HISTORY WRITING IN THE SULTUNATE PERIOD

History writing in sultanate period

The conquest of the northern India by the Ghoris towards the close of the 12th Century was a very important event in the history of India. The primary reason is that Indian land was opened to a new culture and a new power for the very first time. On the other hand it also led to the unification of the north India under a strong central power which was foreign. It also attracted emigrants from the neighboring lands who spoke different language and represented different culture and traditions.

Of the many new traditions introduced by them, the art of history writing was the most important. It is not that Indians did not know the art of history writing, they for the first time witnessed the importance of maintaining historical accounts that were almost authentic.

In the Islamic empire the study of history was in fact considered as the third important source of knowledge after the religious scriptures i.e. the Qur'an and the Hadith. The Muslim elites gave much importance to the history writing arts and the historians were considered to be an important part of every dynasty.

The history writing in the Sultanate period traces back to the early 12th century and continued till the end of the Sultanate period in 1526. Many of the authors who wrote in Persian were attached to the court of the Sultans as officials while there were few independent scholars too who were not attached to any official positions. A general characteristics of these available historical texts is that, all of these historical accounts were the official position of events rather than a critical evaluation of the policies and events.

None of the available accounts has any critical reference to the reigning Sultan. In contrary, the style of narration is flattery to the Sultan under whose reign it is written. Also there are many earlier references mentioned in the accounts to trace the earlier period.

Apart from the historical text, a number of other Persian works are available for the period, mainly the travelogues. Abdu'r Razzaq's Matla'us Sa'dain and Shihab-al Din al-Umari's Masalik al-absar Mamalik al-Ansar are the two very important travelogues of the Sultanate periods.

The pioneer in history writing of the Sultanate period was no doubt Muhammad bin Mansur popularly known as Fakhr-i-Mudabbir. He is credited to the writing of the first history of the Ghurian conquest of India  and the foundation of the independent Sultanate in India.

He migrated from Ghazna to Lahore and compiled the first part of the account called 'Shajra-i-Ansab, the book of genealogy of the Prophet Muhammad, his companions and the Muslims rulers including the ancestors of the Sultan Shihabuddin Muhammad Ghori. Due to the political compulsions after the murder of the Sultan he added a separate introduction to it called 'Muqidimma' to  narrate the life and military exploits of Qutubuddin Aiback, the commander-in-chief (Sipahsalar) of Muhammad Ghori, who ascended the throne after the death of Muhammad Ghori.

Fakhr-i-Mudabbir's account is a rich source of Delhi Sultanate history. It mentions exploits of Sultan Ghori along with the achievement of Qutubuddin Aiback and his administrative reforms and the symbolic rituals related to the court.

Another important work compiled by Fakhr-i-Mudabbir is the Adabu'l-Harb wa'as Shuja'at dedicated to Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish. It contains chapter on the duties of the king, the functioning of state departments, war tactics, mode of welfare, royal animals, etc.

The second important history of the Ghurian conquest and early Sultanate period is Tajul Ma'asir by Hasan Nazami who migrated from Nishapur to India in search of fortune. It is the compilation of achievements of Qutubuddin Aiback.

The third most important historical account is Minhaj Siraj Juzjani's Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, which is the history of Islam and Muslim rulers from the early Islamic period up to his time (1259 CE), the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Muhammad. It has valuable information about the rise and fall of the ruling dynasties of Central Asia, Persia, India and the Mongols under Chengiz khan.

Later in fourteenth century the Delhi Sultanate history was mainly compiled by Ziauddin Barani. Of the surviving 14th Century CE works, Isami's Futuh us Salatin (1350 CE), Ziauddin Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi  (1357), anonymous Sirat-i-Firozshahi (1370-71) and Shams Siraj Afif's Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi deserves mention. Of these, Ziauddin Barani's Tarikh-i-Firuzshahi is the most important and elaborate.   On the whole it is an important source of information about the life and culture in the Sultanate of Delhi during the later part of teh 14th century CE.

