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Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes 11th 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 that there will be tens of thousands ready, in a disciplined manner, to take up
the work after me, and, in the act of disobeying the Salt Act to lay themselves open to the penalties
of a law that should never have disfigured the Statute-book.’
The plan was brilliantly conceived though few realized its significance when it was first announced.
Gandhiji, along with a band of seventy-eight members of the Sabarmati Ashram, among whom
were men belonging to almost every region and religion of India, was to march from his
headquarters in Ahmedabad through the villages of Gujarat for 240 miles. On reaching the coast
at Dandi, he would break the salt laws by collecting salt from the beach. The deceptively innocuous
move was to prove devastatingly effective. Even before the march began, thousands began to
throng the Sabarmati Ashram in anticipation of the dramatic events that lay ahead. And Gandhiji
painstakingly explained his plans, gave directions for future action, impressed on the people the
necessity for non-violence, and prepared them for the Government’s response: ‘Wherever possible,
civil disobedience of salt laws should be started . . . Liquor and foreign-cloth shops can be picketed.
We can refuse to pay taxes if we have the requisite strength. The lawyers can give up practice. The
public can boycott the courts by refraining from litigation. Government servants can resign their
posts . . . I prescribe only one condition, viz., let our pledge of truth and non-violence as the only
means for the attainment of swaraj be faithfully kept.’
Explaining the power of civil disobedience, he said: ‘Supposing ten persons from each of the
700,000 villages in India come forward to manufacture salt and to disobey the Salt Act, what do
you think this Government can do? Even the worst autocrat you can imagine would not dare to
blow regiments of peaceful civil resisters out of a cannon’s mouth. If only you will bestir yourselves
just a little, I assure you we should be able to tire this Government out in a very short time.’
He also explained how non-violence enabled the widest participation of the people, and put the
Government in an unenviable quandary. To a crowd who came to the ashram on 10 March, he
said: ‘Though the battle is to begin in a couple of days, how is it that you can come here quite
fearlessly? I do not think any one of you would be here if you had to face rifle-shots or bombs. But
you have no fear of rifle-shots or bombs? Why?
Supposing I had announced that I was going to launch a violent campaign (not necessarily with
men armed with rifles, but even with sticks or stones), do you think the Government would have
left me free until now? Can you show me an example in history (be it in England, America or
Russia) where the State has tolerated violent defiance of authority for a single day? But here you
know that the Government is puzzled and preplexed.’
And as Gandhiji began his march, staff in hand, at the head of his dedicated band, there was
something in the image that deeply stirred the imagination of the people. News of his progress, of
his speeches, of the teeming crowds that greeted and followed the marchers, of the long road
lovingly strewn with leaves and festooned with banners and flags, of men and women quietly
paying their homage by spinning yarn on their charkas as Gandhiji passed, of the 300 village
officials in Gujarat who resigned their posts in answer to his appeal, was ‘carried day after day by
newspapers to readers across the country and broadcast live by thousands of Congress workers to
eager listeners. By the time Gandhiji reached Dandi, he had a whole nation, aroused and expectant,
waiting restlessly for the final signal. On 6 April 1930, by picking up a handful of salt, Gandhiji
inaugurated the Civil Disobedience Movement, a movement that was to remain unsurpassed in
the history of the Indian national movement for the country-wide mass participation it unleashed.
While Gandhiji was marching to Dandi, Congress leaders and workers had been busy at various
levels with the hard organizational task of enrolling volunteers and members, forming grass-roots
Congress Committees, collecting funds, and touring villages and towns to spread the nationalist
message. Preparations for launching the salt Satyagraha were made, sites chosen, volunteers
prepared, and the logistics of battle worked out.
Once the way was cleared by Gandhiji’s ritual beginning at Dandi, the defiance of salt laws started
all over the country. In Tamil Nadu, C. Rajagopalachari, led a salt march from Trichinopoly to

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