Gandhi Salt March
See also: Salt MarchAt the historic Lahore session of the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1929 in which Purna Swaraj was declared, a passing reference was made to the infamous and oppressive salt law and resolved that a way should be found to oppose it. In the first week of March 1930, Gandhi wrote to Lord Irwin apprising him of the prevailing social, economic and political conditions in the country.
On 12 March 1930, Mahatma Gandhi embarked on a sathyagraha with 79 followers from Sabarmathi Ashram to Dandi on the Arabian Sea coast. This march, known as the Dandi March, was sensationalized by the international press; video clippings and pictures of Mahatma Gandhi were relayed to distant corners of the world. Gandhi reached Dandi on 6 April 1930. After his morning bhajan, he waded in to the sea shore and picked up a handful of salt, proclaiming that with the handful of salt he was proclaiming the end of the British Empire. The police arrived and arrested thousands of national leaders including Gandhi. Gandhi's bold defiance of the salt law encouraged other Indians to break the law as well.
Read more about this topic: History Of The British Salt Tax In India
Famous quotes containing the words gandhi, salt and/or march:
“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)
“Today is made of yesterday, each time I steal
toward rites I do not know, waiting for the lost
ingredient, as if salt or money or even lust
would keep us calm and prove us whole at last.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The blue and the gray. Let us march together beneath the star- spangled banner.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)