Religious Reform Movements

Protest and Religious Reform Movement

With the passage of time a gradual change came in the Vedic religion. It slowly became the religion of costly rituals and sacrifices. Many customs prevailed during this time in the society in the name of religion, like empty ritualism and costly sacrifices. People were fed up with this condition and wanted simplicity and sincerity in religion. Numerous religious sects arose in the sixth century BCE in the Ganga basin, in North India. We have records of as many as 62 religious sects with followers during this time. Each of these sects was based on regional customs and rituals. Many of these religious sects were started by teachers and preachers from the Kshatriya caste. Among the many great preachers were Vardhamana Mahavira and Gautama Buddha, who became famous as the founders of two religious sects – Jainism and Buddhism respectively.

Both Mahavira and Buddha preached against the evil customs prevailing in the society in the name of religion. The changing patterns of social-economical living condition gave rise to new ideas and feelings which encouraged the development of these two sects Jainism and Buddhism. The rise of towns and the growth of industrial and commercial classes encouraged the development of these two religious movements. These two movements started almost at the same time in the eastern part of the Ganga basin in the region surrounding Rajagriha, Vaishali and Kashi.

Mahavira and Jainism

Vardhamana Mahavira was born at Kundagrama near the city of Vaishali in present Bihar about 540 BCE. He was a Kshatriya prince but led a simple life, not caring for the luxury and comforts of his father’s court. At the age of thirty, he left the comforts of the world and gave himself up to the penance for twelve long years. In the thirteenth year he gained the perfect knowledge called Kaivalya and began to teach and preach his philosophy. The new philosophy or religion was come to be called Jainism and his followers were called Jains. The word Jains has come from Jina meaning conqueror.

According to the Jains, Mahavira was their last teacher or the ultimate 24^th Tirthankar. Mahavira passed away in about 468BCE at the age of 72 at Pavapuri in Rajgir.

Mahavira’s Teachings

1. Mahavira taught the doctrine of Karma, the quality of one’s deed in the present life. He told that Karma decides what we will be in our next birth.
2. The highest goal of our life should be Moksha, the ultimate freedom from the cycle of birth and rebirths.
3. Anyone can attend Moksha, even a Shudhra, if he leads his life in right manner.
4. Moksha can be attained through the three fold path of right belief, right knowledge and right action.
5. He did not believe in God or the Vedas. He said Moksha could be attained even without prayers and sacrifices to gods.
6. He said that Ahimsa or Non-Violence was the best form of religion. According to Mahavira, no harm is to be done even to animals, insects, small birds and plants. He preached the extreme form of ahimsa.
7. He also taught the following doctrines – do not steal, do not tell a lie, do not be attached to worldly possessions, do not lead an impure life, to spent the extra wealth in charity and noble acts.

Mahavira’s teachings and his philosophy is compiled in a book called Kalpa Sutra which is the holy book of the Jains. It also contains the biographies of the rest of the twenty three Tirthankars.

Gautama Buddha and Buddhism

Gautama Buddha was born as Siddhartha in about 563BCE in the Sakya tribe at Lumbini Grove near the ancient city of Kapilavastu on the border of modern day Nepal and Uttar Pradesh and lived in a beautiful palace amid luxury and comfort. His father was Suddhodana, a ruler in Kapilavastu. At the age of sixteen, he was married to Yashodhara, by whom he had a son, Rahul.

Since his childhood days, Siddhartha was a sensitive and observant boy. He used to be very sad when he saw sufferings. He used to think of wiping out the sufferings. Soon there was an incident that changed the entire course of the young prince Siddhartha. One day while he was walking in the vicinity of his palace he came across four visuals. First he saw a very old man. Next he saw a sick man. Then he stumbled upon a dead body. Then he saw a hermit. These visuals disturbed him a lot and he began to relate these events to his life. He began to realize that life was full of sorrow and took upon the task himself of wiping these sorrows. He was completely withdrawn from the worldly affairs.

One night, when he was 29, he secretly left his palace abandoning his wife and son, and went to the forests to find a way out of the human sufferings and sorrows. This event in Buddhism is called the Great Renunciation.

In the years that followed, he sought knowledge at the feet of learned teachers. For six years, he undertook the most austere penances, like fasting for many days at a stretch. One day, as he was seated absorbed in meditation under a peepal tree at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, he suddenly received the light of knowledge and got answers to all his questions. As a result of this enlightenment he came to be called the Buddha, meaning the enlightenment.

