HISTORY PORTFOLIO
X-A
GROUP-IV
MADE BY- DEV RAJ BHADANA, ADITYA GARG, SHIVANSH SINGH, KUSHAGRA SINGH
SALT 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 Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty four 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.
BACKGROUND OF SALT SATYAGRAH
1: By 1930, the Congress Party had declared that Poorna Swarajya or complete independence was to be the sole aim of
the freedom struggle.
2: It started observing 26 January as Poorna Swarajya Day, and it was decided that civil disobedience was to be the
means employed to achieve it.
3:Mahatma Gandhi was asked to plan and organise the first such act. Gandhiji chose to break the salt tax in defiance of
the government.
4:Some members of Congress were skeptical of the choice and other Indians and the British dismissed this choice of salt
with disdain.
5:The then Viceroy, Lord Irwin was hardly perturbed by the threat of a salt protest and the government did nothing to
prevent the salt march from taking place.
6:But Gandhiji’s choice of using salt was nothing short of brilliant because it touched a chord with every Indian.
It was a commodity required by all and the poor people were hurt because of the salt tax.
7:Indians had been making salt from seawater free of cost until the passing of the 1882 Salt Act that gave the British
monopoly over the production of salt and authority to impose a salt tax. It was a criminal offence to violate the salt
act.
COURSE OF SALT SATYAGRAH
1:Gandhiji informed Lord Irwin of his plan on 2nd March 1930.
2:He would lead a group of people from his Ashram at Sabarmati on 12th March 1930 and walk through the villages of
Gujarat.
3:On reaching the coastal village of Dandi, he would make salt from seawater thereby breaking the salt act. Gandhiji
started the march as planned with 80 of his followers. They were given strict instructions not to resort to any kind of
violence.
4:Thousands of people thronged the path from Sabarmati Ashram to Ahmedabad to witness the historic event.
At the end of every day, Gandhiji would address thousands of people and attack the government in his speeches.
5:Gandhiji talked to foreign journalists and wrote articles for newspapers on the way. This pushed the Indian independence
movement into the forefront of world media. Gandhiji became a household name in the West.
6:Sarojini Naidu joined him on the way. Every day more and more people joined him and on 5th April 1930, they
reached Dandi.
7:At this time, there were about 50,000 people participating in the march.
8:On the morning of 6th April 1930, Gandhiji broke the salt law by making salt. Thousands of people followed suit.
EFFECTS OF SALT SATYAGRAH
1:Around 60,000 people including Gandhiji himself were arrested by the government.
2:There was widespread civil disobedience carried on by the people. Apart from the salt tax, other unpopular tax laws
were being defied like the forest laws, chowkidar tax, land tax, etc.
3:The government tried to suppress the movement with more laws and censorship.
4:The Congress Party was declared illegal. But this did not deter the satyagrahis who continued the movement.
5:There were some incidents of violence in Calcutta and Karachi but Gandhiji did not call off the movement, unlike the
previous time with the non-cooperation movement.
6:C Rajagopalachari led a similar march on the southeast coast from Trichy to Vedaranyam in Tamil Nadu. He too was
arrested for making salt.
7:K Kelappan led a march in the Malabar region from Calicut to Payyanur.
8:There were similar marches and salt was produced illegally in Assam and Andhra Pradesh.
8:There were similar marches and salt was produced illegally in Assam and Andhra Pradesh.
9:In Peshawar, the Satyagraha was organised and led by Gandhiji’s disciple, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. In April 1930
he was arrested. Khan’s followers (called Khudai Khidmatgars) whom he had trained in Satyagraha had gathered in a
marketplace called the Qissa Khwani Bazaar. There they were fired at by the British Indian Army despite being
unarmed.
10:Thousands of women also took part in the Satyagraha.
Foreign clothes were boycotted. Liqueur shops were picketed. There were strikes all over.
11:On May 21, 1930, there was a protest against the Dharasana Salt Works by peaceful non-violent protestors led by
Sarojini Naidu. The police lathi-charged the protestors brutally and it resulted in the deaths of 2 people with several
others being injured. This event was reported in the international media and there was a condemnation of British
policies followed in India.
12:The British government was shaken by the movement. Also, its non-violent nature made it difficult for them to
suppress it violently.
14:This movement had three main effects:
1:It pushed Indian freedom struggle into the limelight in western media.
2:It brought a lot of people including women and the depressed classes directly in touch with the freedom movement.
3:It showed the power of the non-violent Satyagraha as a tool in fighting imperialism.
