Daily Static Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
- It began from Sabarmati Ashram in March 1930.
- The main objective was to protest against the Rowlatt Act.
- Gandhi violated the Salt Law at Dandi on the Arabian Sea coast.
Statement 1 is correct — the march began from Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad on 12 March 1930, with Gandhi and 78 volunteers walking ~390 km to Dandi, launching the Civil Disobedience Movement. Statement 2 is incorrect — it targeted the British salt monopoly and salt tax, not the Rowlatt Act (the Rowlatt Satyagraha belongs to 1919; Non-Cooperation to 1920; Civil Disobedience/Dandi to 1930). Statement 3 is correct — Gandhi reached Dandi on 6 April 1930 and broke the Salt Law on the Arabian Sea coast.
In January 1930 Gandhi sent Viceroy Lord Irwin a letter listing Eleven Demands covering economic and political grievances — abolition of the salt tax, 50% cut in land revenue, reduced military expenditure, release of political prisoners, protection for Indian textiles, CID reform, and rupee-sterling exchange reform, among others. Adult franchise was not among them; universal adult franchise emerged as a stronger constitutional demand later, as the 1930 focus was mass mobilisation through economic grievances.
- It involved violation of colonial laws.
- It replaced Non-Cooperation with constitutional methods.
- Refusal to pay taxes formed part of the movement.
Statement 1 is correct — civil disobedience meant openly but peacefully violating unjust laws (breaking salt laws, defying forest laws, boycotting foreign goods, illegal salt manufacture). Statement 2 is incorrect — the movement rejected colonial authority through direct action rather than relying on constitutional methods such as petitions and legislative participation; unlike Non-Cooperation (boycott without law-breaking), it involved open violation of laws. Statement 3 is correct — non-payment of land revenue and chowkidari tax was a key strategy in several regions.
The Lahore Session of the Congress (December 1929, under Jawaharlal Nehru) declared Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) as the goal and resolved to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day. With the British unwilling to offer meaningful reforms, Gandhi launched the mass struggle. The Cripps Mission (1942) came far later, the Simon Commission triggered protests but was not the immediate cause, and the Partition of Bengal (1905) belongs to the Swadeshi context.
C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) led the Vedaranyam Salt March in Tamil Nadu in April 1930, inspired by the Dandi March, showing that civil disobedience was nationwide. S. Satyamurti was a prominent Madras Congress leader but did not lead it; Subramania Bharati, the Tamil nationalist poet, had died in 1921; and Annie Besant is associated mainly with the Home Rule Movement. Other regional Salt Satyagraha leaders: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (NWFP), Sarojini Naidu (Dharasana), and K. Kelappan (Kerala).