Soon he wanted to share the knowledge he acquired with all. He moved about from place to place teaching and preaching. He won many followers, including a number of prices and nobles. He preached his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath near Varanasi. People called him Tathagat (one who possesses truth) or Sakyamuni (the sage of the Sakya tribe). After preaching his philosophy for about 45 years he died at Kusinagara in about 483BCE at the ripe age of 83 years. His religious philosophy was called Buddhism and his followers were called Buddhist.

Teachings of Buddha

Gautama Buddha taught in Pali, a common language of the Magadhan people. He preached ahimsa with special emphasis on kindness to animals, and rejected the authority of the Vedas. Buddhism has no place for god. His doctrines were called Ashta Marga or Eight Fold Paths.  There were eight elements in it – right view of things, right purpose in life, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right thinking and right kind of meditation. He taught that a person should avoid excesses of both luxury and austerity. He prescribed the Middle Path. He told his followers that the world is full of sorrow, the cause of which is desire and attachment; and sorrow can only be ended by getting rid of our desire for worldly things.

According to Buddha, the goal of life should be Nirvana, the freedom from the cycle of rebirths that can be attained only by following the Ashta Marga, and not by rituals, sacrifices, fasts and penances. He opposed the caste system and insisted on a simple way of life. He advised the king on how to rule and to care for the common people. In many places he established monasteries called Viharas, and also founded an order of monks called the Sangha. These monasteries became the centers of education and learning.

Buddhism unlike Jainism had mass appeal and soon became the most widespread religion of north India. It spread far and wide and went even beyond India to Sri Lanka, Tibet, China, central and south-east Asia. It carried with it the culture of India. The monks and nuns tirelessly preached the new religion. Buddhism became a missionary religion. Tipitaka is the religious holy book of Buddhists, written in Pali. It contains the life history of Buddha, his teachings and Buddhist doctrines.

Arya Samaj

The most profound reform movement in the late 19^th Century India was the Arya Samaj. It started in the western India and Punjab and gradually spread to a large part of the Hindi heartland. It was founded by Dayanand Saraswati in 1875. He wrote Satyarth Prakash (light of truth) in the same year and founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay. In 1877 the Lahore Arya Samaj was founded and subsequently Lahore became the epicenter of the Arya movement.

Dayanand opposed a ritual ridden Hindu religion and called for basing it on preaching of the Vedas. Only Vedas, along with their correct analytical tools, were true. He attacked Puranas, polytheism, idolatry and domination of the priestly class. He adopted Hindi for reaching out to the masses. He also opposed child marriage. He was fiercely opposed to multiplicity of castes which he thought was primarily responsible for encouraging conversion of lower castes into Christianity and Islam.

After Dayanand’s death in 1883, the Samaj lay scattered. Most important attempt to unite the Samaj and its activities was the founding of the Dayanand Anglo Vedic Trust (DAV Trust) in Lahore in 1886. In the same year, this society opened a school. However, some leaders of the Samaj were opposed to Anglo-Vedic education and wanted DAV trust to focus only on Sanskrit, Vedic scriptures and Aryan ideology while taking educational initiatives. Conflicts arose over the control of DAV management society leading to a formal division of the Arya Samaj in 1893 into DAV Group led by proponents of English education led by Lala Lajpat Rai  and Gurukul Group led by Swami Shraddhanand who initiated a gurukul-based education

The two wings of Arya Samaj had differences on the question of education but were united on important political and social issues of the time. The Arya Samaj as a whole opposed conversion of Hindus to Islam and Christianity and therefore advocated re-conversion of recent converts to Hinduism. This process was called Shuddhi. They also advocated greater usage of Hindi in Devnagri script and organized movement against cow slaughter.

Re-organization of States

Background  

At the time of independence the provinces in India were arranged by the British according to the pre-independence population and polity. The states were divided into 4 groups – A, B, C and D. Also following the independence the British government dissolved their early treaties with the five hundred Princely States directing them to either join the union of India or Pakistan.

After Independence  

Between 1947 and 1950, the Princely states were politically integrated into the Indian union. Most were merged into existing provinces; others were organized into new provinces, such as Rajputana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, and Vindhya Pradesh. Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Bilaspur became separate provinces.

