Mahatma Gandhi, civil disobedience and the Salt March

From: Minivan News

For his civil disobedience campaign, Gandhi chose to contravene The Salt Acts because they not only appeared to be basically unjust but also because they symbolized an unpopular, unrepresentative and alien government.

When Gandhi began his campaign revenues realized from the Salt Tax amounted to 25,000,000 pounds sterling.

The salt tax had a long and ugly history. The British East India Company considered this taxing of a necessity, salt, as an excellent way of earning revenue. The salt tax initially was imposed in the form of 'land rent' and 'transit charges' before it was consolidated into duty in 1762. Thus India became dependent on imported salt from Liverpool, Spain, Romania, Aden and Mussawah.

Burdened by extravagant charges, the local salt industry soon found itself unable to compete with imported salt.

In an effort to completely corner the salt market, the English began to tax Indian salt which drove the price of salt still higher. Even this was apparently not enough because the English introduced the Salt Act which gave a monopoly on salt production to the government. Violation of the law was punishable with the confiscation of salt and six months imprisonment.

With the price of salt going through the roof the Indian National Congress and prominent national leaders pleaded with the British, arguing that the burden of the Salt Act was borne by the poverty ridden masses.

Gandhi understood that salt was the only relish which the teeming poor in Indian villages could afford to their monotonous diet. Next to water and air, it was perhaps the greatest necessity of life, the only condiment of the masses and indispensable for land, life and several industries.

By choosing the salt law to defy the British Laws, Gandhi exhibited his political genius and shrewdness. This tax on a natural product from the sea water and consumed by every person and animal was symbolical of human oppression and thus Gandhi was able to convey his message to the masses with ease. By calling on the people to pick up salt from the earth or distil it from the sea as their natural right, Gandhi was able to rally the people of India behind him. Salt became the symbol of revolt and resurgence of the Indian people.

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Salt Satyagraha

The Salt Satyagraha was a campaign of nonviolent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India which began with the Salt March to Dandi on March 12, 1930. It was the first act of organized opposition to British rule after Purna Swaraj, the declaration of independence by the Indian National Congress. Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi march from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, Gujarat to produce salt without paying the tax, with growing numbers of Indians joining him along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws in Dandi at the conclusion of the march on April 6, 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians.[1]

Gandhi was arrested on May 5, 1930, just days before his planned raid on the Dharasana Salt Works. The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage. The satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi's release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference.[2] Over 80,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha.[3] The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitudes toward Indian independence,[4][5] and caused large numbers of Indians to actively join the fight for the first time, but failed to win major concessions from the British.[6]

The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of nonviolent protest called satyagraha, which he loosely translated as "truth-force."[7] In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian independence from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organize the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in Dharasana, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice.[8] The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and his fight for civil rights for blacks and other minority groups in the 1960s.

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