PM will flag off a commemorative ‘Dandi March’ on March 12 to launch the celebrations of the 75th year of Independence.

Dandi March

• The Dandi March was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi.
• The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 5 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly.
• Another reason for this march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong inauguration that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi’s example.
• Growing numbers joined them along the way.
• When Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws by millions of Indians.

Try this PYQ:

Q. Who of the following organized a March on the Tanjore coast to break the Salt Law in April 1930?

(a) V. O. Chidambaram Pillai

(b) C. Rajagopalachari

(c) K. Kamaraj

(d) Annie Besant

Followed by Dharasana Satyagraha

• After making the salt at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings on the way.
• The INC planned to stage a satyagraha at the Dharasana Salt Works, 40 km south of Dandi.
• However, Gandhi 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.

Its aftermath

• 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 African Americans in the 1960s.
• The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation movement of 1920–22.
• It directly followed the Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930.
• It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience.

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