In 1930, the Civil Disobedience Movement was launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi which started with Gandhiji's famous Dandi March. On 12 March 1930, Gandhiji and 78 other members of the ashram started on foot from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, a village on the west coast of India, at a distance of about 241 miles (385 km) from Ahmedabad.
Gandhiji and other members reached Dandi on 6 April 1930, where Gandhiji broke the salt law. At that time it was illegal for anyone to make salt because it was the monopoly of the government. Gandhiji disobeyed the government by lifting the salt made from the evaporation of sea water in his fist. With the disobedience of the salt law, the civil disobedience movement spread throughout the country.
In the first phase of this movement, incidents of salt making happened all over the country and salt making became a symbol of government disobedience by the people. In Tamil Nadu, C. Rajagopalachari organized a march similar to the Dandi March from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam. The famous poet Sarojini Naidu, who was an important Congress leader and also the Congress President, led the non-violent Satyagrahi march on the government's salt factory in Dharasana (Gujarat). More than 300 people were injured and two people died in the barbaric lathi charge by the government. Protest, strike and boycott of foreign goods were done and later refused to pay even tax. Lakhs of people including a large number of women participated in this movement.
The first Round Table Conference was organized by the British Government in London in November 1930 to consider the reforms proposed by the Simon Commission. The Congress, which was fighting for the independence of the country at that time, boycotted it. The main leaders of the country did not participate in this, due to which there was no conclusion of this conference. The British government knew that without the participation of the Congress, any constitutional change would not be accepted by the Indian people.
Efforts were started by the Viceroy Lord Irwin in the year 1931 to prepare the Congress to participate in the Second Round Table Conference. Eventually an agreement was reached between Gandhi and Lord Irwin, under which the government agreed to release all political prisoners against whom no charges of violence were registered. Also, it was agreed that the Congress had to suspend the civil disobedience movement. Many nationalist leaders were unhappy with this agreement.
In March 1931, this agreement was approved by the Congress in the Congress session held in Karachi under the chairmanship of Vallabhbhai Patel and the Congress participated in the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhiji was chosen as the representative of the Congress to participate in this conference held in September 1931.
Important resolution related to fundamental rights and economic policy was passed in the Karachi session of Congress. It formulated the policy of the nationalist movement related to the social and economic problems prevailing in the country. In this, the basic rights were described which would be provided to all people without discrimination of caste and religion. Along with this, schemes for nationalization of some industries, promotion of Indian industries and welfare of workers and farmers were also supported in it.
This resolution demonstrated the growing influence of socialist ideas on the national movement. Apart from Gandhiji, who was the only representative of the Congress, there were some other Indians who participated in this conference. These included Indian princely, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communal leaders. These leaders were mere puppets in the hands of the British. The princely states were mainly interested in securing their interests as rulers.
Communal leaders were selected by the British rulers to participate in the convention. They claimed that they were representatives of their own communities and not of the country, although their influence in their own community was very limited. As a representative of Congress, Gandhiji represented the whole country. Neither the princely states nor the communal leaders were interested in the independence of India. Due to this reason, no agreement could be reached in the Second Round Table Conference and it was declared unsuccessful.
Gandhiji returned to India and started the Civil Disobedience Movement again. The repression of the government continued even during the running of the convention and now it has intensified even more. Gandhi and other leaders were arrested. The repression done by the government can be gauged from the fact that in a year about 120,000 people were imprisoned.
The movement was withdrawn in 1934. Congress passed an important resolution in 1934 demanding that a constitutional assembly elected by the people on the basis of universal adult franchise should be convened. It proclaimed that only such an assembly could frame a constitution for India. It also insisted that only the people have the right to decide what type of government they want to live under. Although the Congress did not succeeded in achieving its objective, it was successful in mobilizing a huge section of people in the second largest mass movement of the country. It also accepted the radical objectives to bring about a change in the Indian society.
Impact of Civil Disobedience Movement
• It shook the public's faith in the British government and established the social roots of the freedom movement, as well as new methods of propaganda such as Prabhat Pheri and pamphlet distribution.
• It ended the repressive salt policy of the British.
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