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The Salt Satyagraha and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1930–1931

Civil Disobedience and the Round Table Conferences, 1922–1934 · Part 2 / 3 · Fact-checked on · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

Gandhi's eleven demands and the choice of salt, the Dandi March, the spread of the movement from Vedaranyam, Payyanur and Dharasana to Peshawar, Sholapur and the Naga hills, the government's repression, the first Round Table Conference without the Congress, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931 and its critics, and the Karachi session's resolution on Fundamental Rights.

At Lahore in December 1929 the Congress had promised a struggle for Purna Swaraj, but in early 1930 nobody yet knew what shape it would take. The answer, the Civil Disobedience Movement, asked more of ordinary people than Non-Cooperation had. In 1920–22 Indians were asked to withdraw from British institutions; now they were asked to break chosen laws in the open and accept the punishment. This part follows the movement from Gandhi's demands of January 1930 and the march to Dandi, through its spread across India and the government's reply, to the first Round Table Conference in London, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931 and the Karachi session that endorsed it.

Gandhi opened with an offer rather than a march. On 30 January 1930 he published eleven demands in Young India and said that if the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, accepted them, there would be no civil disobedience. Some demands touched the whole nation: total prohibition of liquor, cuts of half in military spending and in the salaries of the highest officials, the release of political prisoners not convicted of murder, and reform of the CID. Some spoke to Indian business: a lower exchange rate for the rupee, a protective duty on foreign cloth and a law reserving coastal shipping for Indians. Two were for the peasant: halving the land revenue and abolishing the salt tax. The list turned the broad goal of independence into grievances every class could feel.

Irwin did not take up the offer, and on 2 March 1930 Gandhi wrote to him that he would begin by breaking the salt laws. Many Congress leaders were puzzled; salt seemed too small an issue for a fight about freedom. Gandhi's reasoning was practical. Salt was eaten in every household, rich or poor, so a tax on it fell hardest on the poorest. The government kept a monopoly over its making and sale, so even salt that collected naturally on the coast could not be taken freely. And the law could be broken by anyone, anywhere near the sea, with nothing more than a pan of sea water. The Salt Satyagraha tied the distant idea of swaraj to something every Indian handled daily.

On 12 March 1930 Gandhi set out from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad with 78 chosen companions on the Dandi March, walking about 240 miles to Dandi, a village on the Gujarat coast. The march was planned for public effect. Each day Gandhi spoke at village meetings, newspapers followed every stage, and a number of village officials along the route resigned their posts. The marchers reached Dandi on 5 April, and on the morning of 6 April 1930 Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt from the shore, breaking the law. The act was the signal for people all over India to make or sell salt illegally. Gandhi was arrested on the night of 4–5 May 1930 and sent to Yerawada jail.

Along the coasts, local leaders repeated Dandi in their own regions. In the Tamil country C. Rajagopalachari led a march from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam on the Thanjavur coast and made salt there in April 1930. In Malabar K. Kelappan, already known for Vaikom, led a salt march to Payyanur. After Gandhi's arrest the planned raid on the Dharasana salt works in Gujarat went ahead in May 1930 under Sarojini Naidu. Column after column of volunteers walked up to the works without raising a hand and were beaten down by the police with lathis. Reports of the scene by the American journalist Webb Miller reached readers abroad, and the non-violent discipline of the satyagraha won India sympathy far beyond its borders.

The movement reached places where salt could not be made. In the North-West Frontier Province, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, later called the 'Frontier Gandhi', had organised the Khudai Khidmatgar, the 'Servants of God', Pathan volunteers pledged to non-violence and popularly known as the Red Shirts. After his arrest in April 1930 large crowds gathered in Peshawar, and troops fired on them in the Qissa Khwani Bazaar. Soldiers of the Garhwal Rifles refused to fire on the unarmed crowd and were court-martialled for it. In Sholapur, a textile town of the Bombay Presidency, workers rose after Gandhi's arrest in May 1930, attacked symbols of government authority and held the town for some days until martial law was imposed.

Away from the coast, people chose the law that pressed on them most. Peasants in parts of Gujarat and the United Provinces refused land revenue or rent; villagers in Bihar and Bengal refused the chowkidari tax that paid for village watchmen; in Maharashtra, Karnataka and the Central Provinces they defied forest laws that barred grazing and the collection of wood. In the Naga hills of Manipur the young Rani Gaidinliu kept up a revolt against British rule begun by Haipou Jadonang; captured in 1932, she was sentenced to life imprisonment and freed only after independence. Women joined in large numbers, making salt and picketing liquor shops and shops selling foreign cloth, and the boycott of British cloth cut imports sharply.

