 January 2019, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | History
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 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
In all there are 24 narratives murals. The initial conceptualization for the murals was done at IIT Bombay and Clayfingers Pottery at Urakam, Kerala. After conceptualization at IIT Bombay and Clayfingers Pottery at Urakam, Kerala, the murals were cast in clay by Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University and later they were cast in bronze by studio Sukriti. The details of the Murals are as below:
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Narrative murals
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
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
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
United Press correspondent Webb Miller reported that:
Salt March | Dharasana Satyagraha and aftermath
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
79 Marchers accompanied Gandhi on his march. Most of them were between the ages of 20 and 30. These men hailed from almost all parts of the country. The march gathered more people as it gained momentum, but the following list of names were the first 79 marchers who were with Gandhi from the beginning of the Dandi March until the end. Most of them simply dispersed after the march was over. A memorial has been created inside the campus of IIT Bombay honouring these Satyagrahis who participated in the famous Dandi March.
Salt March | First 80 Marchers
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 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
In 1930 he actively participated in the Salt March in Coastal Andhra, led by Mahatma Gandhi. As a Chairman of Municipality he made all employees volunteers to the Salt Satyagraha.
Nadimpalli Venkata Lakshmi Narasimha Rao | Salt Satyagraha in Coastal Andhra
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
In 1930, after the success of Mahatma Gandhi's Salt Satyagraha, Karnataka decided to conduct its own. On 13 April, in the presence of about 40,000 people M.P. Nadakarni broke the salt law in Ankola. Revu Honnappa Naik, Honnappa Mangeshkar bought the first packet of salt auctioned for 30 rupees. After the auction Swami Vidyananda addressed the gathering in which leaders like Karnad Sadashiva Rao, Smt Umabai Kundapur, Dr Hardikar, T.S. Naikand others participated. The police promptly arrested the leaders but the Sathyagraha continued for 45 days with full tempo. Salt Sathyagraha was offered in nearly 30 centres like Mangalore, Kundapur, Udupi, Puttur, Padubidre, etc.
Ankola | Salt Satyagraha
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
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)
An artificial lake was created to symbolize the seashore aspect of the Salt Satyagraha. The lake is a non-permeable, geotextile based lake which is sealed from the bottom and top to prevent salt infiltration. The lake is filled with harvested rainwater which is treated to produce sparkling clear water.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Artificial lake
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
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
It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement.
Salt March | Introduction
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
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)
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
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
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
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
In 1930, a group of 25 people under leadership of "Ponnara Sridhar", N.C Shekhar and Amsi Narayana Pillai stated a march from Trivandrum to join the Salt Satyagraha in Kozhikode. The group sang the ""varika varika sahajare"" song along the way. All three governments (Travancore, Cochin and Malabar) banned the song. On the basis of a ban, Amshi was sentenced to six months in prison in Viyyur. The Thrissur Magistrate Court has summoned Amshi for participation in the Salt Satyagraha and the writing of the revolutionary song. The song was also published in his Padayalikalude pattukal (Songs of Soldiers) book.
Amsi Narayanapilla | Salt March
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
Salt or Sult () is a block in Almora district, Uttarakhand, India. It is also known as Kumaun Ki Bardoli, a name given to it by Mahatma Gandhi when he visited Almora in 1929. Khumar is a village located in Salt which has a Martyr Monument.
Salt, Uttarakhand | 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
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
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
It also became the meeting place of young volunteers (Banarsena) and published a weekly „Utkalika‟ edited by Sarala Devi, spreading Congress ideas like boycott of foreign cloth, law court and government institutions etc. The district had its contribution to the Civil Disobedience movement. Gandhiji had started this movement by breaking the salt law on 6 April 1930. The Salt Satyagraha was a powerful movement in the coastal Odisha. The first batch of Satyagraha, led by Gopabandhu Chaudhury and Acharya Harihar, started for Inchudi from Swaraj Ashram at Cuttack. Kujanga was another important centre of salt Satyagraha. Rama Devi, Malati Devi, Sarala Devi, Rani Bhagyabati Patamahadei and hundreds of women volunteers joined the movement and violated the salt law.
Jagatsinghpur district | Independence movement
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
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
In 1941 Amsi started a high school "Amsi High School" in his native village to enable education to hundreds of illiterates in that area at that time.
Amsi Narayanapilla | Salt March
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
More than 1500 activists were arrested in Karnataka for participating in the Civil-Disobedience Movement during 1930-31. These historic events led to Ankola being named the "Bardoli of Karnataka".
Ankola | Salt Satyagraha
"Sarojini Naidu was among the most visible leaders (male or female) of pre-independent India. As president of the Indian National Congress and the first woman governor of free India, she was a fervent advocate for India, avidly mobilizing support for the Indian independence movement. She was also the first woman to be arrested in the salt march."
Salt March | Women in civil disobedience
Naidu was aware that violence against the satyagrahis was a threat, and warned them, "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." On May 21, the satyagrahis tried to pull away the barbed wire protecting the salt pans . The police charged and began clubbing them. American journalist Webb Miller was an eye-witness to the beating of satyagrahis with steel tipped lathis. His report attracted international attention: Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows.