In 1950 the new Constitution of India came into force on 26 January and India now became a Union of States with three main types of states. ‘A’ states were Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. The ‘B’ states were Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Bharat, Mysore, Patiala, East Punjab, Rajasthan, Saurashtra and Travancore-Cochin. The ‘C’ states were Ajmer, Bhopal, Bilaspur, Coorg, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Kutch, Manipur, Tripura and Vindhya Pradesh. The ‘D’ states was Andaman Nicobar Islands.

Movement for States  

After independence, political movement for linguistic-based states developed. The demand for creation of states on linguistic basis started in different parts of India. The movement took serious turn when one Telegu leader Potti Sriramalu died after 56 days of hunger strike demanding creation of Andhra Pradesh with 16 north Madras Telegu speaking districts. As a consequence the central government created a new state of Andhra Pradesh opening the floodgate for such demands.

Government Solution  

Ultimately on 22 December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced the appointment of a State Reorganization Committee headed by the Retired Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Fazal Ali. This Fazal Ali Commission recommended the re-organization of states based on languages. On the basis of the Commission’s report the discriminatory grouping system of states were abolished and a new 14 states and 6 union territories were established. The states were to be ruled by the state government and the Union Territories directly under the control of the Union government. The Act was implemented in November 1956.

The states were Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The six union territories were Andaman Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Laccadiv Minicoy Islands, Manipur and Tripura.

Swadeshi Movements

The Background  

Despite all protests, the partition of Bengal came into effect on 16 October 1905. A general strike was declared on this day in Calcutta. Thousands of people marched on the streets of Calcutta signing Vande Matram and people tied rakhi to the wrists of each other. Ananda Mohan Bose and Surendra Nath Banerjee addressed a huge gathering at Federation Hall in Calcutta and a collection of about 50000 rupees was made to organize a movement against the partition and for the cause of the unity of the people of Bengal.

Swadeshi Movement Launched  

Next year in the Calcutta Congress under the leadership of Dadabhai Naoroji the resolution for the Swadeshi Movement was passed in favour of boycott of the foreign goods, use of swadeshi goods and national education.

Leaders like Tilak, Lajpat Rai etc. belonging to the radical Congress group took this movement to all parts of India.  Tilak organised Boycott Movement in Bombay and Poona, Lajpat in Punjab and many other leaders throughout the country. At several places throughout the country, people burnt British goods and picketed the shops that sold these foreign made goods.

The Swadeshi Movement also increased the production of home-made goods. People spontaneously stopped using foreign goods such as clothes and sugar. A social boycott of the person purchasing foreign articles was started along with renunciation of English speech, resignation form Councils and government seats. Almost all sections of the society supported the move. There were bonfires of foreign goods.

Several societies and samitis were formed during the period that played an important role in spreading the boycott and swadeshi movement. The boycott of foreign goods also suited the interest of the local producers. Indigenous textile industry was revived. Several enterprises such as soap and match factories, banks and insurance companies opened during this period. Growth of regional medium educational institutions happened, so was the establishment of regional press.

The students became actively engaged in the movement, with women also joining along with peasants and common people from all walks of life.

Government Measures  

The British government resorted to severe repressive measures like brutal attacks on people participating in the movement; arrest and deportation of Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh; banning of Bande Mataram; gagging of the Press and passing several laws against the movement.

The biggest impact of this movement was the annulment of the partition of Bengal that the British had to decide in 1911. Bihar, Orissa and Assam were taken out from the province of Bengal and the capital of the British India was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

Non Aligned Movement

Introduction  

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization that represents the political, economical, and cultural interests of the developing world. The main purpose of the NAM was not to align directly with any of the power blocs – the Communist Bloc led by the USSR (Russia)and the Western Bloc led by the USA (America). After the Second World War many of the newly independent countries wished to preserve their independence and not to ally themselves with either of the power bloc.

The NAM was established in 1955 at Bandung in Indonesia with the signature of the head of the 29 newly formed states of Asia and Africa.

Objectives  

The objectives of the NAM was to keep the members away from joining either of the power blocs, disarmament, abolition of imperialism and colonisation, preserving their independence and solving their economic problems through mutual cooperation and promoting world peace.

