Salt Satyagraha

A new determination to force the government of act filled the minds of the people.

Jawaharlal Nehru was elected President of the Congress at the behest of Gandhi. A Congress session was held in Lahore on December 31, 1929. A resolution announcing that full independence was India’s goal was passed at this session of the Congress. Disappointed at her failure to get dominion status, India now demanded full independence.

The whole country was excited. Everybody was waiting for the lead from Gandhi. After two months of suspense, a Salt Satyagraha was announced by Gandhi.

This would be the beginning of a civil disobedience campaign in which laws made by the State would be broken. Civil disobedience would begin by breaking the salt law.

“Salt suddenly became a mysterious word, a word of power,” Nehru said.

 The government had put an excise tax on salt which brought an enormous amount of many to the treasury. Moreover, the government had the monopoly of manufacturing salt.

The salt tax was to be attacked and the salt laws were to be broken. The very simplicity of Gandhi’s choice made the issue more dramatic.

On March 2, 1930, Gandhi wrote a letter to the new Viceroy, Lord Irwin, about the deplorable condition of India under the British rule.

“The British rule,” he said,” has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of progressive exploitation, and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration which the country can never afford. It has reduced us politically to serfdom. It has sapped the foundations of our culture….”

He requested the Viceroy to see him and discuss the matter with him in person. “But if you cannot see your way to deal with these evils, “he went on, “and my letter makers no appeal to you heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed, with such co-workers of the ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the salt laws… it is, I know open to you to frustrate my design by arresting me. I hope there will be tens of thousands ready in a disciplined manner, to take up the work after me…”

Lord Irwin did not answer Gandhi but sent a message through his secretary expressing regret that Gandhi had chosen a course which involved breaking the law of the land and which would be a danger to public peace.

The whole of India was agitated over Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha. On March 12, at 6.30 in the morning, thousands of people watched as Gandhi started from his ashram with 78 volunteers on a march to Dandi, a village on the sea coast 241 miles away.

There, it was announced, the salt law would be broken. Gandhi led the march from village to village, stopping at each place to talk to the peasants and to advise them on the necessity of social reforms.

For 24 days the eyes of India and the world followed Gandhi as he marched towards the sea. The government did not take the risk of arresting Gandhi. With each passing day the campaign grew. Hundreds and thousands of people joined the procession. Men, women, and children lined the out, offering flowers and shouting slogans for the victory of the march. Newspaper reporters from every corner of the world were there to report the progress of Gandhi’s march.

The march ended on April 5 at Dandi village. Gandhi and his selected followers went to the sea-shore and broke the salt law by picking up salt left on the shore by the sea.

Gandhi then gave a signal to all Indians to manufacture salt illegally. He wanted the people to break the salt law openly and to prepare themselves for non-violent resistance to police action.

All over India people swarmed to the nearest sea coast to break the salt law. Only a few people knew how to make salt. But the people soon found their own ways of making it. All that mattered was the breaking of the salt law.

Gandhi and other leaders had made arrangements for the continuation of the agitation if they were arrested A chain of leaders had been chosen so that, as each leader was arrested, another would be ready to take his place.

The government waited for some time before taking any action, and then at last retaliation began. Gandhi was left at liberty, but many other leaders were taken into custody. Jawaharlal. Mahadev Desai (Gandhi’s secretary) and Gandhi’s son, Devadas, were the first to be sent to jail. In dealing with the breakers of the salt law, the police resorted to their usual brutal methods.

The Indian National Congress was declared illegal. Some newspapers which were threatened with censorship suspended publication. The people held hartals and demonstrations and mass arrests were made. Soon the jails were overcrowded with people who remained non-violent, lest Gandhi should call off the movement.