Gandhi Leads Salt March: Nonviolence Challenges British Rule

Mahatma Gandhi and 78 followers departed his Sabarmati Ashram on March 12, 1930, beginning a 240-mile march to the coastal village of Dandi to protest the British salt monopoly. The Salt Tax, which required all Indians to buy salt exclusively from the government at inflated prices, affected every person in the country regardless of wealth. Gandhi chose salt as his target precisely because it was a universal necessity. The march took 24 days, with Gandhi walking roughly ten miles per day while thousands of supporters joined along the route. On April 6, he scooped up a handful of natural salt from the seashore, symbolically breaking the law. Within weeks, millions of Indians were making or buying illegal salt, and over 60,000 were arrested. The British response, including a violent police assault on peaceful protesters at the Dharasana Salt Works, was captured by American journalist Webb Miller and published worldwide, permanently damaging Britain's moral authority to govern India.