Dandi Salt March

Salt is something we all use every day, in every kitchen. But in colonial India, the British had passed a law saying only they could make and sell salt.

Gandhiji decided to break this unfair law in a very clear, very calm way. On 12 March 1930, he began walking with 78 companions from Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat.

They walked 240 miles all the way to a village by the sea called Dandi. On 6 April 1930, Gandhiji bent down and picked up a handful of salt from the shore.

That simple, gentle act shook one of the biggest empires in the world.

The Dandi Salt March, or Salt Satyagraha, took place from 12 March to 6 April 1930 and launched the Civil Disobedience Movement against British rule. Gandhi chose the salt law with great care — every Indian needed salt, and everyone could see how unfair a tax on it was.

Gandhi, then aged 61, set off from Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad with a group of 78 chosen marchers. Over 24 days they walked around 240 miles (about 385 kilometres) through village after village in Gujarat, gathering enormous crowds and huge press coverage.

On 6 April at Dandi, on the Arabian Sea coast, Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt from the shore, publicly breaking the salt law. Across India, thousands of others did the same.

More than 60,000 people were arrested. The march became world-famous, drawing sympathy for Indian freedom from many countries, and inspired later non-violent movements, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights struggle in the United States.