Salt satyagraha

Topic: Salt Satyagraha – History, Facts & Cause of Salt March

This article will update you on Salt Satyagraha also known as Salt March/Dandi March or Civil Disobedience Movement. NCERT notes on Salt Satyagraha is an important topic for the UPSC Civil Service Exam. These notes will also be useful for other competitive exams like banking PO, SSC, state civil services exams and so on.

Salt Satyagraha The Salt Satyagraha was a mass civil disobedience movement initiated by Mahatma Gandhi against the salt tax imposed by the British government in India. He led a large group of people from Sabarmati Ashram on 12th March 1930 till Dandi, a coastal village in Gujarat, to break the salt law by producing salt from seawater.

Background to Salt Satyagraha

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. 7. It was a commodity required by all and the poor people were hurt because of the salt tax. 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 offense to violate the salt act. 9.Gandhiji also hoped to unite Hindus and Muslims as the cause was common to both groups.