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Gandhi as to the form most appropriate for this campaign to take. During the period that followed in which he could find "no light at the end of the tunnel," it became apparent to Gandhi that nonviolent civil disobedience would form the basis for any ensuing protest.' Dr. Pranjivan Mehta's discussions in 1920 in England and FICCI's reports also played crucial role in his finalizing the strategy for non-cooperation action.
On March 2, 1930, in an effort to amend the Salt Tax without breaking the law, Gandhi wrote to Viceroy Irwin, saying, "But if my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Law. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil.938
On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and eighty male Satyagrahis set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi, some 240 miles from their starting point in Sabarmati Ashram, a journey which was to last twenty-three days. Virtually every resident of each and every city and village along this journey watched the great procession, which grew to over two miles in length.” On April 6, Gandhi picked up a lump of mud containing salt (some say just a pinch) and boiled it in seawater to make the commodity which no Indian could legally produce, called the salt.
He implored thousands of his followers to begin to make salt everywhere, along the seashore, “as was most convenient and comfortable" to them. A "war" on the salt tax was to be continued during the National Week, that is, up to April 13", 1930. There were also simultaneous boycotts of foreign cloth and liquor. Salt was sold illegally all over the seacoast of India. A pinch of salt from Gandhi himself sold for 1,600 rupees,
Pg.84 Gandhi & Jainism