Role of India  

India played an important role in the foundation, evolution and growth of NAM as India had been opposed to colonisation and imperialism. India along with other newly independent nations wanted to establish a new economic order that would be free from any foreign intervention. It also called for greater interaction between the developed and the developing nations. In 1983, India hosted the NAM Summit at New Delhi.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Introduction  

Subhash Chandra Bose, also popularly known as Netaji, was one of the stalwarts of the Indian National Movement. Twice elected the President of the Congress, he resigned from the post in 1939 due to ideological difference with Gandhi and established a separate political party All India Forward Block.

At the outset of the Second World War, he escaped from India and with Japanese assistance, re-organized and later led the Indian National Army to fight against the British forces. He formed the Azad Hind Government in exile and fought the Allied forces in Burma and Imphal. Subhash Chandra Bose was presumed to have died in a plane crash in 1945.

Early Life  

Subhash Chandra Bose was born in Cuttack on 23 January 1897 and went on to graduate from the Scottish Church College under the Calcutta University in 1918 and went to England for further studies. He also qualified for the Civil Services but chose to fight for freedom of India.

Bose in Congress  

In the early 1920s he joined the Congress and came under the influence of C. R. Das whom he regarded as his mentor. In 1927 he became the general secretary of Congress and worked closely with Nehru and Gandhi and other Congress leaders. He was elected as the Congress President in 1938 and again in 1939, defeating Gandhi’s nominee. But he had to resign as his ideological difference with Gandhi was coming in his ways of working for the movement.

Conflict with Gandhi  

Bose believed in socialist ideas and wanted to create a society based on equal opportunity. He believed in complete independence of India politically and economically. His main point of difference was this approach to freedom, as Gandhi believed in dominion status for India and diplomacy. Bose was convinced that British would not grant full independence to India, and so was a proponent of violent armed struggle with the help of the international community who were British enemies.

Forward Block  

Subhash Chandra  Bose after resigning from the post of Congress President, formed the Forward Block at a public rally in Calcutta in 1939. The initial aim of the party was to organize all the leftwing sections within the Congress in order to create an alternative leadership inside the Congress.

In its first conference at Nagpur under the leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose, the All India Forward Block outlined the objectives of the party as to achieve complete independence in the immediate future.

Netaji’s Escape  

The government was alarmed by the activities of Bose and as a result they arrested him in July 1940. Bose started a hunger-strike in the prison and the government had to release him from jail and put him under house arrest. Bose escaped from his home in January 1941 in the guise of a Pathan and reached Afghanistan via Peshawar. From there he reached USSR, but was not successful in drawing Russian interest and so he ultimately went to Berlin and asked Hitler for helping India gain freedom.

At Berlin, he organised the Indian Legions of the prisoner of war from Africa and established a free India Radio in November 1941 and started to broadcast patriotic speeches to inspire the feelings of his countrymen.

Azad Hind Fauj  

The overseas Indians under the leadership of Rash Behari Bose decided to form an Indian Independence League with the aim to organize and unite the Indian community to fight the British for the independence of India. Also the league was joined by 55000 Indian prisoner of war in Singapore. In 1943 the leadership of the League was handed over to Subhash Bose, who now had shifted his movement from Berlin to South-East Asia. Bose reorganized the League and formed the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) with the 55000 prisoner of wars from Japan. The Japanese government supported the INA with arms and ammunition.

On 21 October 1943, the Provisional Government of Azad Hind was formed with Bose as the head of the state and the supreme commander of the Indian National Army. The Provisional Government was recognised by 9 countries – Japan, Burma, Croatia, Germany, Philippines, Nanking China, Manchuto, Italy and Thailand. Japan also handed over the Andaman Nicobar Islands to the Provincial Government of Bose.

The initial aim of the INA was to wait for the Japanese offense at Imphal. Once they were successful in breaking the British defences, the INA would reach up the Gangetic plains and continue guerrilla warfare till a revolution started. Initially, the INA was very successful and marched with the Japanese forces up to Imphal, but soon the Allied countries started to have more success. Soon it was monsoon and the INA along with the Japanese force suffered reverses and had to retreat in Burma.

In 1945, the INA and the Japanese forces were surrounded by the Allied forces, and also Japan surrendered to the Allies, marking the end of the INA and its Provisional Government. Most of the INA troops were arrested and rest surrendered.