Where the salt satyagraha spread, 1930
PlaceRegionLeader or groupWhat happened
DandiGujarat coastGandhi and 78 marchersSalt law broken on 6 April 1930
VedaranyamThanjavur coast, Tamil countryC. RajagopalachariMarch from Tiruchirappalli; salt made in April 1930
PayyanurMalabarK. KelappanSalt march on the Kerala coast
DharasanaGujaratSarojini NaiduNon-violent raid on the salt works, May 1930; volunteers beaten
PeshawarNorth-West Frontier ProvinceKhan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Khudai KhidmatgarsFiring in Qissa Khwani Bazaar; Garhwali soldiers refused to fire
SholapurBombay PresidencyTextile workersTown held for some days; martial law
Naga hillsManipurRani GaidinliuRevolt against British rule; captured 1932

The government's first answer was force. It issued ordinances to curb the press and ban meetings, declared Congress committees unlawful, and filled the jails; Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested in April 1930 and tens of thousands followed. Lathi charges and firing were common. Yet repression alone could not settle the question. The report of the Simon Commission, published in 1930, did not even mention dominion status, which disappointed the Liberals who had stayed out of the agitation. In the summer of 1930 the Liberal leaders Tej Bahadur Sapru and M. R. Jayakar went between the Viceroy and the Congress leaders in jail, but the two sides were still too far apart, and Britain decided to hold a conference in London without the Congress.

The first Round Table Conference met in London from 12 November 1930 to 19 January 1931. It was opened by King George V and chaired by the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. Around the table sat the princes, the Muslim League, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Liberals, B. R. Ambedkar speaking for the depressed classes, and spokesmen for the Sikhs, Christians, Europeans and others; the Congress, its leaders in jail, was absent. The conference's main gain was the princes' willingness to join an all-India federation, with responsible government in the provinces and safeguards at the centre. But everyone knew that no settlement could work without the largest national party, and in January 1931 Gandhi and the Congress Working Committee were released to make talks possible.

After a series of meetings in Delhi, Gandhi and Irwin signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, also called the Delhi Pact, on 5 March 1931. The government agreed to withdraw its emergency ordinances, to release political prisoners not convicted of violence, to remit fines not yet collected, to return confiscated land not yet sold to third parties, and to treat leniently officials who had resigned. People in coastal villages could make salt for their own use, though not for sale, and peaceful picketing of liquor and foreign-cloth shops was allowed. In return the Congress agreed to suspend civil disobedience and to take part in the next Round Table Conference. For the first time a Viceroy had negotiated with the leader of the national movement as with an equal.

The pact had critics. It did not grant independence or even promise dominion status, and the government refused an inquiry into police excesses. Above all it did not save Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, whose death sentences Gandhi had asked Irwin to commute; they were hanged on 23 March 1931, and young nationalists met Gandhi with black flags. A few days later the Karachi session, presided over by Vallabhbhai Patel, endorsed the pact, repeated the goal of Purna Swaraj and adopted a resolution on Fundamental Rights and a national economic programme. It promised free speech and assembly, equality before the law regardless of caste, creed or sex, adult franchise, free primary education, a living wage and lower rent and revenue for peasants: the Congress's first picture of what swaraj would mean for the people.

Taken together, 1930–31 showed what the Civil Disobedience Movement could do. Compared with the Non-Cooperation Movement, it drew in far more women, peasants and merchants, and reached the Frontier and the North-East; Muslim participation, outside the Frontier, was smaller than in 1920–22. Its method of open law-breaking made repression costly in money and in reputation, and the march to Dandi made the Indian case known across the world. The movement did not win independence, and the pact disappointed many. But it forced Britain to deal with the Congress as the voice of the nation, and the Karachi resolution set out rights that the Constitution would later build on. Part 3 follows what happened when Gandhi went to London.

Exam traps

Recap

Practice questions

Q1. From which place did Gandhi begin the Dandi March on 12 March 1930?

  1. Wardha
  2. Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad
  3. Bardoli
  4. Phoenix Settlement
Show answer

Answer: B. Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad

(b) is correct: the march set out from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and ended at Dandi on the Gujarat coast. (a) is wrong: Wardha in central India was not the starting point. (c) is wrong: Bardoli was the scene of Patel's satyagraha of 1928, not the start of the march. (d) is wrong: the Phoenix Settlement was Gandhi's community in South Africa.

