Gandhi's Civil Disobedience: Lawful Or Unlawful?

Mahatma Gandhi is known for his non-violent civil disobedience, which helped drive the British from India. However, Gandhi did break the law on several occasions. In 1907, he was arrested and jailed for refusing to obey a law requiring Indians in South Africa to register with the police and be fingerprinted. In 1922, he was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison for writing articles advocating resistance to colonial rule in India. In 1930, Gandhi led a 240-mile march to the sea, where he and his followers picked up a pinch of salt, breaking colonial law. This act of civil disobedience sparked mass protests across India, with millions of people gathering and making their own salt. Gandhi was arrested and jailed again, but his actions gained worldwide attention and pressured the British to negotiate with Indian leaders on a plan for self-rule.

Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience

Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience occurred in 1893 when he refused to comply with racial segregation rules on a South African train and was forcibly ejected. He soon became an outspoken critic of South Africa's discrimination policies, and in 1907, he refused to obey a law requiring all Indians to register with the police and be fingerprinted. He was arrested and jailed for this, but after his release, he continued to protest the law by supporting labour strikes and organising a massive non-violent march.

In 1914, Gandhi returned to India, where he supported Britain in the First World War but launched a new satyagraha (mass civil disobedience) in 1919 to protest against Britain's mandatory military draft of Indians. By 1920, he was the leader of the Indian movement for independence.

Gandhi's most famous act of civil disobedience was the 1930 Salt March, a 241-mile march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, which was a bold act of defiance against British rule in India. Britain's Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet, forcing them to buy it from the British, who also exerted a heavy salt tax. Gandhi's march was a simple way for many Indians to break a British law non-violently.

The march began on March 12, 1930, when Gandhi set out from Sabarmati with 78 followers towards the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. Along the way, he addressed large crowds, and by the time they reached Dandi on April 5, he was leading a crowd of tens of thousands. Gandhi made salt from seawater, defying British policy, and thousands more followed his lead. Civil disobedience broke out across India, involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people.

The Salt March

Gandhi began the march with 78 trusted volunteers, spanning 387 kilometres (240-241 miles) from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, which was then called Navsari (now in the state of Gujarat). Growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way.

Salt was a staple in the Indian diet, and Britain's Salt Act of 1882 prohibited Indians from collecting or selling it. Citizens were forced to buy it from the British, who held a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, and also charged a heavy salt tax. Although India's poor suffered the most under the tax, all Indians required salt.

Gandhi reasoned that defying the Salt Act would be a simple way for Indians to break a British law nonviolently. He declared resistance to British salt policies to be the unifying theme for his new campaign of mass civil disobedience, or satyagraha.

On 6 April 1930, Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws, sparking large-scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws by millions of Indians. After making salt by evaporation at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings. The civil disobedience movement spread throughout India, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on 5 May 1930.

Gandhi's arrest and imprisonment

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was arrested several times throughout his life, both in South Africa and India, as a result of his activism against colonial powers.

Gandhi was first arrested in 1908 in South Africa for failing to register or leave Transvaal. He was sentenced to two months of simple imprisonment and released on 30 January 1908 following a compromise. Later that year, he was arrested again for failing to produce his registration certificate and was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. In 1909, Gandhi was once again arrested and sentenced to three months of imprisonment for not producing the required registration certificate.

In October 1913, Gandhi embarked on a 'great march' from Natal, South Africa, to the neighbouring province of Transvaal. The march was an act of protest against discriminatory laws that restricted the movement of Asians in South Africa and outlawed non-Christian marriages. Gandhi was arrested three times during this march but continued the protest each time after his release.

Gandhi's activism in India also led to multiple arrests and imprisonments. On 10 April 1919, he was arrested in Palwal while on his way to Amritsar and was released the following day. On 10 March 1922, Gandhi was arrested in his ashram in Ahmedabad on charges of sedition for his involvement in protesting against the British colonial government in India. He was sentenced to six years in prison but served only two years before being released for medical reasons.

Gandhi's most famous act of civil disobedience, the Salt March or Dandi March, took place in 1930. The march was a nonviolent protest against the British government's salt monopoly, which forced Indians to buy salt from the colonial government despite it being freely available on the coast. On 6 April 1930, Gandhi broke the salt laws, sparking large-scale civil disobedience across the country. He was arrested on 5 May 1930 at midnight in Dandi for violating the salt law and was imprisoned without trial. Gandhi was released on 26 January 1931 after negotiations with Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India.

Gandhi was arrested several more times in the following years for his continued activism and civil disobedience campaigns. He was imprisoned again in 1933, 1934, and 1942 for his involvement in the 'Quit India' movement. Despite the arrests and imprisonments, Gandhi remained committed to his nonviolent resistance philosophy and continued to inspire millions of Indians in their struggle for independence.

The British salt monopoly

The British Salt Acts, established in 1882, prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet. Citizens were forced to buy salt from the British, who held a monopoly on its manufacture and sale, and also paid a heavy salt tax.

The Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, issued the Declaration of Sovereignty and Self-rule, or Purna Swaraj, on 26 January 1930. This declaration included the readiness to withhold taxes, stating:

> We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities for growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it.

Gandhi, who had a long-standing commitment to nonviolent civil disobedience, chose to challenge the British salt monopoly as the first act of civil disobedience. He began the Salt March, or Salt Satyagraha, on 12 March 1930, with 78 trusted volunteers. The march spanned 387 kilometres (240 miles) from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the Arabian Sea coast.

Gandhi's reasoning for choosing the salt tax as the focus of his protest was that an item of daily use would resonate more with all classes of citizens than an abstract demand for greater political rights. Salt was a necessity for all, and the tax hurt the poorest Indians the most. Gandhi explained:

> Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life.

Gandhi's march gained momentum as it progressed, with thousands of Indians joining along the way. On 6 April 1930, Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws, sparking large-scale civil disobedience across India. Indians across the country began making their own salt or buying illegal salt.

Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, but civil disobedience continued without him. The satyagraha against the salt tax lasted for almost a year, ending only with Gandhi's release from jail and negotiations with the British authorities.

The Indian Independence Movement

The movement emerged in the Province of Bengal and later took root in the newly formed Indian National Congress, with prominent moderate leaders seeking the right to appear for Indian Civil Service examinations in British India, as well as more economic rights for natives. The first half of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards self-rule.

The stages of the independence struggle in the 1920s were marked by Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience. On March 12, 1930, Gandhi began a defiant 241-mile march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, his boldest act of civil disobedience yet against British rule in India.

The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, was an act of non-violent civil disobedience in colonial India, led by Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from March 12, 1930, to April 6, 1930, as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and non-violent protest against the British salt monopoly. Gandhi started this march with 78 trusted volunteers, and along the way, thousands of Indians joined them. When Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws, it sparked large-scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws by millions of Indians.

> Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

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