The Dandi March 1930 was the 240-mile foot march led by Mahatma Gandhi from Sabarmati Ashram, near Ahmedabad, to the coastal village of Dandi on the Arabian Sea, where on the morning of 6 April 1930 Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt from the seashore and publicly violated the British monopoly on salt manufacture. The Dandi March 1930 is the opening act of the Civil Disobedience Movement, the second great Gandhian mass campaign after Non-Cooperation, and it is one of the most carefully designed political performances of the twentieth century. It transformed the colonial salt tax — a minor revenue item — into a symbol of imperial injustice readable in every village in India and in newspapers from London to Tokyo.
For UPSC and most state PSCs, the Dandi March 1930 is examined under five heads: the political context of 1928 to 1930; Gandhi’s eleven demands to Viceroy Irwin; the march itself, with its route, pace, and parallel campaigns; the wider Civil Disobedience Movement that followed; and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 1931 that ended its first phase. This article works through each.
Quick Facts
- Start: 12 March 1930, Sabarmati Ashram, near Ahmedabad, Gujarat
- End: 6 April 1930, Dandi village, Navsari district, Gujarat
- Distance: Approximately 240 miles (around 386 kilometres)
- Duration: 24 days
- Initial Marchers: 78 hand-picked satyagrahis from Sabarmati Ashram (the youngest, Vithal Liladhar Thakkar, was 16)
- Daily Pace: Around 10 to 12 miles a day, walking from dawn to mid-morning, resting at midday, walking again in the late afternoon
- First Demand Letter: 2 March 1930 to Viceroy Lord Irwin, listing 11 demands
- First Salt Violation: 6:30 am, 6 April 1930, at Dandi beach
- Famous Words: “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
- Arrests by May 1930: Around 60,000 to 100,000 across India
- Gandhi’s Arrest: 5 May 1930, at Karadi near Dandi
- Dharasana Raid: 21 May 1930, led by Sarojini Naidu and Manilal Gandhi after Gandhi’s arrest
- Gandhi-Irwin Pact: 5 March 1931
- First Round Table Conference: November 1930 (Congress boycotted)
- Second Round Table Conference: September to December 1931 (Gandhi attended)
Background: From Lahore Resolution to the 11 Demands
The Dandi March did not emerge from nowhere. It was the operational consequence of a political decision taken three months earlier at Lahore.
The Lahore Congress, December 1929
At the Lahore session of the Indian National Congress, which opened on 29 December 1929 under Jawaharlal Nehru’s presidency, the Congress passed the Purna Swaraj resolution on 31 December. The goal of the Congress, until then variously formulated as dominion status or self-government within the empire, was now redefined as complete independence. The tricolour was hoisted on the banks of the Ravi on 31 December 1929 at midnight. 26 January 1930 was declared the first Purna Swaraj Day and was observed across India with pledges, processions, and oaths.
The Lahore Congress also authorised Gandhi to launch a programme of Civil Disobedience at a time and in a manner of his choosing.
Gandhi’s 11 Demands
On 2 March 1930, Gandhi wrote to Viceroy Lord Irwin from Sabarmati Ashram listing 11 demands. The letter is one of the great political documents of the freedom movement, addressed throughout with the formal courtesy of a satyagrahi who has decided what he is going to do.
The demands were of three kinds. Six were of general national interest. Three were specifically of bourgeois Indian interest. Two were aimed at the peasantry. They included:
- Total prohibition of intoxicants
- Reduction of the rupee-sterling exchange ratio from 1s 6d to 1s 4d
- Reduction of land revenue assessment by 50 percent
- Abolition of the salt tax and government monopoly on salt manufacture
- Reduction of military expenditure by at least 50 percent
- Reduction of civil service salaries by 50 percent
- Protective tariffs on foreign cloth
- Passage of the Coastal Reservation Bill (to reserve coastal shipping for Indian companies)
- Discharge of all political prisoners not convicted of murder
- Abolition of the Criminal Investigation Department or popular control over it
- Issue of firearms licences for self-defence to ordinary citizens
The eleventh and most politically resonant demand was the abolition of the salt tax. Salt was a necessity for every household — used in food, in preserving food, in feeding cattle. The British monopoly on salt manufacture and the salt tax fell hardest on the poorest. The salt cess was about 2,400 percent of the production cost. Gandhi told the Viceroy: if these demands are not met by 11 March 1930, I shall proceed to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws.
Irwin did not reply substantively. Gandhi began the march on 12 March.
The March
The march set out from Sabarmati at 6:30 am on 12 March 1930. The route had been carefully chosen — flat coastal Gujarat, through Kheda, Anand, Borsad, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari, ending at Dandi. The villages along the way were sympathetic; many were former satyagraha grounds from the Kheda and Bardoli campaigns of 1918 and 1928.
