Civil Disobedience and the Salt March

Gandhi’s next mass movement began with something small and everyday: salt. That choice was deliberate, and its impact was enormous.

Mahatma Gandhi picks up a lump of salt at Dandi on 6 April 1930, ending the 387 km march from Sabarmati. Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

📑 Contents

1The Salt March: Origins and Route
2Nationwide Spread and Gandhi’s Arrest
3Test Yourself
4Dharasana Satyagraha and International Impact
5Previous Year Questions

The Salt March: Origins and Route Need to Know

The March Itself

From Sabarmati to Dandi

Start The Civil Disobedience Movement began on 12 March 1930, when Gandhi launched the Salt March from Sabarmati Ashram.
Followers Gandhi set out with 78 followers, walking toward Dandi on the Gujarat coast.
Distance The march covered about 387 km (240 miles) over 24 days, protesting the British monopoly and tax on salt.
Growing Crowds Crowds joined along the way. By the time Gandhi reached Dandi, tens of thousands had gathered around him.
Law Broken On 6 April 1930, Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt from the shore. He boiled it in seawater, breaking the Salt Act.
“Sedition Is My Religion” Around this time, Gandhi declared British rule a curse to be resisted through non-violent defiance, calling that resistance itself “sedition” that had become his religion.

Previous Year Questions

Asked as: “Sedition has become my religion” was the famous statement given by Gandhiji at the time of.” (UPSC CSP 2025, GS Paper I). View this question.

Asked as: “Bring out the constructive programmes of Mahatma Gandhi during Non-Cooperation Movement and Civil Disobedience Movement.” (UPSC Mains 2021, GS Paper I). Key strands include khadi promotion, boycott of foreign goods and British institutions, Hindu-Muslim unity, and the anti-untouchability campaign. View this Mains question.

Asked as: “The Gandhi-Irwin Pact included which of the following?” (UPSC CSP 2020, GS Paper I). The correct answer is (b) 1, 2 and 4 only — inviting Congress to the Round Table Conference, withdrawing Civil Disobedience-era ordinances, and releasing only prisoners not charged with violence. Irwin rejected Gandhi’s suggestion for a public inquiry into police excesses. View this question.

Asked as: “With reference to the British colonial rule in India, consider the following statements.” (UPSC CSP 2019, GS Paper I). The correct answer is (b) 1 and 3 only. Gandhi genuinely helped abolish indentured labour, in 1917. The Indian National Congress genuinely was declared illegal after Indians broke the Salt Law, in 1930, and again in 1932. Gandhi actually supported recruiting Indians at Lord Chelmsford’s 1918 War Conference, so the claim that he opposed it is wrong. View this question.

Nationwide Spread and Gandhi’s Arrest Good to Know

Spread and Arrest

How the Movement Grew, and What Followed

Why Salt It was chosen deliberately. It was something every Indian, rich or poor, used daily, making the protest universally relatable.
Rapid Spread The movement spread quickly. Indians across the country broke salt laws, boycotted British goods, and refused to pay certain taxes.
Women’s Role Women joined in large numbers for the first time, widening the freedom struggle’s social base. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was among the leaders who organised the salt satyagraha in western India.
Arrest Gandhi was arrested in the early hours of 5 May 1930, near the village of Karadi. He was held without trial, at Yerwada Jail near Pune.
Gandhi-Irwin Pact Signed on 5 March 1931, it ended this first phase of Civil Disobedience. Britain withdrew the ordinances curbing Congress activity, and released prisoners not charged with violence. Gandhi agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference. Irwin refused Gandhi’s request for a public inquiry into police excesses.
Resumption Civil Disobedience resumed in 1932, after the Round Table talks failed to satisfy Congress’s demands. It differed from the earlier Non-Cooperation Movement, which had only asked Indians to withdraw cooperation, not break specific laws.

Test Yourself

Dharasana Satyagraha and International Impact Great to Know

Dharasana and Its Legacy

Global Impact and What Came After

Dharasana Raid On 21 May 1930, satyagrahis raided the Dharasana Salt Works while Gandhi was still in jail. Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad led them.
Non-Violent Discipline Police baton-charged the unarmed protesters. Not one raised an arm to defend themselves, a striking demonstration of Gandhi’s non-violent discipline.
Webb Miller’s Report American journalist Webb Miller of United Press witnessed the beatings and filed a detailed eyewitness report. His account ran in about 1,350 newspapers worldwide, and was read into the United States Senate.
Global Symbol The Salt March turned an everyday grievance into a globally reported symbol of colonial injustice. International coverage damaged Britain’s moral standing on the world stage.
Lasting Tactic Civil Disobedience pioneered mass law-breaking as a tactic. Later movements, including the Quit India Movement of 1942, built on this legacy of direct, non-violent defiance.
For the wider sequence of pacts and conferences this movement fits into, see ModHist0065 — Key Pacts and Conferences, 1900-1947.

📝 Previous Year Questions

UPSC CSP 2015 — Who Marched the Tanjore Coast?

UPSC 2015 The correct answer is C. Rajagopalachari. He led the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha, marching about 150 miles from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam on the Tanjore coast, breaking the Salt Law there on 28 April 1930. V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, though a well-known Tamil freedom fighter, did not lead this particular march. Asked as: “Who of the following organized a march on the Tanjore coast to break the Salt Law in April 1930?” (UPSC CSP 2015, GS Paper I).

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