Salt March

Salt March (12 Mar–6 Apr. 1930) Perhaps M. K. Gandhi's best-known act of civil disobedience, known as the second satyagraha (‘hold fast to the truth’). It expressed increasing frustration by Congress at its own impotence and, specifically, the British refusal to grant Dominion status to India. Gandhi chose the hated salt tax as the object of his campaign. At the time, the Indian government maintained a monopoly over the manufacture of salt, an essential basic commodity which was thus heavily taxed. Those using their own salt, e.g. if they were living close to the sea, were subject to heavy punishment. The 61-year-old Mahatma started the 240–mile-long march from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi together with seventy-eight of his followers. He was joined by thousands along the way, in a march that received vast international and national attention. Encouraging every Indian to defy the salt laws and provide for his/her own salt where possible, at his final destination he symbolically picked up a lump of salt. When the protesters marched on to a government salt depot, he was arrested, as were between 60,000 and 90,000 other Indians in subsequent months, as well as the entire Congress leadership. Gandhi was released and called off the campaign in March 1931 following the Gandhi–Irwin Pact, which allowed Gandhi to participate in the second Round Table Conference, and symbolically permitted the production of salt for domestic consumption. Moreover, it allowed peaceful picketing to support the campaign for Indian-made goods (svadeshi), while Congress dropped its demands for an inquiry into the arrests made during the campaign.