Civil disobedience movement

Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"

Meaning

The Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM, 1930–34) was a mass movement in which Indians openly broke colonial laws. It began with Gandhi's Salt March in 1930. People made salt, broke forest laws, boycotted foreign cloth, picketed liquor shops and refused to pay taxes. Gandhi called it off under the Gandhi–Irwin Pact (5 March 1931). It was started again in 1932 and finally withdrawn in 1934.

It matters for three reasons. Women took part in large numbers for the first time. The whole world watched the movement. And the British understood that they could not rule India by force alone.

Explanation

Background: the eleven demands and why salt was chosen

• 31 January 1930: Gandhi wrote to Viceroy Lord Irwin with eleven demands.
• The demands were chosen to touch every class, from rich industrialists to the poorest peasants.

• The deadline was 11 March. If the demands were not met by then, Congress would start civil disobedience (openly and peacefully breaking unjust laws).

• The most important demand was to abolish the salt tax.

• Why salt was the perfect target:
• Everyone eats salt, rich and poor, in every province.
• The government held a monopoly on salt: only the state could make or sell it. If ordinary people made it, that was a crime.
• Gandhi called the salt tax the "fourfold curse". He said salt was taxed "more than 1,000 per cent" of its value.
• So salt was both a moral issue (a tax on the poor man's food) and a practical one (a law anyone could break with their own hands).

The Dandi March, 12 March – 6 April 1930

• 12 March 1930: Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram with 78 trusted volunteers.
• They walked about 240 miles (roughly 385 km) to Dandi, a village on the coast. The march took around 24 days, at about 10 miles a day. [2]
• The slow pace was deliberate:
• Each day they stopped in a different village and explained why the tax was unjust.

• The crowds grew bigger each day, and hundreds more people joined the walk. [2]

• 6 April 1930: Gandhi broke the salt law by making salt from boiled sea water (the NCERT version).

• He said: "when a whole nation is roused… no leader is necessary." The aim was for every village to make its own salt without waiting for orders.

How CDM worked: its main features

• NCM vs CDM:
• In the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22), people refused to cooperate with the government.

• In CDM, people broke colonial laws openly.

• Forms of protest:

• Salt was made on the coast and inland.
• Foreign cloth was boycotted, and shops selling it were picketed.
• Liquor shops were picketed (protesters stood outside to stop buyers going in). This also cut the government's excise income.
• People refused to pay revenue and chaukidari tax (chaukidari tax was a village tax that paid for a village watchman).
• Village officials resigned from their posts.
• Forest people broke forest laws: they collected wood and grazed cattle in areas the state had closed.

Repression, the pact, and the end

• April 1930: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was arrested. In Peshawar, angry crowds faced armoured cars and police firing, and many were killed.
• Early May 1930: Gandhi was arrested. [2]

• In Sholapur, industrial workers attacked police posts, municipal buildings, law courts and railway stations.

• 21 May 1930, Dharasana Salt Works: about 2,500 peaceful marchers led by Sarojini Naidu walked towards the salt works. Police beat them down, row after row. The marchers did not hit back. [4]

• Arrests:
• About 60,000 were arrested in the months after the march (the Class 12 figure).

• About 100,000 were arrested over the whole movement (the Class 10 figure). [2][4]

• November 1930, First Round Table Conference in London: Congress was absent because its leaders were in jail, so the conference achieved nothing.

• January 1931: Gandhi was released, and talks with Irwin followed. [2]
• 5 March 1931, Gandhi–Irwin Pact:
• CDM was called off.
• Political prisoners were released.
• Indians could make salt along the coast for their own use. [2][3]

• There was no promise of independence.

• September–December 1931, Second Round Table Conference: Gandhi was the sole Congress representative. [3][4]

• The Muslim League, the Princes and Dr B.R. Ambedkar each challenged his claim that Congress spoke for all of India.

• The conference failed over communal representation (which community gets reserved seats). [3]

• After this failure: Viceroy Lord Willingdon declared Congress illegal, jailed its leaders and banned meetings.

• Congress relaunched civil disobedience, but the movement lost momentum and was withdrawn in 1934.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 1930–34, in the Gandhian era of the national movement (1915–1948).
• Viceroys:
• Lord Irwin: the eleven demands and the 1931 pact.

• Lord Willingdon: the crackdown after the Second Round Table Conference.

