Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi, Background, Causes, Events & Effects

Dandi March Date

Dandi March: An important turning point in the history of the Indian liberation struggle was the Dandi March. The Indian National Congress began the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930, and the Salt Satyagrah was a key component of that movement.

The British were granted a monopoly on the production and distribution of salt by the Salt Act of 1882. Indians were compelled to purchase salt from colonists despite the fact that it was widely available throughout the country’s coastlines. The British levied a high salt tax in addition to maintaining a monopoly on the production and sale of salt. All Indians desired salt despite the fact that the impoverished in India were the ones who paid the highest cost. Gandhi came to the idea that salt would be the best thing to employ as a catalyst for civil disobedience.

Perhaps the most essential element for life is salt, which is also crucial for air and water. The British administration, particularly Viceroy Lord Irwin, did not take the anti-salt-tax movement seriously. On March 8, Gandhi said in front of a sizable crowd in Ahmedabad that he would disregard the salt regulations.

The brutal salt law that the British government established, giving the government a monopoly on salt production, was directly addressed by the Dandi March. On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi marched 385 kilometers from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi with the assistance of 78 of his supporters. Gandhi broke the salt prohibition after the march by obtaining sea salt and boiling it..

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Dandi March Causes

Before the British Government approved the Salt Act of 1882, Indians had to produce salt from saltwater. Indians were not allowed to make or sell salt, according to the Salt Act. Anyone other than British citizens was seen to be breaking the law if they produced or sold salt.

The British created a lucrative monopoly that forced Indians to purchase the extremely expensive and heavily taxed salt. The majority of Indians, as well as most workers and farmers, were unable to afford the expensive salt that was readily available from the beaches. Ghandi created the Salt Satyagrah to protest the unfair Salt Act.

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Dandi March Major Events

• The Viceroy of British India, Lord Irwin, rejected Mahatma Gandhi’s minimal demands, which included Indian self-government.
• On March 12, 1930 On March 12, 1930, Gandhi made the decision to lead 78 supporters on a 241-mile march from Sabarmati to the coastal village of Dandi on the Arabian Sea.
• Gandhi and his allies were ordered to break the salt law in Dandi by producing salt from saltwater.
• Thousands more people followed him on his journey, and with the start of the Dandi March, CDM erupted in other regions of the nation.
• On May 5 On May 5, Gandhi was taken into custody by British officials. More than 60,000 Indians had been imprisoned by the British at that point for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
• Nevertheless, the salt satyagraha went on despite Gandhi’s incarceration. Around 150 miles north of Bombay, Sarojini Naidu organized a salt satyagraha with 2,500 marchers at the Dharasana Salt Works. An international uproar against British policies in India resulted from the episode, which was captured by American journalist Webb Miller.
• January 1931 Gandhi met Irwin after being released from prison in January 1931. Gandhi cancelled the CDM after this conference and travelled to London to negotiate India’s freedom.

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Dandi March Significance

The following month, Gandhi visited the Dharasana Salt Works. There, he was detained and brought to the Yerawada Central Jail. Gandhi violated the salt rules in Dandi by performing similar acts of civil disobedience in other regions of India. For instance, in Bengal, volunteers travelled from Sodepur Ashram to Mahisbathan Village to manufacture salt under the direction of Satish Chandra Dasgupta.

Another group of marchers from Bombay were led by K.F. Nariman to Haji Ali Point, where they made salt in a neighbouring park. A boycott of imported goods and alcoholic beverages went hand in hand with the illegal manufacturing and selling of salt. A mass satyagraha swiftly developed from what had originally been a salt satyagraha.

Forest rules were broken in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the Central Provinces. The chowkidari and land taxes were not paid by peasants in Gujarat and Bengal. Calcutta, Karachi, and Gujarat saw violent incidents, but unlike the non-cooperation movement, Gandhi this time refused to put an end to the civil disobedience movement.

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Dandi March Effects

Gandhiji persisted in his opposition to the salt tax after the highly publicized Dandi March and urged his countrymen to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience. However, despite its best efforts, the British Government was unable to stop these movements. Gandhi was among the peaceful protesters who were detained by the British government. Indians were also disobeying the Land Tax, Chowkidar Tax, and Forest Tax in addition to the Salt Act.

