Gandhi-Irwin
Pact- 5th March 1931
Dandi
March- Starts on 12th March 1931
Salt
Satyagraha- 5th April 1931
Report on Civil Disobedience Movement
Chapter III
Civil
Disobedience Begins
Gandhiji reached his
destination on April 5th. On the morning of the following day, he committed
technical breach of the salt laws by collecting a handful of muddy salt from
the sea from which he later prepared pure salt. Knowing Gandhiji’s plans,
Government had taken pains to destroy previously all free salt on the coast by
thoroughly mixing it up with dirt and mud.
After
Gandhiji had collected his handful of salt, he formally authorised the country
to start civil disobedience by preparing, collecting or selling contraband salt.
There was immediate and unbounded response to Gandhiji’s call. In every
province except Assam, where there are no facilities for salt-making, salt began
to be prepared in hundreds of places amidst great popular enthusiasm. At first,
batches of chosen volunteers, after passing in procession through the streets
of towns and villages, assembled at appointed places and actually went through the
process of salt manufacture surrounded and cheered by thousands of citizens.
Where the sea-coast or other large salt sources were accessible, the breach of
the laws was not confined to chosen volunteers alone. It at once became a mass
movement, that is, whole populations took part in it. Gandhiji himself
participated in such mass disobedience a couple of days after the initiation of
the movement. In Bombay, hundreds of thousands of men and women rushed to the
beach to fetch sea water which they evaporated into salt in their homes. In
areas where salt could be prepared with difficulty, batches of volunteers
toured through villages, carrying accessories of salt- making and holding
meetings in every village, they prepared salt in the meetings in which the
villagers also participated. Thus they spread the movement far and wide. With
the beginning of the movement, Government repression, which had already begun,
assumed a fiercer aspect; it soon transcended even the bounds of its own laws. Before
the first week of Satyagrah was over, reports came of deliberate maltreatment
of Satyagrahis. Forcible wresting of salt from the hands of volunteers,
sometimes resulting in the drawing of blood, became a common occurrence not
only in Gujarat but everywhere. At one place, boiling saline water (from which
salt was subsequently to be prepared) was poured over the body of a Satyagrahi.
Only two days after the eventful 6th of April, while volunteers were
preparing salt in Delhi, a force of policemen appeared on the scene and caught
hold of the volunteers and dragged them away over thorny brambles and stony
ground. The same day while salt was being prepared the third time the police
repeated this behavior. As a result of this, all the volunteers were bleeding
and badly bruised, five of them becoming completely senseless…….
Source: A.I.C.C. papers, NMML Archives
On Withdrawal of Salt Concession by Government
All India Congress Committee.
Swaraj Bhawan, Allahabad.
Jhang, September 27th, 1931.
My dear
Vallabhbhai,
I enclose a copy of a letter I am sending to Emerson, also a copy of a
notice issued by the Deputy Commissioner of the Shahpur District withdrawing
the salt concession from the Salt Range. I did not want to write to Emerson
direct but then I felt that great delay would occur if I referred the matter to
you first. Hence the action I have taken. I hope you do not mind.
Sometime ago you issued a warning to people abusing the salt concession.
I believe this applied to Karachi or parts of Sind but I am not sure. So far as
I remember, the Salt Range in the Punjab had nothing to do with it. It seems to
me that it is highly improper for Government to withdraw the salt concession in
this way whatever the facts regarding abuse might be. I am informed that there
has been no such abuse. People from Shahpur District tell me that as a matter
of fact full advantage has not been taken of the concession. It may be that
there have been minor breaches by individuals. In any event the burden of proof
rests entirely on Government and they must prove their case before they take
action.
I find that repression here is going strong and a very large number of
persons, chiefly young men, are being proceeded against under various section.
Many are being tried under Sec. 302 I.P.C.
(the murder section) coupled with some other sections, simply because of
a speech. I read through the speeches in one such case. It was a report taken
by a head constable and most of it was strenuously denied as incorrect. But
even accepting it for what it was worth it is an extraordinary state of affairs
to proceed under Sec. 302 for a speech.
This is just and instance. In a variety of other ways local officials
here are misbehaving. Unfortunately the Punjab P.C.C. is not an efficient or a
capable body and does not do much. It is hardly possible to make it realise
what should be done and what should not be done.
I
notice from the papers that you are still in Bombay. I do not know what your
future programme is. I am sending this letter to both places.
Yours sincerely,
Sd/- Jawaharlal.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Enclosure
All India Congress Committee
Swaraj Bhawan, Allahabad.
Jhang, September 27th 1931
Dear Mr. Emerson,
I have been shown a copy of a notice which the
Deputy Commissioner of Shahpur District is said to have issued withdrawing the
salt concession from the whole area covered by the Salt Range. I enclose a copy
of this notice which bears the date: 10.8.31. I do not know if this date is
correctly given in the copy as the notice has, I understand, only recently been
generally published for public information.
The
salt concession was an explicit an important part of the Delhi Settlement and
its withdrawal raises vital issues. So far as my information goes there has not
been any of it in Shahpur District, but in any event we would have expected
that any allegations would have been brought to the notice of the Congress
President, as you have done in some other cases, before any action was taken by
Government. If the date of the notice 10th August, as is mentioned in the copy,
Mr. Gandhi was here at the time and could have been informed of it.
In
the ordinary course our President, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, would have written
to you about this matter and I would not have troubled you about it. But in
view of the importance of the matter and the desirability of avoiding delay I
have ventured to write to you direct. I am of course informing our President
and I shall be obliged if you will write to him in answer to this letter of
mine. You need not trouble to write to me.
Yours
sincerely
(Sd)
Jawaharlal Nehru
H.W.Emerson Esq.
Secretary Home Department,
Government of India, Simla.
Enclosure
Notice
The concession
accorded to the residents of the Salt Range as a result of the discussions between
Lord Irwin and Mr. Gandhi has been seriously abused in as much as that
(1)
Salt has been removed otherwise than on
foot:
(2)
Within a few weeks quantities many times in
excess of the normal annual consumption of the population in the villages in
immediately adjoining areas have been removed;
and
(3)
It is established that a trade in salt so
removed has sprung up in bazaars in towns many miles away from the source.
The
concession has been completely with drawn throughout the wholes area of the
Salt Range.
This
notice is put up for the information of all in order to make widely known the
real facts which made necessary the withdrawal of the concession.
Sd. I.E. Jones,
Deputy Commissioner
Shahpur District
G. n. 10.8.31
Source : A.I.C.C papers, NMML archives
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