Gandhi Leads the Salt March to Dandi
March 12, 1930 · 20th Century
On March 12, 1930, Mohandas Gandhi and 78 followers departed Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad on a 240-mile walk to the coastal village of Dandi. On April 6, Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt, symbolically breaking the British salt tax that prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt. The act triggered mass civil disobedience across India, with tens of thousands arrested. International press coverage shifted global opinion against British colonial rule. The Salt March transformed the Indian independence movement from an elite political negotiation into a mass popular uprising and influenced subsequent nonviolent movements worldwide.
Key Figures
Mahatma Gandhi
Locations
Dandi
Topics
Indianonviolent resistancedecolonizationBritish Empirecivil disobedience
Connected Events — 3 Connections
The Salt March catalyzed the mass independence movement that culminated in Indian independence and partition 17 years later Partition of India
Martin Luther King Jr. cited Gandhi's nonviolent methods as a direct influence on the American civil rights movement, applying the same principles of mass civil disobedience March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The Salt March challenged the British colonial order that had replaced the Mughal Empire Babur founded four centuries earlier at Panipat Babur Defeats the Delhi Sultanate at the Battle of Panipat
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