Salt March: how a colonial monopoly became a target for civil disobedience
The Salt March challenged British control over the production and taxation of salt in India. Gandhi left the Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad on March 12, 1930, and publicly broke the salt law at Dandi on April 6. Gathering and making salt without authorization turned an ordinary coastal material into an act of civil disobedience. The campaign connected a burden on everyday consumption with the Indian National Congress's demand for complete independence. It also gave people far from formal political institutions a way to take part in resistance.
The salt tax had a long colonial history. The East India Company raised revenue through charges on production and movement, and Indian consumers became dependent in part on imported salt. In 1835, a commission recommended taxing Indian production to assist sales of imported British salt. The later legal system created a government monopoly and penalties for unauthorized manufacture. Officials could seize contraband salt, equipment and the animals or vehicles carrying it. Revenue officers also had powers to search places where illegal production was suspected.
Opposition predated Gandhi's march. At early sessions of the Indian National Congress, delegates argued that taxing a necessity placed a disproportionate burden on the poor. S. A. Swaminath Iyer objected to increases at the Congress's first session in 1885. Further criticism followed at Allahabad in 1888 and 1892. Gandhi also called for abolition while he was in South Africa. By 1930, salt offered a familiar grievance with a history extending beyond the immediate dispute over India's constitutional future.
Congress had moved toward a more explicit independence demand. In 1928, it conditionally supported the constitutional proposals associated with Motilal Nehru, allowing time for British acceptance. That period expired without the result Congress wanted. At Lahore in December 1929, the organization declared that swaraj meant complete independence. January 26, 1930, was observed as Independence Day. In February, the Congress Working Committee met at Sabarmati and authorized Gandhi to launch civil disobedience at a time and in a form he considered suitable.
On March 2, 1930, Gandhi wrote to Viceroy Lord Irwin explaining India's grievances and giving notice that he intended to break the salt law. He addressed Irwin as a friend while setting out a direct challenge to colonial authority. After the response failed to resolve the dispute, preparations continued for the Salt March. Dandi, a coastal village in Gujarat, lay roughly 240 miles from the ashram. A selected group of co-workers would walk the route with Gandhi, carrying the campaign through villages rather than beginning with a single demonstration in a large city.
Large crowds gathered as the Salt March departed. Villagers along the route prepared welcomes, and meetings gave Gandhi opportunities to explain the program. The marchers maintained routines of prayer, spinning and keeping daily records. Gandhi urged the boycott of foreign cloth, the adoption of khadi and participation in other forms of non-cooperation. Village officials resigned some government positions. The walk combined a fixed destination with repeated local gatherings, allowing people who did not join the entire journey to encounter its organizers and hear their aims directly.
At Dandi on April 6, the salt law was deliberately breached. People elsewhere began making salt without authorization, purchasing illicit salt or joining protests against the monopoly. The wider movement included picketing foreign-cloth and liquor shops, burning imported cloth and withholding payments. These actions extended resistance beyond the coast and beyond salt production itself. The Salt March had supplied an opening act for a nationwide campaign in which different communities used economic and administrative non-cooperation to challenge British rule.
Gandhi next planned action at the Dharasana saltworks, but authorities arrested him in early May before he could lead it. Abbas Tyabji assumed leadership and was then arrested in turn. Sarojini Naidu and other organizers continued the campaign, including the Dharasana action later that month. Arrests reached tens of thousands across India, while strikes and demonstrations continued in multiple cities. Participants were instructed to maintain nonviolence. British attempts to suppress the movement brought further international attention to India's political conflict and the treatment of its protesters.
Gandhi was held at Yeravda Central Prison near Poona. Some 50,000 textile workers in Bombay went on strike after his detention, and railway workers joined the demonstrations. Resignations from honorary government offices and services followed. Protests also continued in Calcutta, Karachi, Lucknow and Delhi. Gandhi's release and negotiations with Irwin produced a pact in March 1931. Congress suspended civil disobedience, and Gandhi agreed to attend constitutional discussions in London. The campaign had not achieved independence or abolished British rule.
- MKGandhi.org, Defiance of Salt Tax — www.mkgandhi.org
- MKGandhi.org, Salt Satyagraha and Dandi March — www.mkgandhi.org
- Gandhi Heritage Portal, Background to the Salt Satyagraha — www.gandhiheritageportal.org
- International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, The Indian Independence Struggle (1930–1931) — www.nonviolent-conflict.org