The Salt Satyagraha | CBSE Class 12 History Notes

Part of: Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement (CBSE Class 12 History, Themes in Indian History Part III, Theme 11). This page goes deeper into one section of that chapter note, the Salt Satyagraha, from December 1929 to March 1931.

Why did Gandhi choose salt as the issue in 1930?

At Lahore, from 29 to 31 December 1929, the Congress resolved that swaraj would now mean complete independence, the Gandhi Heritage Portal records. NCERT notes that on 26 January 1930 people marked an "Independence Day" with flags and patriotic songs.

NCERT explains that the colonial state held a monopoly over making and selling salt. Nobody could make it even for home use, so families bought taxed salt from shops. NCERT presents the choice as Gandhi's "tactical wisdom", since every household needed salt.

In a passage NCERT prints from his Collected Works, Gandhi wrote that the tax was at times fourteen times the value of the salt. He called the monopoly a "fourfold curse".

The Gandhi Heritage Portal's chronology adds that on 30 January 1930 he published eleven points in Young India, and that in mid-February the Congress Working Committee gave him full powers to begin civil disobedience.

What did Gandhi's letter of 2 March 1930 ask of Lord Irwin?

On 2 March 1930 Gandhi wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, opening with "Dear Friend". The Living Gandhi Archive at Bucknell University, which reproduces the letter, says Reginald Reynolds, a young Englishman from the ashram, delivered it.

The letter called for a large cut in land revenue. It attacked the salt tax and the revenue from drink, and set the Viceroy's salary against India's average income. If Irwin would not deal with these "evils", Gandhi would set out on the eleventh to disregard the salt laws.

Source box: M. K. Gandhi, letter to Lord Irwin, 2 March 1930 (transcription in the Living Gandhi Archive, Bucknell University). "I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint."

What it shows: Gandhi's stated reason: the tax fell on every family, and he wrote that the movement was essentially for the poorest. It is his own case, written to the Viceroy but meant for publication.

The Viceroy's private secretary replied that Irwin regretted a course "clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace", the Gandhi Heritage Portal records.

What happened on the march from Sabarmati to Dandi?

At 6.30 a.m. on 12 March 1930, Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad for Dandi on the Gujarat coast. The Gandhi Heritage Portal lists daily halts at places such as Nadiad, Anand, Broach and Navsari.

Sources differ on the numbers. The Gandhi Heritage Portal says seventy-eight satyagrahis set out, and lists two more who joined on 14 March. The historian Thomas Weber (2001) counts eighty marchers with Gandhi.

The distance is also disputed. A National Gandhi Museum account on mkgandhi.org gives 241 miles; Weber thinks the route was probably about 20 miles shorter.

Police reports printed by NCERT show Gandhi urging village officials to resign. One officer wrote that he was "gathering more strength as he proceeds".

The marchers reached Dandi on 5 April. Gandhi broke the salt law on the morning of 6 April 1930; the Gandhi Heritage Portal times it at 6.30 a.m., while mkgandhi.org gives 8.30 a.m. Weber writes that he picked up salty mud, and that the well-known photograph of the act was taken three days later at Bhimrad.

How did newspapers and officials report the march?

NCERT follows the American magazine Time. Its first report mocked Gandhi's thin body and doubted he would get far. Within a week it wrote that the march had made the British rulers "desperately anxious".

Weber adds that journalists in motor lorries chased Gandhi for photographs and film on the first day.

Officials saw it differently. In the Home Department's confidential Fortnightly Reports, which NCERT prints, the Madras report for early March 1930 said general opinion saw the march as "theatrical".

On 7 April 1930 the Secretary of State for India, Wedgwood Benn, told the Commons that outside the Bombay Presidency little general interest seemed to have been aroused. A week later he said more.

Source box: Wedgwood Benn, Secretary of State for India, House of Commons, 14 April 1930 (Hansard, UK Parliament). "Broadly speaking, it may be said that the defiance of the Salt Law has in itself not caused much trouble."

What it shows: the minister described salt-making itself as causing little trouble. Benn added that its real significance was the attempt to rouse public feeling to a dangerous pitch.

How did salt satyagraha spread across India in 1930?

NCERT notes that parallel salt marches were held while Gandhi walked. The table lists some places named in the sources.

NCERT adds that peasants broke forest laws, workers struck, lawyers boycotted courts and students stayed away from government institutions. A Central Provinces report expected liquor-shop boycotts and forest breaches to be the likeliest protests there.

NCERT says the march drew women into nationalist protest in large numbers for the first time. The socialist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay had persuaded Gandhi not to limit it to men, and herself courted arrest.

How did the government respond, from Gandhi's arrest to Dharasana?

Weber writes that the government at first arrested national leaders but left Gandhi free, hoping to isolate him. NCERT's United Provinces report records that Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested on 14 April 1930.