Dharasana Satyagraha | Beatings
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
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
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
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
Dharasana is a town in Valsad, Gujarat, India, adjacent to Dandi. It shot to worldwide fame in May, 1930 as the site of the Dharasana Satyagraha, an immediate follow up to the Dandi salt march. Here, British Indian police brutally attacked a group of about 2500 non-violent protestors as they marched to the Dharasana Salt Works, as part of the Salt Satyagraha. The attack received global news coverage and helped turn public opinion against the British rule in India and in favor of Indian freedom fighters. This proved to be one of the most important milestones of the Salt Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience Movement led by Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi in 1930-31.
Dharasana | Introduction
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
Later she was a part of the seven member lead team, announced by Mahatma Gandhi, in the famous Salt Satyagraha (1930), to prepare Salt at the Bombay beachfront, the only other woman volunteer of the team was Avantikabai Gokhale. Later in a startling move, Kamaladevi went up to a nearby High Court, and asked a magistrate present there whether he would be interested in buying the ""Freedom Salt"" she had just prepared. On 26 January 1930 she gained widespread media attention when in a scuffle, she clung to the Indian tricolour to protect it.
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay | 1930s
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
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
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
She played a major role in Salt March (1930) and Pataka Satyagraha (1945) and was arrested several times by British Government. She also undertook individual Satyagraha and was arrested by British during 1941. Labanya Prabha Ghosh along with her daughter Kamala Ghosh organised protest in Shilpa Ashrama, Purulia as a part of Quit India movement called by Mahatma Gandhi during 1942 and both were arrested. After India's Independence, she participated in "Bhasa Andolon" in Bihar, for which she was arrested and later, because of this agitation, Purulia was separated from Bihar and merged with West Bengal on linguistic lines. Again, in emergency period, she was arrested during 1975.
Labanya Prabha Ghosh | 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
During the march, Gandhi had spent a night of 5 April 1930 at Saifee Villa. It was owned by Syedna Taher Saifuddin, 51st religious head of the Dawoodi Bohra community. In 1961, he requested Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to dedicate this villa to the nation as part of the national heritage. Since 1964, the villa has been maintained by the Government of Gujarat. The local district administration gets a grant of per month from the Gujarat tourism department to maintain it. In 2016, the Vadodara Circle of Archaeological Survey of India partially restored the Saifee Villa and Prarthana Mandir.
National Salt Satyagraha Memorial | Saifee Villa and Prarthana Mandir
She died on 11 April 2003 at the age of 106.
Labanya Prabha Ghosh | Salt March
Payyannur was the main venue of the Salt Sathyagraha in Malabar. On 13 April, a batch of Congress volunteers under the leadership of K. Kelappan started on foot from Kozhikode to the beaches of Payyannur and broke the salt laws there on 21 April. The Satyagraha camp at Payyannur was raided and the campers were beaten up. There were widespread demonstrations in Kannur, Thalassery and other places. Congress workers broke salt laws and picketed foreign good dealers and liquor shops. The period following the withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience Movement witnessed the emergence of a radical wing in the Kerala Provincial Congress.
History of Kannur | Salt Sathyagraha
On 26 April 1930, water was taken from 'Dahihanda' for the famous 'Namak Satyagrah', Dr. Soman brought seawater from Mumbai for the occasion. About ten thousand people prepared salt under the leadership of Vamanrao Joshi.
Amravati | History
Tyabji was arrested soon afterward and imprisoned by the British Indian Government. Gandhi and others respectfully called Tyabji the "Grand Old Man of Gujarat".
Abbas Tyabji | Salt satyagraha
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)
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
In 2016, he made a 12-minute short documentary film, in Gujarati language, based on the lives of 30,000 salt pan workers of Kutch, Gujarat. The short documentary talks about the plight of salt pan workers, how they are deprived of the most basic amenities and infrastructure and yet are thriving their cultural legacy of folk music. It has been screened at the international film festivals of Romania, Russia, USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, UK, and Serbia. It has won 12 awards at various International Film Festivals
Tanmay Shah | "Pinch of Salt"
Birendranath's was also involved in the movement. His followers took active part in organizing people. Satyagrahis came to Narghat and Pichhhaboni to break Salt Law by peaceful means. The Satyagraha assumed the form of a mass movement in the area.
Birendranath Sasmal | Labon Satyagraha (1930)
The entire platoon was arrested and many received heavy penalties, including life imprisonment.
Salt March | Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre
Some salt is produced using the Alberger process, which involves vacuum pan evaporation combined with the seeding of the solution with cubic crystals, and produces a grainy-type flake. The Ayoreo, an indigenous group from the Paraguayan Chaco, obtain their salt from the ash produced by burning the timber of the Indian salt tree ("Maytenus vitis-idaea") and other trees.
Salt | Production
In Jainism, devotees lay an offering of raw rice with a pinch of salt before a deity to signify their devotion and salt is sprinkled on a person's cremated remains before the ashes are buried. Salt is believed to ward off evil spirits in Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and when returning home from a funeral, a pinch of salt is thrown over the left shoulder as this prevents evil spirits from entering the house. In Shinto, is used for ritual purification of locations and people (harae, specifically shubatsu), and small piles of salt are placed in dishes by the entrance of establishments for the two-fold purposes of warding off evil and attracting patrons.
Salt | In religion