The 78 Marchers
The original group of 78 marchers was small and carefully selected. Gandhi chose celibate, disciplined ashramites between the ages of 16 and 61, drawn from across India, so that the march would represent the whole country in miniature. Gujaratis, Tamilians, Sindhis, Marathis, Bengalis, Andhras, Hindus, Muslims, and members of the so-called depressed classes were all represented. The marchers carried only their bedding, a charkha, a notebook, and a brass bowl. They wore homespun khadi.
Daily Routine
The pace was deliberately slow — about 10 to 12 miles a day. Gandhi held public meetings at every halt, sometimes two or three a day. He spoke about the salt tax, about self-rule, about temperance, about untouchability. He drafted letters and articles each evening. Foreign correspondents from the Associated Press, Reuters, and the New York Times followed the march. The slow pace allowed political news to amplify and gather audience.
Arrival at Dandi
The march reached Dandi on 5 April 1930. Gandhi spent the night in prayer. At dawn on 6 April, accompanied by Sarojini Naidu and the other satyagrahis, Gandhi walked into the sea, bathed, and then bent down to pick up a lump of salt that had crystallised on the wet sand. The act was photographed and filmed. Sarojini Naidu, on the spot, hailed Gandhi as “Law Breaker.”
The violation of the Salt Law on 6 April 1930 was the formal trigger of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Parallel Salt Marches
The Dandi March was deliberately designed to be replicable. Local Congress committees across India organised their own salt marches and salt-making demonstrations.
Vedaranyam March
In Tamil Nadu, C. Rajagopalachari led a 150-mile march from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam on the Coromandel Coast. The Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha began on 13 April 1930 (a chosen anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre) and reached the coast on 28 April 1930, where Rajaji broke the Salt Law in the south.
Other Parallel Marches
K. Kelappan led a march from Calicut to Payyanur in Malabar. The Bombay Provincial Congress Committee organised salt-making at Wadala. In Bengal, Satish Chandra Dasgupta led a march from Sodepur to Mahisbathan. In Karnataka, Mailara Mahadevappa led a march on the coast of North Kanara. In Assam and Manipur, women’s contingents organised picketing of liquor shops and foreign cloth shops in place of salt manufacture, since the coast was distant.
The parallel marches mattered politically because they showed that Civil Disobedience was a national programme, not a one-time Gujarat performance.
Civil Disobedience Expands
After Gandhi’s arrest on 5 May 1930 at Karadi, the movement did not collapse — it expanded. Leadership shifted to a layer of regional Congress workers and to women.
Dharasana Salt Works Raid
On 21 May 1930, Sarojini Naidu and Manilal Gandhi led 2,500 satyagrahis to the Dharasana Salt Works, about 25 miles from Dandi. The protesters walked in disciplined columns toward the salt pans guarded by police. Each row was beaten down by lathis without resistance. The next row stepped forward. The American journalist Webb Miller filed an account that was carried in 1,350 newspapers worldwide. Miller wrote that he had counted 320 injured and at least two dead. The Dharasana account did more international damage to British imperial credibility than any other single incident of the year.
Women’s Participation
Civil Disobedience had a women’s character that Non-Cooperation had not had. Kasturba Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Avantikabai Gokhale, and thousands of unnamed women picketed liquor shops, foreign cloth shops, and government offices. By the end of 1930, women satyagrahis were being jailed in unprecedented numbers.
No-Tax Campaigns
In rural areas the movement took the form of no-tax campaigns. In Bardoli (Gujarat) and Kheda the no-revenue campaign was resumed. In Coastal Andhra, no-tax campaigns spread across East and West Godavari. In the United Provinces, Jawaharlal Nehru launched a no-rent campaign that pulled tenant farmers into the movement.
Forest Satyagraha
In Maharashtra and the Central Provinces, forest laws — which restricted villagers’ access to fuel, grazing, and minor forest produce — were broken in mass forest satyagrahas. In Bardoli and Karnataka, picketing of toddy shops and foreign cloth shops continued through the year.
North-West Frontier Province
In the North-West Frontier Province, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgars — the “Red Shirts” — organised non-violent resistance against the British. On 23 April 1930, the Qissa Khwani Bazaar firing in Peshawar killed about 200 Khudai Khidmatgars who had refused to disperse. The episode brought Pashtun Muslims into the Civil Disobedience movement in a way no earlier campaign had achieved.
Arrests and State Response
By May 1930 the government had arrested Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and almost every senior Congress leader. By the end of 1930 around 60,000 to 100,000 people had been arrested. The Congress was declared illegal. The Civil Disobedience Ordinance allowed summary trials. Punjab and the Frontier saw the heaviest repression. Police firing was common. Press freedom was restricted by the Press Ordinance of April 1930.
Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 5 March 1931
By early 1931 both sides had reasons to negotiate. The Congress had demonstrated mass support but had not forced a constitutional concession. The Government had demonstrated coercive capacity but had not been able to break the movement.
Sapru, Jayakar, and Sastri brokered talks between Gandhi and Viceroy Irwin in February 1931. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact, signed on 5 March 1931, contained the following terms.
