Why Did Gandhi Walk To Sea

Why Did Gandhi Walk To Sea
Image: pixabay.com

Whether Indian or not, who in the world has not heard the name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better renowned as Mahatma Gandhi. With his thoughts of peace and non-violence, he brought revolution in India’s fight for freedom against the British. With that mission, he performed many marches and hunger strikes, one of which was the Salt March he took in the year 1930. We, at OneHowTo.com, will explain why did Gandhi walk to sea, and what were its consequences.

About the Salt March

Mahatma Gandhi led the Salt March between March and April 1930, as an act of civil disobedience against the British rule. Gandhi led the march from his Ahmedabad based religious retreat, Sabarmati Ashram, to the coast of the Arabian Sea, both of which were around 240 miles apart. Thousands of Indian men and women followed Gandhi in this march. Unfortunately, around 60,000 Indian people were arrested as a result of the march, including Mahatma Gandhi himself. However, India got independence in the year 1947.

Why the march take place?

Salt is an integral part of the Indian diet, but the British passed a Salt Act, in which Indians were prohibited to collect and sell it, and they had to buy it from the British only after paying heavy salt taxes. As a way to defy the Salt Act in a non-violent way, Gandhi announced satyagraha against the British, a massive civil disobedience movement.

Image: commons.wikimedia.org

What happened during Gandhi's walk to the sea?

Gandhi started the march on March 12, 1930 from his Sabarmati Ashram home, and walked around 240 miles to reach the Dandi town on the Arabian Sea coast. Gandhi and his followers had plans to reach Dandi, and start making salt on their own with sea water. By April 5, 1930, when Gandhi reached Dandi, he was heading a crowd of tens of thousands of Indian men and women. But before the march could reach the beach, British police forestalled them by crushing salt deposits into mud. But Gandhi took a lump of natural salt from the mud, and consequently defied the British Salt Act. Civil disobedience started all across the country, and thousands of Indian nationalists in Karachi and Bombay started making their own salt. Even after the arrest of 60,000 people, and Gandhi himself, the satyagraha was continued by his followers.

Aftermath of the Salt March

Gandhi was released in 1931. Later, he met Lord Irwin, the Indian viceroy, and agreed to stop the satyagraha in exchange of an equivalent negotiating role at the London conference. In August 1931, Gandhi represented Indian National Congress at the conference. Although the meeting did not bring any fruitful results, Gandhi was identified by the British as a strong force they had to deal with seriously. Finally, India got its independence in 1947, but a Hindu extremist assassinated Gandhi 6 months later.

If you want to read similar articles to Why Did Gandhi Walk To Sea, we recommend you visit our Learning category.