--- title: "Salt Satyagraha: Dandi March (1930) | Model Diplomat" description: "The Salt Satyagraha was Gandhi's 1930 anti-salt-tax march to Dandi that opened the Civil Disobedience Movement. Key UPSC GS1 facts, dates, and consequences." url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/salt-satyagraha" --- [New](https://modeldiplomat.com/) # Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026 TL;DR - The Salt Satyagraha was Mahatma Gandhi's 1930 mass campaign of nonviolent resistance against the British colonial salt monopoly, launching the wider Civil Disobedience Movement. - Why did Gandhi choose salt as the focus of the 1930 campaign? - What was the route and duration of the Dandi March? - How did the Salt Satyagraha end? - How does the Salt Satyagraha differ from the Non-Cooperation Movement? [Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026 Go beyond the definition ## Research Salt Satyagraha like a delegate Model Diplomat's AI drafts position papers, speeches, and country research with real sources — built for MUN and politics students. ## Timeline 1. 26 January 1930 The campaign followed the Indian National Congress's adoption of the Purna Swaraj (complete independence) resolution at its Lahore session in December 1929,… 2. 2 March 1930 Gandhi obtained the Congress Working Committee's authorisation to lead a civil disobedience campaign, and on he addressed an ultimatum to Viceroy Lord Irwin… 3. 12 March 1930 The procedural mechanics began with the Dandi March, which Gandhi commenced on from his Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad accompanied by 78 chosen volunteers. 4. 5 April 1930 On reaching the coastal village of Dandi on , Gandhi paused for prayer, and on the morning of 6 April he ceremonially lifted a lump of natural salt from the… 5. 5 May 1930 Gandhi was arrested on 4– under Regulation XXV of 1827 and detained without trial. 6. 5 March 1931 The campaign was suspended under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact signed on , by which the government agreed to release political prisoners and permit coastal salt manu… ## Positions at a glance ### Indian National Congress The Salt Satyagraha was the inaugural and defining act of the Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1930 against British rule in India. Its legal target was the colonial salt monopoly, codified in the Salt Act of 1882, which reserved to the government the exclusive right to manufacture and sell salt and imposed a tax on it. Salt was a deliberate choice: a necessity consumed by every Indian regardless of caste, religion, or income, the tax on it dramatised the injustice of an alien administration extracting revenue from the poorest. The campaign followed the Indian National Congress's adoption of the Purna Swaraj (complete independence) resolution at its Lahore session in December 1929, where the tricolour was unfurled on the banks of the Ravi and 26 January 1930 was declared the first Independence Day. Gandhi obtained the Congress Working Committee's authorisation to lead a civil disobedience campaign, and on 2 March 1930 he addressed an ultimatum to Viceroy Lord Irwin listing eleven demands, warning that he would break the salt law if they were ignored. ### All-India Muslim League Controversy and limitation attended the campaign. B. R. Ambedkar and sections of the Depressed Classes leadership questioned whether anti-colonial agitation adequately addressed caste oppression, and the Muslim League largely stood apart, foreshadowing later communal divergence. The Round Table Conferences yielded little for Congress, and the second phase of civil disobedience resumed in 1932 only to be met with renewed repression under the Government of India's emergency ordinances before petering out by 1934. Historians debate whether the campaign delivered tangible constitutional gains; its most durable achievement was arguably the transformation of the independence struggle into a genuinely mass phenomenon and the projection of the Indian cause onto the global stage. ## Research it like a delegate Research on modeldiplomat.com ## Ask a follow-up about Salt Satyagraha Open a cited briefing in Model Diplomat search — timelines, positions, and sources you can use in committee or exam answers. [Start research on Salt Satyagraha](https://modeldiplomat.com/search?q=Explain%20Salt%20Satyagraha%20%E2%80%94%20key%20dates%2C%20actors%2C%20positions%2C%20and%20sources) Example On 6 April 1930, Mahatma Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt at Dandi on the Gujarat coast, breaking the British Salt Act of 1882 and igniting the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement. Keep learning ## Go deeper than the definition [Explore all Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams lessons](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services)[Test yourself with a quiz](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/quiz/civil-services) ## Take Salt Satyagraha beyond the glossary Ask the AI research engine built for diplomacy — get briefings, position papers, and speeches with sources you can cite in committee.