According to Japanese official sources Netaji died in a plane crash over Taiwan while flying to Tokyo on 18 august 1945.

Mountbatten Plan

Lord Mountbatten arrived in India in March 1947 as the last Viceroy of British India. He started negotiations with Indian leaders of different parties in order to find a solution to the political problem regarding the independence and transfer of power. He wanted a solution that would be agreeable to all the political parties. After several rounds of talks between the Viceroy and the leaders, it became apparent that it was not possible to find a workable solution that would be agreeable to both the League and the Congress.

On June 3, 1947 Lord Mountbatten came up with a plan to solve the political crisis of India, also known as the Mountbatten Plan.

Provisions of the Plan

• India would be partitioned ans a new state of Pakistan would be created along with free India.

• Pakistan would be formed with the Muslim majority provinces of Sind, Baluchistan, North-West Frontier Province, West Punjab and East Bengal, provided the Legislative assemblies of Bengal and Punjab would decide in favour of partition

• Indian dominion would be formed with the rest of British India, East Punjab and West Bengal.

• A Boundary Commission would be formed to demarcate the exact boundary line between India and Pakistan.

• Plebiscite would be held in Sylhett of Assam to decide whether the people want to join India or Pakistan

• The Princely states would be free to either join India or Pakistan or remain independent

       The Legislative Assembly of Sindh would take its own decision whether it would join India or Pakistan

• Independence would be on August 15, 1947.

The Congress accepted the Mountbatten Plan to avoid the civil war and for the unity of India as well as for the peaceful transfer of power.

Morley Minto Reforms

In 1906 the British government decided to take the advantage of the new political consciousness of the Muslims and announced a committee to look into the matter of extending the representative element in the legislative council. The Muslim leaders saw this as an opportunity for the possibility of negotiating with the government in order to safeguard their interests.

Viceroy Lord Minto assured the Muslim delegates to safeguard their interests and came up with the Morley-Minto Reforms in 1909. It accepted the Muslim demands of separate electorate for them in elections to Imperial Legislative Councils and provincial councils.

The concept of separate electorate meant that the Muslims representatives would be elected by the Muslims and the Hindu population would elect only Hindu representatives. The acceptance of separate electorate proved a fatal blow to the unity of India and acted as a precursor to the ‘Two Nation Theory’ and ultimately partition of the country on religious lines.

Civil Disobedience Movement

Background 

The failure of the Simon Commission and rejection of its recommendations, along with the death of Lajpat Rai due to police atrocities gave rise to nation-wide anger and hatred towards the British. It was decided in the Calcutta Conference of Congress that a civil disobedience movement with complete independence as its objective should be launched if the government failed to implement the dominion status soon.

Gandhi traveled across the country in order to prepare the masses for direct political action, but he was arrested leading to a widespread boycott movement. Soon Lord Irwin gave a proposal to the Congress to join Round Table Conference. The Congress leaders demanded to have discussion on only the dominion status modalities and principles of its implementation, if the government wanted it to participate in the Round Table Conference. Lord Irwin could not satisfy the Congress and as a result the Congress decided to launch a political movement called Civil Disobedience Movement under the leadership of Gandhi.

Before the launch the Congress gave 11-Point Demands to the government mainly based on military expenditure, financial and tax related reforms which was ignored by the British. As a result the Congress Working Committee gave Gandhi full power to launch the Civil Disobedience movement.

Dandi March  

It was decided that Gandhi along with a 78-member team of followers belonging to every caste, community and religion would march from the Sabramati Ashram to the coast in Dandi and break the British Salt Rule by making salt from the sea water without government permission. Gandhi along with his 78 member team marched to Dandi on 6 April 1930 and broke Salt Law by picking a handful of salt from the sea water and thus officially launched the Civil Disobedience Movement. The movement unleashed unprecedented participation of the common people.

The violation of Salt Laws started all over the country, people refused to pay taxes, foreign goods were boycotted, people boycotted courts and schools and colleges run b the government. Soon Gandhi and Nehru along with all top Congress leaders were arrested by the government. It is estimated that the government arrested around ninety thousand satyagrahis.

Impact  

The movement was withdrawn after the government tried to negotiate with the Congress and the famous Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed and the Congress agreed to participate in the Second Round Table conference in London.