15:Gandhiji was released from prison in 1931 and he met with Lord Irwin who was keen to put an end to the civil
disobedience movement and the media attention it had caught.
16;As per the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the civil disobedience movement would be ended and Indians, in return, would be
allowed to make salt for domestic use. Lord Irwin also agreed to release the arrested Indians. Gandhiji attended the
Second Round Table Conference in London as an ‘equal’.
DRAWBACKS OF SALT SATYAGRAH
1:The movement did not procure any major concessions from the
government.
2:Muslim support was limited.
COCLUSION
We can conclude that in the present scenario middle class and poor Indians are faced with various
problems related to price hike. Price hike or inflation is a necessary evil of a growing economy such
as ours. This could be tamed through suitable and sustainable measures. It is the duty of the Indian
Government and the Economists to bring it under control. The only alternative available is to
throw away the neo-liberal model of growth and adopt a people centric development model. The
need today is to apply Gandhian values in all aspects of life.
INTRODUCTION TO CIVIL DISOBIDIENCE
[Link] March 12, 1930 Mahatma Gandhi began the historic march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a village on the
Gujarat sea coast. A number of people followed him. On the morning of 6th April, Gandhiji violated the Salt Laws at
Dandi by picking up some salt left by the seawaves. Gandhiji's breaking of the Salt Laws marked the beginning of the
Civil Disobedience Movement.
[Link] Civil Disobedience Movement spread rapidly. Violation of Salt Laws all over the country was soon followed by
defiance of forest laws and refusal to pay the rural chaukidari tax in Eastern India. People joined hartals,
demonstrations and campaigns to boycott foreign goods and refused to pay taxes. It resulted in mass strikes and setting
up of parallel governments in several places.
[Link] Indian Round Table Conference held three sessions which are also referred to as the first, second and third
Round Table Conferences. The First Round Table Conference was held in London. The Second Round Table
Conference was attended by Gandhiji as a sole representative of the Congress according to the terms of the Gandhi-
Irwin Pact. The Third Conference was convened in 1932 but the Congress boycotted it.
4. It shattered people's faith in the British government. It revived the will to fight the elections.
It deepened the social roots for the freedom struggle.
[Link] Disobedience Movement involved:
i) Defiance of salt laws
ii) Boycott of liquor
iii) Boycott of foreign cloth and British goods of all kinds, iv) Non-payment of taxes and revenues.
POOR PEASANTS COMMUNITIES
• The poorer peasantry wanted reduction in the revenue demand and also exemption in rent because many of them
were small tenants cultivating land rented from landlords.
• They joined a variety of radical movements, often led by Socialists and Communists.
• However Congress did not support their ‘No Rent Campaigns’ because of their association with the rich peasants
and landlords.
• The relationship between poor peasants and Congress was uncertain.
• The participation of poor peasants was limited in the movement.
BUISNESS CLASS INDUSTRIALISTS
• The industrialists were keen on expanding business activities and hence participated in the movement against the
colonial policies that restricted business.
• Their participation was for following demands:
• Protection against imports of foreign goods
• Rupee-Sterling foreign exchange ratio
• The Business Classes formed the Indian Industrial and Commercial Congress in 1920 and the Federation
of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries(FICCI) in 1927 for their business interests.
• They attacked colonial control over the Indian Economy and supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it
was first launched.
LIMITATIONS OF CIVIL DISOBIDIENCE
MOVEMENT
1)Untouchables were overlooked in the movement.
2)The Hindu-Muslim divide has widened due to the non-participation of Muslim political organisations.
3)Conflicts between Congress and Muslims arose as a result of Muslim demand for special seats.
4)A substantial number of Muslims have been alienated from the battle due to their fear of becoming Muslims as a
minority within India.
5)Different sections of people in the Civil Disobedience movement had their own aspirations, hence the struggle
was not united and there was discontent among the participants.
SOME MORE PHOTOS OF SALT MARCH
CREDITS:-
DEV RAJ BHADANA- PRESENTATION, SOME MORE PHOTOS,COCLUSION, AND
MANY MORE PHOTOS AND SALT MARCH
KUSHAGRA SINGH-BACKGROUND AND COURSE OF SATYAGRAH MOVEMENT
SHIVANSH-INTRO TO CIVIL DISOBIDIENCE, POOR PEASNTS COMMUNITIES,
BUISNESS CLASS INDUSTRALISTS
ADITYA- LIMITATIONS OF CIVIL DISOBIDENCE