The Government agreed to: release all political prisoners not convicted of violence; lift the ordinance banning the Congress; return confiscated property; permit non-aggressive picketing of foreign cloth and liquor shops; and allow coastal salt manufacture for personal use by villages near the coast.
The Congress agreed to: suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement; participate in the Second Round Table Conference in London; and refrain from inquiry into police excesses.
The Pact was bitterly criticised by many within the Congress, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, who felt that the death sentences on Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev — handed down for the Saunders killing — should have been part of the negotiation. The three were executed on 23 March 1931, eighteen days after the Pact was signed.
Gandhi went to London for the Second Round Table Conference in September 1931, as the sole Congress representative. The conference failed to make progress on Indian constitutional advance. Gandhi returned in December 1931. Civil Disobedience was resumed in January 1932 and suspended again only in 1934.
Legacy of the Dandi March 1930
The Dandi March 1930 is, in the long view of the freedom movement, the moment at which Gandhian satyagraha proved that mass non-violent action could push a colonial state to the negotiating table.
It also produced a new political vocabulary. Foreign cloth, liquor, salt, and forest laws became points of attack that any village in India could understand and join. It widened the political nation. Women, peasants, the urban poor, Pashtun tribesmen, coastal fisherfolk, and forest dwellers were all drawn into a single national programme for the first time.
It internationalised the freedom struggle. The Dharasana account in 1,350 newspapers, the Webb Miller dispatch, and the photographs of Gandhi at the seashore made the British imperial position internationally embarrassing in a way the earlier movements had not.
For UPSC mains, the Dandi March 1930 is best treated as the second great experiment in Gandhian mass politics — building on the lessons of Non-Cooperation and the Chauri Chaura breakdown — and as the moment at which the Congress demonstrated, conclusively, that it had a mass base across the subcontinent.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Dandi March 1930?
The Dandi March 1930 was a 240-mile foot march led by Mahatma Gandhi and 78 satyagrahis from Sabarmati Ashram to the village of Dandi on the Gujarat coast, between 12 March and 6 April 1930. On the morning of 6 April, Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt at the seashore in violation of the British salt monopoly, formally launching the Civil Disobedience Movement.
What were Gandhi’s 11 demands to Viceroy Irwin?
Gandhi’s letter of 2 March 1930 listed 11 demands: total prohibition; reduction of the rupee-sterling ratio to 1s 4d; cut in land revenue by 50 percent; abolition of the salt tax; halving of military and civil service expenditure; protective tariffs on foreign cloth; the Coastal Reservation Bill; release of political prisoners; abolition of the CID; and firearms licences for self-defence. Salt was the most resonant because the tax fell hardest on the poor.
Why did Gandhi choose salt as the symbol of resistance?
Salt was a universal necessity and the British monopoly fell hardest on the poorest. The salt tax was about 2,400 percent of the cost of production. Every Indian household consumed salt, so a campaign on salt could be joined by anyone, anywhere. Salt also made the campaign legible internationally — taxing a basic necessity in a tropical country was an obvious injustice.
How long was the Dandi March and how many people walked it?
The Dandi March covered approximately 240 miles (about 386 km) over 24 days, at a pace of 10 to 12 miles a day. Gandhi started with 78 carefully chosen satyagrahis from Sabarmati Ashram. By the time the march reached Dandi, thousands of villagers had joined sections of the route.
What were the parallel salt marches in other parts of India?
C. Rajagopalachari led the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha in Tamil Nadu (April 1930). K. Kelappan led a march in Malabar. Satish Chandra Dasgupta led a march in Bengal. Salt-making demonstrations were organised at Wadala in Bombay and on the Karnataka coast. The Khudai Khidmatgars in the North-West Frontier joined the Civil Disobedience programme through their own forms of protest.
What happened at the Dharasana Salt Works raid?
On 21 May 1930, after Gandhi’s arrest, Sarojini Naidu and Manilal Gandhi led around 2,500 satyagrahis to the Dharasana Salt Works. The protesters walked in disciplined columns toward the salt pans and were beaten down by police lathis without resistance, row after row. The American journalist Webb Miller’s account, carried in 1,350 newspapers worldwide, did very heavy damage to British imperial credibility.
What was the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and when was it signed?
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed on 5 March 1931. Under the Pact, the Government agreed to release political prisoners not convicted of violence, lift the ordinance banning the Congress, return confiscated property, and permit coastal salt manufacture for personal use. The Congress agreed to suspend Civil Disobedience and attend the Second Round Table Conference in London.
Why was the Dandi March a turning point in the freedom struggle?
The Dandi March demonstrated that non-violent mass action could push a colonial government to negotiate. It widened the political nation to include women, peasants, the urban poor, and tribal communities. It internationalised the struggle through extensive foreign press coverage. It produced the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the first formal negotiation between the Congress and the British government on equal footing.
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