15 Mar 2022 Dandi March
Dandi March – Today Current Affairs
- Recently the Prime Minister paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and all those eminent persons who visited Dandi (1930) to protest injustice and protect the self-respect of our country.
- Earlier in the year 2021, a memorial ‘Dandi March’ was started in which 81 people took part in a 386 km journey from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to Dandi in Navsari.
Today Current Affairs
About Dandi March:
- The Dandi March, also known as the Salt March and Dandi Satyagraha, was a non-violent civil disobedience movement led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
- It was carried out from March 12, 1930 to April 6, 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and non-violent protest against the British monopoly on salt.
- Gandhi traveled 241 miles with 78 followers from Sabarmati to the Arabian Sea (up to the coastal town of Dandi) on 12 March, the purpose of this journey was to violate British policy by Gandhi and his supporters by making salt from sea water.
- On the lines of Dandi, Indian nationalists led hordes to make salt in coastal cities like Bombay and Karachi.
- The civil disobedience movement spread across the country, soon lakhs of Indians joined it. British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. This Satyagraha continued even after Gandhiji was arrested on May 5.
- Poetry Sarojini Naidu led 2,500 people to a site called Dharasana, about 150 miles north of Bombay, on May 21. The incident, recorded by American journalist Webb Miller, sparked international outrage against British policy in India.
- Gandhi was released from prison in January 1931, after which he met the Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin. In this meeting, it was agreed to join the Round Table Conferences on the future of India in London and end the Satyagraha.
- Gandhiji participated in this conference in August 1931 as the sole representative of the nationalist Indian National Congress. The meeting was disappointing, but the British leaders acknowledged Gandhi as a force they could neither suppress nor ignore.
Dandi March (Background): The Hindu Analysis
- The Lahore Congress of 1929 authorized the Congress Working Committee to start civil disobedience movement along with non-payment of taxes.
- “Independence Day” was celebrated on 26 January 1930, under which patriotic songs were sung by hoisting the national flag at various places.
- In February 1930 at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee at Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhiji was authorized to start the civil disobedience program by choosing the time and place.
- Gandhiji gave an ultimatum to the Viceroy of India (Year 1926-31) Lord Irwin that if his minimum demands were ignored, he would have no other option but to start the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Effect of Movement: The Hindu Analysis
- The civil disobedience movement was started in different forms in different provinces, with special emphasis on boycott of foreign goods.
- Refusal to pay Chowkidari tax in Eastern India, under which the No-Tax campaign became very popular in Bihar.
- JN Sengupta defied government laws in Bengal by openly reading books banned by the government.
- Forest laws were largely violated in Maharashtra.
- The movement spread like wildfire in the provinces of Awadh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Assam.
Today Current Affairs
Importance:
- As a result of this movement, the imports from Britain in India fell significantly. For example, the import of cloth from Britain halved.
- This movement was more widespread than the previous movements, in which women, farmers, workers, students and urban elements such as merchants and shopkeepers participated in a big way. Therefore, now the Congress had acquired the form of an all-India organization.
- The support this movement received from the poor and illiterate both in the towns and in the countryside was remarkable.
- The open participation of a large number of Indian women in this movement was indeed the most different experience of liberation for them.
- Although Congress withdrew the Civil Disobedience Movement in the year 1934, the movement attracted global attention and marked an important stage in the progress of the anti-imperialist struggle.
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