The Salt March was the next major political agitation led by ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi and the Indian National Congress after the Non-Cooperation Movement. The British government monopoly on the manufacture and tax on salt was a major point of contention for Indians.

The imposition of a salt tax and salt tax increases became a symbol of British colonial economic exploitation. Gandhi devised a plan to carry out a 241-mile march from his Ashram in Sabarmati to Dandi in what is now South Gujarat to highlight the injustice of the colonial system.

Gandhi at Dandi, 5th April 1930

Source: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On his way down to Dandi, Gandhi visited coastal villages and carried out speeches and sermons. Many thousands went on to join him on his March which garnered international attention and put pressure on the British government to respond in an even handed way. Gandhi planned to conclude his march by illegally collecting and consuming salt at Dandi. The British were at a loss on how to respond to an open act of civil disobedience without causing national and international outrage.