Salt Tax & Letter To Viceroy
In 1835, a Salt Commission was appointed to study the coverage of the authorities in admiration of the salt tax. To enable the sale of imported English salt from Liverpool to India, the whites supported that Indian salt should be taxed. Consequently, the sale price increased. Subsequently, the Salt Act established state control over the production of salt and its violation was punished with the seizure of salt and six months Jail. The British government had put salt under tax means people had to pay tax on the use of salt, also the government had a monopoly on making salt. Gandhi said that salt is the most necessary thing after water and air and by taxing government can reach the lower section of the society.
On 2nd March 1930, Gandhi sent a letter, to inform the Viceroy Lord Irwin that he and the others would begin breaking the Salt Laws in 10 days and according to this plan, Gandhi, along with a band of 78 members of Sabarmati Ashram, marched towards the coast at Dandi, to violate the salt regulation.
Dandi March – History and Significance
Dandi March also known as Salt March or Salt Satyagraha or the Dandi Satyagraha. The great 241 miles foot-march of Mahatma Gandhi and his followers from Sabarmati Ashram (Ahmedabad) to the coast of Dandi from March 12 to April 5, 1930, was a tax resistance drive against the British salt monopoly. Grounded on Gandhi’s principle of non-violence or Satyagraha, the march marked the inaugural of the civil disobedience movement. On April 6, Gandhi broke the salt law by picking up a lump of salt at Dandi.
Table of Content
- Historical Background of Dandi March
- Calcutta Session
- Lahore Congress Session
- Gandhi’s Eleven Demands
- Salt Tax & Letter To Viceroy
- Impact of the Dandi March