Explain clearly Gandhiji’s Salt (Dandi) March.
Answers
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. Mahatma Gandhi started this march with 80 of his trusted volunteers.[1] Walking ten miles a day for 24 days, the march spanned over 240 miles, from Sabarmati Ashram, 240 miles (384 km) to Dandi, which was called Navsari at the time (now in the state of Gujarat). Growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians.[2]
After making the salt by evaporation at Dandi, Gandhiji continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings on the way. The Congress Party planned to stage a satyagraha at the Dharasana Salt Works, 25 miles south of Dandi. However, Gandhiji was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana. 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.[3] Over 60,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha.[4] However, it failed to result in major concessions from the British.[5]
The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of non-violent protest called satyagraha, which he loosely translated as "truth-force".[6] Literally, it is formed from the Sanskrit words satya, "truth", and agraha, "insistence". In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organise the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating by British police of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in Dharasana, which received worldwide news coverage, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice.[7] The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American activists Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and others during the Civil Rights Movement for civil rights for African Americans and other minority groups in the 1960s.[8] The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation movement of 1920–22, and directly followed the Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930.[9] It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement..
Answer:
Dandi March or Salt March, also referred as the Dandi Satyagraha. The Salt March was a The 24-day Salt March, which was non-violent in nature, is historically significant as it led to the mass Civil Disobedience Movement. The place Gandhiji selected as the site for his symbolic breaking of the provisions of the hated Salt Tax, was Dandi, a seaside village in Gujarat. He decided to march the full distance of 241 miles, from his ashram at Ahmedabad, with a select band of co-workers. On the way thousands more people joined the march. The Dandi March resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. But the movement continued. It gained more supporters and began to spread. Gandhi's plan was to begin civil disobedience with a satyagraha aimed at the British salt tax. The 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt, limiting its handling to government salt depots and levying a salt tax. Violation of the Salt Act was a criminal offence. The Salt March was the first major act of civil disobedience led by Gandhi to protest British rule in India. The Indian independence movement gained momentum as more followers joined the movement.
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