Violence was a byproduct of the movement in places like Karachi and Calcutta. However, Gandhi Ji did not halt the Salt Satyagrah movement, in contrast to the Non-Cooperation movement. C. Rajagopalachari led a similar march from Trichy to Vedaranyam on Tamil Nadu’s southeast coast.

Similar marches were organised in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, and the Malabar area of Calicut as a result of the Dandi March. Gandhi’s student Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan organised a Satyagraha in Peshawar and was arrested. He instructed Khudai Khidmatgars during Satyagraha. Despite the fact that they were unarmed, the British forces opened fire on them as they congregated in Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

People in large numbers boycotted imported clothing. The booze stores were also guarded. On May 21, 1930, Sarojini Naidu organised a nonviolent demonstration against the Dharasana Salt Works. The two protesters were killed brutally as a result of police Lathi charges, though. The demonstration brought these independence fighters and their fight into the spotlight of the western media. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was struck on March 5, 1931, following Gandhiji’s release from jail in January 1931. The agreement signalled the end of the civil disobedience movement and satyagraha in India.

Dandi March and British Action

The government started a terror campaign as revenge. More than 95,000 people were behind bars as of March 31. On April 14, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru was taken into custody and given a six-month prison term. Violence occasionally broke out in Calcutta, Peshawar, Chittagong, and Karachi.

In Karachi, Madras, and Calcutta, police opened fire, and cruelty was practised all over the nation. Gandhi advised people to “react to organized hooliganism with immense pain.” Gandhi was captured and put in jail. When Gandhiji was getting ready to start his march to Dharasana, the battle against the “Black Regime” was at its most intense.

On June 30, the government imprisoned Pandit Motilal Nehru, the acting president, and deemed the Congress Working Committee to be an unlawful organisation. The Press Ordinance had shut down roughly 55 printing firms and 67 nationalist newspapers by the end of July. Young India and Navajivan started to make appearances in cyclostyle when the Navjivan Press was taken.

In June, the statutory commission’s long-awaited report was made public. Even the vague assurance of dominion status provided by the Viceroy was not reaffirmed by its recommendations. With a few concessions to the provinces, they sought to strengthen the federal government. The idea of communal electorates was developed, intensifying the “divide and rule” strategy. All parties involved found these recommendations to be utterly inadequate. Men who ran the possibility of being imprisoned, like Malaviya and Aney, joined the Congress.

Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi

The Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on January 26, 1930, was immediately followed by the march, which was the most important organised challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation campaign of 1920–22. It attracted attention on a global scale, igniting the Indian independence movement and sparking a wave of widespread civil disobedience that lasted until 1934. Gandhiji had hoped for complete independence for the people of his beloved India at Dandi, and the Dandi March ignited a movement that swept across the nation.

Dandi March FAQs

Q) Where did the Dandi March start and end?

Ans. Beginning on March 12, the salt satyagraha would last until April 6, when Gandhi will breach the Salt Act in Dandi. On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and 80 satyagrahis left Sabarmati Ashram for the seaside Gujarati village of Dandi, a distance of more than 390 kilometres (240 miles).

Q) Why Dandi March was happened?

Ans. Mahatma Gandhi started the Salt Satyagraha, a large-scale civil disobedience movement, in response to the salt levy the British government had placed on India. On March 12, 1930, he led a sizable group of people from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a seaside town in Gujarat, where they produced salt from seawater in violation of the law.

Q) When and who started Dandi March?

Ans. Gandhiji announced in 1930 that he would lead a march to violate the salt ban. This statute gave the government a monopoly over salt production and distribution. Since salt is such a crucial component of our food, according to Mahatma Gandhi and other nationalists, taxing it is wrong.

Q) Which place started Dandi March?

Ans. Mahatma Gandhi launched the Dandi March on March 12, 1930. From his Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to Dandi, a seaside town in Gujarat, it was a nearly 385 kilometre march.

Q) Who started Dandi March in India?

Ans. Mahatma Gandhi led a 24-day nonviolent march known as the Salt March or Dandi March. New Delhi On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began a historic salt march from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to the town of Dandi, which is on the state’s coast, in protest of the high salt tax the British imposed.

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