Editing Salt March (section)

{{Short description|1930 Indian protest led by Mahatma Gandhi}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2021}} 
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox event
| title = Salt March
| image = Marche sel.jpg
| caption = Gandhi leading his followers on the Salt March to abolish the British salt laws
| date = 12 March 1930 – 6 April 1930
| venue = 
| location = [[Sabarmati (area)|Sabarmati]], [[Ahmedabad]], [[Gujarat]], India
| coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LON|region:XXXX_type:event|display=inline,title}} -->
| also_known_as = Dandi Salt March, Dandi Salt Satyagraha
| participants = [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and 78 others
}}
The '''Salt march''', also known as the '''Salt Satyagraha''', '''Dandi March''', and the '''Dandi Satyagraha''', was an act of [[Nonviolence|nonviolent]] [[civil disobedience]] in [[British Raj|colonial India]], led by [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a [[direct action]] campaign of [[tax resistance]] and [[Nonviolent resistance|nonviolent protest]] against the [[History of the salt tax in British India|British salt monopoly]]. Another reason for this march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong inauguration that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi's example. Gandhi started this march with 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march spanned {{convert|387|km|mi}}, from [[Sabarmati Ashram]] to [[Dandi, Navsari|Dandi]], which was called [[Navsari]] at that time (now in the state of Gujarat).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/viewbydoi/10.1093/acref/9780195176322.013.1384 |title=Salt March |encyclopedia=Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World |date=2008 |access-date=4 January 2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517632-2 }}</ref> Growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the British Raj [[history of the salt tax in British India|salt laws]] at 8:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large-scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws by millions of Indians.<ref>"Mass civil disobedience throughout India followed as millions broke the salt laws", from Dalton's introduction to Gandhi's ''Civil Disobedience'', [[#GandhiDalton|Gandhi and Dalton]], p. 72.</ref>

After making the salt by evaporation at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings on the way. The Congress Party planned to stage a [[satyagraha]] at the Dharasana Salt Works, {{cvt|40|km|}} south of Dandi. However, Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana. The Dandi March and the ensuing [[Dharasana Satyagraha]] drew worldwide attention to the [[Indian independence movement]] through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage. The satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi's release from jail and negotiations with [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy]] [[Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax|Lord Irwin]] at the Second [[Round Table Conference]].<ref>[[#Dalton|Dalton]], p. 92.</ref> Although over 60,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha,<ref>[[#Johnson|Johnson]], p. 234.</ref> the British did not make immediate major concessions.<ref>[[#Ackerman|Ackerman]], p. 106.</ref>

The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of non-violent protest called ''satyagraha'', which he loosely translated as "truth-force".<ref>"Its root meaning is holding onto truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it Love-force or Soul-force." Gandhi (2001), p. 6.</ref> Literally, it is formed from the [[Sanskrit]] words ''satya'', "truth", and ''agraha'', "insistence". In early 1920 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organise the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating by the [[Indian Imperial Police|colonial police]] of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in Dharasana, which received worldwide news coverage, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting against social and political injustice.<ref>[[#CITEREFMartin2006|Martin]], p. 35.</ref> The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American activists [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[James Bevel]], and others during the [[Civil Rights Movement]] for civil rights for African Americans and other minority groups in the 1960s.<ref name="King, p. 23"/> The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the [[Non-cooperation movement (1909–22)|Non-cooperation movement]] of 1920–22, and directly followed the [[Purna Swaraj]] declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the [[Indian National Congress]] on 26 January 1930 by celebrating Independence Day.<ref>{{cite book|title=Eyewitness Gandhi|date=2014|publisher=Dorling Kindersaley Ltd|location=London|isbn=978-0241185667|page=44|edition=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hY3WAwAAQBAJ&q=dharasana+navsari&pg=PA45|access-date=3 September 2015}}</ref> It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the [[Indian independence movement]] and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement which continued until 1934 in Gujarat.