Question

Explain the causes and events of the 'Salt Satyagraha'.

Answer 1

The Salt Satyagraha, also known as the Salt March, was a significant turning point in the Indian independence movement of 1930 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

1. Causes:
   1. As a form of civil disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi organised the Salt Satyagraha to protest the British government's salt tax on salt production.
   2. The Simon Commission's creation, the Dominion Status petition's denial, and protests against the detention of social revolutionaries were the main causes.
2. Events:
   1. The salt tax was seen by Mahatma Gandhi, who was already a well-known figure in the Indian independence movement, as an opportunity to motivate the populace to rebel against British rule.
   2. He believed that a widespread civil disobedience campaign would directly oppose India's struggle for independence while also opposing the salt tax.
   3. On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and a small group of his supporters started a 240-mile march from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to Dandi, a coastal town in Gujarat, to make salt from seawater. Many supporters gathered along the road on the 24^th or first day of the march.
   4. When Gandhi arrived in Dandi on April 5, he began making salt by boiling salt water. This ended the British government's monopoly.
   5. Tens of millions of people in India began manufacturing salt instead of paying the salt tax after Gandhi's act of defiance inspired a wave of parallel civil disobedience. Gandhi was one of the nearly 60,000 people the British colonial government imprisoned as a result of their ruthless crackdown.
   6. Despite the government's crackdown, the Salt Satyagraha significantly influenced the Indian independence movement and helped mobilise support for it domestically and abroad. India eventually gained independence from British rule in 1947.