Soon after the observance of “Independence Day” on 26 January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi announced that he would lead a march to break one of the most widely disliked laws in British India, which gave the state a monopoly in the manufacture and sale of salt.
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On 12 March 1930, Gandhiji began walking from his ashram at Sabarmati towards the ocean. He reached his destination Dandi three weeks later on 6 April 1930, making a fistful of salt as he did and thereby making himself a criminal in the eyes of the law. “Sedition has become my religion” was the famous statement given by Gandhiji at the time of publicly violating Salt Law at Dandi.
Meanwhile, parallel salt marches were being conducted in other parts of the country.
Why was salt the symbol of protest?
His picking on the salt monopoly was another illustration of Gandhiji’s tactical wisdom.
For in every Indian household, salt was indispensable; yet people were forbidden from making salt even for domestic use, compelling them to buy it from shops at a high price.
Salt in a flash linked the ideal of swaraj with a most concrete and universal grievance of the rural poor.
Salt afforded a very small but psychologically important income, like khadi, for the poor through self-help.
Like khadi, again, it offered to the urban populace the opportunity of a symbolic identification with mass suffering.
The state monopoly over salt was deeply unpopular; by making it his target, Gandhiji hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against British rule.
Why did Mahatma Gandhi consider the salt tax more oppressive than other taxes?
The salt tax was designed wickedly. In order to prevent the use of salt that had not paid the tax which was at times even fourteen times its value, the Government destroyed the salt it cannot sell profitably.
Thus it taxed the nation’s vital necessity; it prevented the public from manufacturing it and destroyed what nature manufactures without effort. No adjective was strong enough for characterising that wicked dog-in-the-manger policy.
Gandhiji heard tales from various sources of such wanton destruction of the nation’s property in all parts of India. Maunds if not tons of salt were said to be destroyed on the Konkan coast. The same tale came from Dandi.
Wherever there was likelihood of natural salt being taken away by the people living in the neighbourhood of such areas for their personal use, salt officers were posted for the sole purpose of carrying on destruction.
Thus valuable national property was destroyed at national expense and salt taken out of the mouths of the people.
The salt monopoly was thus a fourfold curse:
1 . It deprived the people of a valuable easy village industry,
2 . It involved wanton destruction of property that nature produces in abundance,
3 . The destruction itself meant more national expenditure,
4 . An unheard-of tax of more than 1,000 per cent was exacted from the starving people.
According to Gandhi, the tax remained for long because of the apathy of the general public. Now that it is sufficiently roused, the tax has to go. How soon it will be abolished depends upon the strength of the people.
What was the outcome of Dandi March?
The violation of the law was seen as a symbol of the Indian people’s resolve not to live under British-made laws and, therefore, under British rule. Gandhi openly asked the people to make salt from sea water in their homes and violate the salt law.
The march, its progress and its impact on the people was well covered by newspapers.
In Gujarat, 300 village officials resigned in answer to Gandhi’s appeal.
Congress workers engaged themselves in grassroot-level organisational tasks.
Once the way was cleared by Gandhi’s ritual at Dandi, defiance of the salt laws started all over the country.
Nehru’s arrest in April 1930 for defiance of the salt law evoked huge demonstrations in Madras, Calcutta, and Karachi. Gandhi’s arrest came on May 4, 1930 when he had announced that he would lead a raid on Dharasana Salt Works on the west coast. Gandhi’s arrest was followed by massive protests in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, and in Sholapur, where the response was the most fierce.
External link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . “Sedition has become my religion” was the famous statement given by Gandhiji at the time of UPSC PRELIMS 2025
(a) the Champaran Satyagraha
(b) publicly violating Salt Law at Dandi
(c) attending the Second Round Table Conference in London
(d) the launch of the Quit India Movement
Answer – (b)
QUES . Why did Mahatma Gandhi consider Salt Tax more oppressive than other taxes? What was the outcome of his Dandi March? UPSC IES/ISS EXAM 2023 General Studies. 200 Words. 5 Marks