• Key places:

• Sabarmati Ashram (start of the march) and Dandi (the coastal village where salt was made).
• Peshawar (firing on crowds), Sholapur (workers' revolt) and Dharasana (salt works raid).

• London (the Round Table Conferences).

• Key people: Gandhi, Lord Irwin, Lord Willingdon, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Sarojini Naidu, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

• How we know:
• Gandhi's letter to Irwin listing the eleven demands.
• Foreign newspapers, which reported the march day by day. Time magazine first mocked Gandhi's "spindly legs" but later called him a "Saint and Statesman".

• NCERT (Class 10 Ch 2; Class 12 Ch 3) and Britannica.

• A date difference in the sources:

• Britannica says the marchers reached Dandi on 5 April and that Gandhi "picked up handfuls of salt" on the morning of 6 April. [2]
• NCERT says he made salt by boiling sea water on 6 April. Use the NCERT version in the exam.

Don't confuse with

• Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22): in NCM people refused to cooperate (they gave up titles, schools, courts and councils). In CDM they broke laws openly, by making salt, refusing taxes and breaking forest laws.
• Dandi March vs Dharasana raid: Gandhi led the Dandi March (12 March – 6 April 1930). The Dharasana Salt Works raid (21 May 1930) was led by Sarojini Naidu, after Gandhi had been arrested. [4]
• First vs Second Round Table Conference: the First (Nov 1930) had no Congress. The Second (Sept–Dec 1931) had Gandhi as the sole Congress delegate, and it failed on the communal question. [3]
• Gandhi–Irwin Pact (1931) vs Poona Pact (1932): the Gandhi–Irwin Pact suspended CDM and allowed salt-making on the coast. The Poona Pact grew out of Ambedkar's challenge on Depressed Class representation.

Prelims Hooks

• Chronological order:
• Letter to Irwin (31 Jan 1930), then the ultimatum ends (11 Mar 1930).
• Dandi March begins (12 Mar 1930), then salt law broken (6 Apr 1930).
• Dharasana raid (21 May 1930).

• Gandhi–Irwin Pact (5 Mar 1931). [2][4]

• The Dandi March started from Sabarmati Ashram with 78 volunteers and covered about 240 miles (385 km) in about 24 days. [2]

• The Gandhi–Irwin Pact called off CDM, released prisoners and allowed coastal salt-making for personal use. Trap: it made no promise of independence or self-government. [2][3]
• At the Second RTC, Gandhi's claim to speak for all India was challenged by the Muslim League, the Princes and Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
• Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay persuaded Gandhi to let women join the protest. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's arrest (April 1930) led to the Peshawar firing.
• Lord Willingdon, not Irwin, was the Viceroy who declared Congress illegal after the Second RTC.

Mains Points

• Salt was a masterstroke of strategy.
• The richest merchant and the poorest labourer could break the salt law in the same way, on the same day.
• Unlike NCM's boycotts, which cost students their degrees and lawyers their practice, making salt cost almost nothing.

• Each act of salt-making inspired the next, so the movement spread village by village. This is what "no leader is necessary" meant.

• CDM was wider but shallower than NCM, and the Gandhi–Irwin Pact was a mixed result.

• CDM drew in rich peasants (Patidars, Jats) hit by falling prices in the Depression, poor tenants who wanted lower rents, and business groups who wanted tariff protection.
• Each group had its own aim, so the coalition broke up when Gandhi withdrew the movement in 1931.
• Gains: prisoners were released, salt-making was allowed, and Congress was recognised as a party the government had to negotiate with.
• Losses: there was no promise of independence, and the movement lost momentum.

• The challenges from Ambedkar and the League at the Second RTC led on to the Poona Pact (1932) and later to the Pakistan demand.

• Women and public life.

• In 1930 women entered nationalist politics in large numbers for the first time. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay's intervention shows that women won this place by argument; it was not simply given to them.
• For a balanced answer, note the limits: leadership stayed mostly male, and Gandhi saw women's role in terms of sacrifice and moral strength rather than equal political rights.
• The lasting result was that the British accepted they must hand over some power. The question was now how much and when.

Related concepts

• Eleven demands of Gandhi 1930
• Salt monopoly
• Salt satyagraha
• Sabarmati Ashram
• Vedaranyam salt march
• Dharasana satyagraha 1930
• Sarojini Naidu
• Abdul Ghaffar Khan
• Khudai Khidmatgar
• Garhwali soldiers at Peshawar 1930

Read more

• Civil Disobedience and the Salt Satyagraha, 1930–34