Gandhi was arrested at Karadi, near Dandi, soon after midnight on the night of 4 to 5 May, Weber writes; the Gandhi Heritage Portal gives 0.45 a.m. on 5 May, and mkgandhi.org gives 12.45 a.m. on 4 May. On 4 May he had drafted a letter telling Irwin of a planned raid on the Dharasana salt works.

After Abbas Tyabji's arrest on 12 May, Sarojini Naidu led the raid. A National Gandhi Museum account says over 2,000 volunteers marched on 21 May. It cites an American journalist, Webb Miller, who reported that police struck them with lathis and that none raised an arm in defence. Naidu was arrested that day.

Counts differ, and they measure different things. NCERT says nearly 60,000 people were arrested after the Salt March, without naming a period. In a written answer of 20 December 1933, Sir Samuel Hoare gave 54,093 people convicted in connection with civil disobedience in 1930.

What did the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931 settle?

The first Round Table Conference opened in London in November 1930 without the Congress. NCERT records that Gandhi left jail in January 1931 and met Irwin at length the next month. The Government of India published the terms on 5 March 1931.

The Congress side agreed to:

1. end civil disobedience, including the campaign against paying land revenue;
2. stop using the boycott of British goods as a political weapon, and picket only peacefully;
3. join further constitutional talks;
4. not press for a public inquiry into police conduct.

The government agreed to:

1. withdraw its civil disobedience ordinances;
2. free prisoners whose offences involved no violence or incitement to violence;
3. let people in villages beside salt areas make salt for home use or local sale, while keeping the Salt Acts.

NCERT notes that radical nationalists criticised the Gandhi-Irwin Pact because it brought talks, not independence. Weber writes that, for others, the pact was "the greatest anti-climax" in a long series of them. Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference later in 1931.

Why does NCERT call the march notable, and how do historians read it?

NCERT gives three reasons. The march brought Gandhi world attention and drew women in large numbers. NCERT also argues that it made the British accept that they would have to hand some power to Indians.

Judith Brown's Gandhi and Civil Disobedience (1977), as Ann Morrissett Davidon's review describes it, traces a "blend of vested interest and ideological enthusiasm" that linked local power-seekers to an all-India movement.

Dennis Dalton (1993) brings out the ambiguity in the official British response, writes Vinay Lal in a 1995 review. Dalton argues that satyagraha's strength lies in evoking such ambiguity; Lal calls this scarcely novel.

Thomas Weber (2001) argues that the march was mainly about empowerment. He notes that some call the campaign a failure because the salt laws stayed. The student should name the historian behind each reading.

Timeline: when did the key events happen, December 1929 to March 1931?

The rows run from the independence resolution to the settlement, with one later row.

Sources: which records and studies support this page?

• NCERT, Themes in Indian History Part III, Theme 11, reprint 2026-27 (26 January 1930; Fortnightly Reports, March and April 1930; November 1930; 1931); CBSE History syllabus, 2026-27.
• Gandhi Heritage Portal, Sabarmati Ashram, event chronology of the Salt Satyagraha, consulted November 2026 (December 1929; January to May 1930).
• M. K. Gandhi, letter to Lord Irwin, 2 March 1930, Living Gandhi Archive, Bucknell University.
• Hansard, House of Commons: 7 and 14 April 1930; Government of India statement, 5 March 1931; written answer, 20 December 1933.
• "Salt Satyagraha and Dandi March", mkgandhi.org, from a National Gandhi Museum booklet, consulted November 2026 (21 May 1930).
• Thomas Weber, "Gandhi's Salt March as living sermon", Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, 2001.
• Ann Morrissett Davidon, review of Judith M. Brown, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience (1977), The New Republic, 9 July 1977.
• Vinay Lal, review of Dennis Dalton, Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action (1993), Gandhi Marg, 1995, on UCLA's MANAS site.
• DT Next, "87th anniversary of Vedaranyam salt march observed", 30 April 2017; Press Information Bureau (PIB Chennai), report of a Field Outreach Bureau webinar on unsung heroes of the freedom struggle, 19 August 2021 (13 April 1930).

Glossary

• Salt monopoly: the colonial state's sole right to make and sell salt, which barred people from making it even for home use.
• Satyagraha: Gandhi's method of resisting injustice through truth and nonviolence, accepting punishment rather than harming the opponent.
• Purna swaraj: complete independence, adopted as the Congress goal at Lahore in December 1929.
• Civil disobedience: the open, deliberate breaking of particular laws, such as the salt laws, by people ready to accept arrest.
• Fortnightly Reports: confidential Home Department summaries of political conditions in each province, built partly on police information.
• Ordinance: an emergency order with the force of law issued by the Governor-General; the 1931 settlement withdrew those used against civil disobedience.
• Picketing: standing outside shops to persuade buyers not to purchase foreign cloth or liquor; the 1931 settlement allowed only peaceful picketing.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Gandhi broke the salt law on the day he reached Dandi. Correct: The marchers arrived on 5 April 1930; he broke the law the next morning, 6 April (6.30 a.m. in the Gandhi Heritage Portal; 8.30 a.m. in mkgandhi.org).
• Misconception: All sources agree that 78 people walked 241 miles with Gandhi. Correct: Weber counts eighty marchers and thinks the route was about 20 miles shorter.
• Misconception: The Salt Satyagraha happened only at Dandi. Correct: Salt laws were broken from Bihar and Bengal to Vizagapatam, Vedaranyam and Wadala, alongside forest protests and boycotts.
• Misconception: The Gandhi-Irwin Pact abolished the salt tax. Correct: The 1931 terms kept the Salt Acts and only let villagers near salt areas make salt for home use or local sale.
• Misconception: The pact freed every political prisoner. Correct: NCERT's short summary says all prisoners were released, but the official statement freed only those whose offences involved no violence or incitement to violence.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Under the Government of India's statement of 5 March 1931, who could make salt? (a) Anyone in British India (b) Only Congress volunteers (c) People in villages beside salt areas (d) Licensed port traders [1 mark]