Q2. Consider the following statements about Gandhi's eleven demands of January 1930:
1. They included the abolition of the salt tax and a fifty per cent cut in land revenue.
2. They demanded immediate dominion status for India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

(a) is correct: the demands included abolishing the salt tax and halving land revenue. Statement 2 is false: the demands were specific grievances such as prohibition, the rupee exchange rate and military spending, not a constitutional status, so (b) and (c) are wrong. (d) is wrong because statement 1 is true.

Q3. Match List I (place of salt satyagraha) with List II (leader):
List I
A. Vedaranyam
B. Payyanur
C. Dharasana
D. Peshawar
List II
1. Sarojini Naidu
2. K. Kelappan
3. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
4. C. Rajagopalachari
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

  1. A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
  2. A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
  3. A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1
  4. A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
Show answer

Answer: A. A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3

(a) is correct: Rajagopalachari marched to Vedaranyam, Kelappan to Payyanur, Sarojini Naidu led the Dharasana raid and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan led the Frontier movement centred on Peshawar. (b) is wrong because it swaps Vedaranyam and Payyanur. (c) is wrong because it swaps Dharasana and Peshawar. (d) is wrong because Sarojini Naidu was at Dharasana, not Vedaranyam.

Q4. With reference to the Khudai Khidmatgars, consider the following statements:
1. They were organised by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the North-West Frontier Province.
2. They were an armed wing that the Congress kept separate from its non-violent campaigns.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. 1 only
  2. 2 only
  3. Both 1 and 2
  4. Neither 1 nor 2
Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

(a) is correct: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan organised the 'Servants of God' in the Frontier. Statement 2 is false: they were pledged to non-violence, so (b) and (c) are wrong. (d) is wrong because statement 1 is true.

Q5. Which one of the following was NOT a term of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931)?

  1. Release of political prisoners not convicted of violence
  2. Right of people in coastal villages to make salt for their own use
  3. A public inquiry into police excesses during the movement
  4. Withdrawal of the emergency ordinances
Show answer

Answer: C. A public inquiry into police excesses during the movement

(c) is correct: the government refused the Congress demand for an inquiry into police excesses, so it was not a term. (a) is wrong because the release of non-violent prisoners was agreed. (b) is wrong because salt-making for own use in coastal areas was allowed. (d) is wrong because the ordinances were to be withdrawn.

Q6. Consider the following statements about the first Round Table Conference:
1. It was held in London between November 1930 and January 1931.
2. Gandhi attended it as the sole representative of the Congress.
3. The princes there declared their willingness to join an all-India federation.
Which of the statements given above are correct?

  1. 1 and 2 only
  2. 1 and 3 only
  3. 2 and 3 only
  4. 1, 2 and 3
Show answer

Answer: B. 1 and 3 only

(b) is correct: the conference met in London from November 1930 to January 1931, and the princes accepted the idea of an all-India federation. Statement 2 is false: the Congress was absent from the first conference; Gandhi went only to the second. So (a), (c) and (d), which include statement 2, are wrong.

Q7. Who presided over the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress in March 1931, which adopted the resolution on Fundamental Rights and the national economic programme?

  1. Jawaharlal Nehru
  2. Vallabhbhai Patel
  3. M. A. Ansari
  4. Madan Mohan Malaviya
Show answer

Answer: B. Vallabhbhai Patel

(b) is correct: Vallabhbhai Patel presided at Karachi in 1931. (a) is wrong: Jawaharlal Nehru presided at Lahore in 1929, not Karachi. (c) is wrong: M. A. Ansari presided at Madras in 1927. (d) is wrong: Madan Mohan Malaviya did not preside at Karachi.

Q8. Arrange the following events in chronological order:
1. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact
2. Gandhi breaks the salt law at Dandi
3. The opening of the first Round Table Conference
4. The raid on the Dharasana salt works
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

  1. 2-4-3-1
  2. 2-3-4-1
  3. 4-2-3-1
  4. 2-4-1-3
Show answer

Answer: A. 2-4-3-1

(a) is correct: Dandi on 6 April 1930, Dharasana in May 1930, the conference opened on 12 November 1930 and the pact was signed on 5 March 1931. (b) is wrong because Dharasana came before the conference. (c) is wrong because Dharasana followed Dandi and Gandhi's arrest. (d) is wrong because the pact came after the first conference, not before it.

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