Salt March

The Salt March or the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 was a campaign by Mahatma Gandhi to break the salt monopoly of the British and ultimately led to India's independence from Britain. The Salt March was the most spectacular campaign initiated by Gandhi during his struggle for independence. This action was meant to inspire civil disobedience and send a message against dependence on excessive taxation by Britain.

On this occasion, Gandhi and 78 of his followers marched from his home in Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad over 385 kilometres to Dandi on the Arabian Sea, starting on 12 March 1930. He arrived there 24 days later and, as a symbolic act, picked up a few grains of salt to demonstrate against the British salt monopoly. Salt had always been an important economic factor in India and was also necessary for the population, on the one hand to prepare the staple food rice, and on the other hand to compensate for the daily loss of electrolytes in the hot climate. Gandhi urged his countrymen to do the same, renouncing violence, which happened all over India: not only his followers began to extract their own salt by placing salt water in a bowl in the sun and letting it evaporate, but other Indians also joined in. In addition, they not only used the extracted salt for private purposes, but also resold it tax-free.

Because every form of salt extraction, transport and trade was reserved for the British, close to 50,000 Indians were subsequently arrested, including almost all the leaders of the Congress Party of India, which accelerated the success of the action extraordinarily.