(c) People in villages beside salt areas. They could make salt for home use or local sale, but the Salt Acts stayed in force.

Q2. Explain three ways in which the Salt Satyagraha spread beyond Gandhi's march to Dandi in 1930. [3 marks]

1. Parallel salt-making: salt laws were broken at 27 centres in Bihar and at Vedaranyam, where C. Rajagopalachari picked up salt on 30 April.
2. Raids on salt works: volunteers raided the Wadala salt works near Bombay from 18 May, and Sarojini Naidu led the mass raid on Dharasana on 21 May.
3. Other protests: NCERT records breaches of forest laws, strikes and boycotts of courts.

Q3. Read Wedgwood Benn's words of 14 April 1930 in the source box. (i) What office did Benn hold? (ii) What did he say about the defiance of the salt law? (iii) Give two pieces of evidence that the defiance was spreading that April. [4 marks]

1. (i) He was the Secretary of State for India, speaking in the House of Commons.
2. (ii) He said it had not in itself caused much trouble; its real significance was the attempt to rouse public feeling to a dangerous pitch.
3. (iii) First, the Fortnightly Report for the first half of April recorded open defiance of the Salt Act in eleven towns of the United Provinces.
4. Second, salt satyagraha began at 27 centres in Bihar on 13 April, the Gandhi Heritage Portal records.

Q4. Examine the course of the Salt Satyagraha from Gandhi's letter of March 1930 to the settlement of March 1931. [8 marks]

1. The letter: on 2 March 1930 Gandhi wrote to Irwin about land revenue, the salt tax and the cost of British rule.
2. The reply: the Viceroy's office said the plan was bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace.
3. The march: Gandhi left Sabarmati on 12 March, reached Dandi on 5 April and broke the salt law on 6 April.
4. The spread: salt laws were defied in the United Provinces, Bengal, Bihar, Madras and at Vedaranyam, with forest protests and boycotts.
5. Women: NCERT says the campaign drew women in large numbers for the first time, among them Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay.
6. Arrests: Gandhi was arrested on the night of 4 to 5 May, and NCERT says nearly 60,000 people were arrested after the march.
7. Dharasana: Sarojini Naidu led the raid of 21 May and was arrested that day.
8. The settlement: the statement of 5 March 1931 ended civil disobedience, freed non-violent prisoners, kept the Salt Acts and offered Congress a place in further constitutional talks.

Key takeaways

• Gandhi chose salt because every household needed it, and NCERT explains that the state's monopoly and tax touched every family.
• His letter of 2 March 1930 set out grievances about land revenue, the salt tax and the cost of British rule.
• The march left Sabarmati on 12 March 1930 and reached Dandi on 5 April; Gandhi broke the salt law on 6 April.
• Sources disagree on the number of marchers and the distance, so the student should name the source behind each figure.
• Salt-making, the Dharasana raid, forest protests, boycotts and women's mass participation spread the campaign far beyond Gujarat.
• The statement of 5 March 1931 ended civil disobedience and freed non-violent prisoners, but kept the Salt Acts and offered Congress a place in further constitutional talks.

Test yourself

What goal did the Lahore Congress adopt in December 1929?

Complete independence, or purna swaraj, as the meaning of swaraj in its constitution.

Who delivered Gandhi's letter of 2 March 1930 to the Viceroy?

Reginald Reynolds, a young Englishman from the ashram, according to the Living Gandhi Archive.

When did Gandhi break the salt law at Dandi?

On the morning of 6 April 1930, the day after the marchers arrived; the Gandhi Heritage Portal gives 6.30 a.m., mkgandhi.org 8.30 a.m.

How did the Madras Fortnightly Report for early March 1930 describe opinion of the march?

It said that general opinion regarded the march as theatrical.

Who led the Dharasana raid after Abbas Tyabji's arrest?

Sarojini Naidu, who was herself arrested during the raid of 21 May 1930.

How many convictions in 1930 did Sir Samuel Hoare report?

54,093, in a written answer to the House of Commons on 20 December 1933.