In February 1930, Gandhi selected his moment, and his issue: salt.
This was a non-divisive and emotive issue: the government had a
monopoly on the manufacture of salt, and its tax on salt was paid by all
Indians. It was also a symbolic issue (in 1931, the salt tax was actually
increased and no one said very much about it). Earlier that month, Gandhi
had placed a strange conglomeration of demands before the viceroy,
suggesting that there would be no need for civil disobedience if these
could be met, and that the Congress would cooperate in constitutional
discussions. For Gandhi’s allies in the Congress, including the Nehrus,
his behaviour was getting more and more eccentric, and now things
were beginning to border on the ridiculous. Far from upholding the
principles of the Purna Swaraj resolution, here was Gandhi bargaining
with the British government about lesser details: the salt tax should
be abolished, total prohibition should be imposed on the sale of alcohol,
the rupee should be devalued from 1s 6d to 1s 4d, there should be a
protective tariff on foreign cloth and land revenue should be reduced.
The more substantive of these smelt uncomfortably like a list of business
conditions drawn up by Gandhi’s businessmen friends, G.D. Birla and
Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas. A further demand, that political prisoners
be released, was more radical; but Gandhi seemed far less interested
in this. Once the movement began, demands directed at the govern-
ment also merged with Gandhi’s interest in the moral policing of the
masses: the people should refrain from drinking alcohol and smoking
ganja(marijuana) and generally behave in a disciplined and non-violent
manner.
On March 12, the Salt March, with which Gandhi kick-started
civil disobedience, began at his Sabarmati Ashram. Gandhi had asked that
only those morally committed to ahimsaand not those who used it as an
expedient tactic should accompany him on the march; 71 male followers
from the ashram began the 240-mile march to the sea with him. On April
6, 1930, Gandhi walked into the sea at Dandi and collected salt, thereby
breaking the government’s monopoly. Civil disobedience in 1930 relied
on two main planks: the salt campaign, involving illegal production of salt
and satyagrahain front of government salt works (provoking violent
retaliation against non-violent agitators), and boycott and burning of
foreign textiles. Huge numbers of people responded to the call for civil
disobedience, confirming to the Congress and to the outside world that
faith in Gandhi as a mass mobiliser was not misplaced.68 ‘INEFFECTUAL ANGEL’, 1927–39