🌊 What Indians did
People along the coasts made and sold illegal salt. Crowds picketed shops selling foreign cloth and alcohol. In some areas peasants refused to pay land tax. Women joined in very large numbers, many for the first time.
Key Developments, 1927-39 » The Salt March and Civil Disobedience, 1930-31
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 1, Depth study 4, Key topic 3
- Why Gandhi chose salt for his new campaign in 1930
- What happened on the march to Dandi and in the mass protests that followed
- How the British responded, and why the world took notice
- What the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 1931 did and did not give each side
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Unlock This CourseWhy Gandhi chose salt
Remember, Congress at Lahore had demanded Purna Swaraj and agreed to a new campaign of civil disobedience. At the end of January 1930 Gandhi published eleven demands for the viceroy, Lord Irwin, including an end to the salt tax. Irwin did not accept them. In February Congress left the time and the method of the campaign to Gandhi. On 2 March he wrote to tell Irwin that he would break the salt laws.
Many Congress leaders were puzzled by the choice. But Gandhi had good reasons.
- It touched everyone. Every Indian needed salt, above all in a hot climate. The tax hit the poorest hardest. Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor, could all share this complaint.
- It was easy to break. Anyone near the sea could pick up salt or boil sea water. No money or schooling was needed.
- It was a strong symbol. A foreign government was taxing something that nature gave for free.
- It was peaceful. Making salt harmed nobody, so there was less risk of violence like that at Chauri Chaura.
Key terms:
- Salt laws: laws that let only the government make and sell salt, with a tax added to the price. Even collecting salt from the seashore was a crime.
- Salt March: Gandhi's walk to the sea at Dandi in March and April 1930 to break the salt laws.
- Picketing: standing outside a shop to persuade people not to buy there.
- Ordinance: an emergency law made by the viceroy alone.
- Gandhi-Irwin Pact: the agreement of March 1931 that paused civil disobedience.
The march to Dandi
On 12 March 1930 Gandhi, aged 60, left his ashram (religious community) at Sabarmati, near Ahmedabad, with 78 chosen followers. They walked about 240 miles (385 km) in 24 days to Dandi, a village on the coast of Gujarat. Gandhi spoke in the villages on the way. The crowds grew, and some village officials gave up their government posts.
The slow walk was clever. Reporters and film cameras from around the world followed it, and the story grew day by day. The marchers reached Dandi on 5 April. On the morning of 6 April Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt from the shore. With that small act he broke the law. Irwin did not arrest him at first. He feared an arrest would cause uproar, and he hoped the march would be ignored.
Mass civil disobedience and arrests
Gandhi's act was the signal for the whole country.
👮 How the British responded
Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested in April. Gandhi was arrested on 5 May and held without trial. The viceroy used ordinances to censor newspapers and to ban the Congress Working Committee. Police broke up crowds with lathis. About 60,000 people were jailed during 1930.
The campaign reached the far north-west. In Peshawar the Muslim leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan led a non-violent movement. After he was arrested in April 1930, troops fired on the crowds, and some Indian soldiers refused to shoot.
On 21 May 1930 the poet Sarojini Naidu led about 2,500 volunteers to the salt works at Dharasana. Police struck them down with steel-tipped lathis, row after row. Two died and hundreds were hurt. The volunteers did not fight back. An American reporter, Webb Miller, wrote: 'Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off the blows.'
There were limits. Jinnah and the Muslim League stayed out, and outside the north-west most Muslims took little part.
World attention
Miller's report was printed in newspapers around the world. Readers in Britain and the USA saw police beating peaceful, unarmed people. This damaged Britain's claim that it ruled India for India's good. The American magazine Time named Gandhi its Man of the Year for 1930. India's future was now watched by the world.
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1931
By early 1931 both sides needed a way out. The jails were full, sales of British cloth in India had fallen sharply, and a conference held in London without Congress had achieved little (see The Round Table Conferences, 1930-32). In January 1931 Irwin released Gandhi and the Congress leaders. The two men met in Delhi from 17 February and signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact on 5 March 1931.
🤝 Congress agreed to
Suspend civil disobedience, and send Gandhi to the next conference in London.
🔑 The British agreed to
Free prisoners who had not used violence, withdraw the ordinances, allow peaceful picketing, and let people on the coast make salt for their own use.
Gandhi did not win everything. The salt tax stayed. There was no inquiry into police violence and no promise of independence. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were disappointed, but Congress approved the pact at Karachi later in March.
Yet the pact mattered. For the first time a viceroy had negotiated and signed an agreement with the leader of Congress as an equal. In Britain, Winston Churchill was disgusted to see Gandhi talking 'on equal terms' with the king's representative. Congress could no longer be ignored.
Common mistakes
- Saying the Salt March ended the salt tax. It did not. The pact only let people on the coast make salt for themselves.
- Saying Gandhi was arrested at Dandi on 6 April. He was arrested a month later, on 5 May.
- Saying the pact gave India independence. It only paused the campaign and took Gandhi to London.
Exam-style question
Explain two effects of the Salt March on British rule in India. [8 marks]
Model answer
One effect of the Salt March was that British control of India was weakened by mass law-breaking. When Gandhi picked up salt at Dandi on 6 April 1930, he gave every Indian a simple way to defy the government. People along the coasts made illegal salt and picketed shops selling foreign cloth. The British had to arrest Gandhi in May and jail about 60,000 people during 1930, and the viceroy had to rule by ordinances. This showed that Britain could now only govern India by force, not with the consent of Indians.
A second effect was that the British were forced to negotiate with Congress. The march and the beating of peaceful volunteers at Dharasana in May 1930 were reported around the world, for example by Webb Miller, which damaged Britain's reputation. With the jails full, Lord Irwin released Gandhi in January 1931 and signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact with him on 5 March. This meant the viceroy was now treating the Congress leader as an equal, so Britain could no longer decide India's future without Congress.
What lifts it to the top level: each paragraph names one effect, backs it with exact dates, names and figures, and then explains how the Salt March led to that effect.
Exam tip
Write two separate paragraphs, one for each effect. One effect alone, however good, cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks. Here, pick effects on British rule, such as lost control and being forced to talk, and do not simply tell the story of the walk to Dandi.