The Salt March and its Aftermath
As Gandhi and his followers walked, thousands of Indians joined them. What started as eighty-one protestors became a miles-long procession. On April 5, after twenty-four days and 241 miles, they finally arrived at Dandi, on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The following morning, thousands of journalists and supporters gathered to watch him commit his symbolic crime. British police had tried to grind the salt into the sand in the hope of frustrating Gandhi’s efforts, but he easily found a lump of salt-rich mud and said to the watching world, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
In the city of Dandi, thousands joined Gandhi on the beach defiantly making salt of their own. In the coastal cities of Bombay and Karachi, more crowds were led to gather salt.
Millions of Indians began to engage in acts of civil disobedience. British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the resystance movement based on his satyagraha principles continued.
On May 21, a march on the Dharasana Salt Works of 3500 protesters were met by several hundred British-led Indian police. The authorities viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators, an incident recorded by American journalist Webb Miller. The publicity of the brutal response prompted an international outcry against British policy in India.
Gandhi remained in prison until early 1931, but he emerged more revered than ever. Time Magazine named him its 1930 “Man of the Year,” and newspapers around the globe jumped at any opportunity to quote him or report on his exploits. British Viceroy Lord Irwin finally agreed to negotiate with him, and in March 1931, the two hammered out the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which ended the satyagraha in exchange for several concessions including the release of thousands of political prisoners. While the
agreement largely maintained the Raj’s monopoly over salt, it gave Indians living on the coasts the right to produce the mineral from the sea.
Difficult days still lay ahead. Gandhi and his supporters would launch more protests in the 1930s and 40s and endure even more time in prison. The interference of the Second World War meant that Indian independence would have to wait until 1947—and only months later Gandhi was shot dead by a militant.
While the immediate political results of the Salt March were rather insignificant, Gandhi’s satyagraha had nevertheless succeeded in his goal of “shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” The march to the sea had galvanized Indian resistance to the Raj, and its international coverage had introduced the world to Gandhi and his followers’ astonishing commitment to nonviolence. Among others, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would later cite the Salt March as a crucial influence on his own philosophy of civil disobedience.