Civil disobedience as a technique for fighting injustice: A tale of Salt Satyagraha
Author(s):
ANANDA. S
Keywords:
Civil disobedience, Imperialism, Injustice, Salt march, Satyagraha.
Abstract
Satyagraha was a powerful non-violent tool to protest popularised by Mahatma Gandhi. Infact, the term âSatyagrahaâ is derived by two Sanskrit words namely: Satya, meaning the âtruthâ, and Agraha, meaning âinsistenceâ. So in common parlance, Satyagraha is defined as âtruthful demandâ. The Salt March (also known as the Dandi March, Salt Satyagraha) was an act of civil disobedience in the form of a nonviolent protest, which took place in colonial India on 12thMarch 1930 to protest against British Salt Monopoly. In order to allow the extraction and production of salt from sea-water and as a direct action of tax resistance, Salt Satyagraha was started by Mahatma Gandhi.
In early 1930, the Indian National Congress choose âSatyagrahaâ as their main tactic for winning freedom from British rule and to achieve self-rule. The Indian National Congress appointed Mahatma Gandhi to organise the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of Satyagraha.Indianswere aware of the technique of salt extraction and production of salt from sea-water from many ages. But British officials imposed ban on such activity and declared it as illegal. Not only declaring it as illegal, the British officials used force several time to stop the production of salt. As a protest, Gandhi led the Dandi March from his base, Sabarmati Ashram, near the city of Ahmedabad. Seventy eight people began the march with Gandhi, who intended to walk 240 miles (390 km) to the coastal village of Dandi, which was located at a small town called Navsari in the State of Gujarat. It is considered to be the most organised challenge to British authority since the Non-Co-operation Movement of 1920â22. When Gandhi broke the salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians. The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitudes towards Indian sovereignty and self-rule and caused large numbers of Indians to join the fight for the first time. Hence, as it is popularly told âAction speaks thousand times better than wordsâ, this act of civil disobedience was more effective and powerful than most of the viol
Article Details
Unique Paper ID: 150363
Publication Volume & Issue: Volume 6, Issue 10
Page(s): 406 - 408
Article Preview & Download
Share This Article
Join our RMS
Conference Alert
NCSEM 2024
National Conference on Sustainable Engineering and Management - 2024