Dandi March Day is celebrated every year in India on the 12th of March with great enthusiasm by the people to commemorate the Salt Satyagraha as a non-violence campaign run by the Bapu in the continuation of the Indian Independence Movement.
Dandi March Day 2024
Dandi March Day 2024 was observed on the 12th of March, Tuesday.
Prime Minister and the members of all political parties paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion. People also held talks and discussions and shared the history of the Dandi March and its importance.
Various programs were held across the nation to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha.
What is a Dandi March/Salt March?
The Dandi March was a protest against the British salt monopoly in India. Participants wore white khadi and marched to the sea to harvest salt, defying British law. The march became a symbol of Indian resistance to British colonialism.
As a direct action campaign against British taxation, this march began in India. It was a nonviolent protest by the Indians to resist the British salt domination in India.
The Civil Disobedience Movement was a movement by the Indian people against British rule. It was a challenge to British authority.
Who Led The Dandi March?
Dandi March was led by the Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu) from his Sabarmati Ashram (near Ahmedabad) to the Dandi, a coastal village located in a city named Navsari, Gujarat.
The Indian people marched for 390 km over 24 days to get their own salt without paying any tax to the British Government.
On April 5, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi broke the salt laws by collecting salt from the sea at 6:30 am. This march caught fire as a big Indian civil disobedience against the salt laws of the British Raj.
Before starting a Satyagraha at Dharasana Salt Works (25 miles away from Dandi towards the south), he got arrested on the 4–5th (midnight) of May in the year 1930. Together with the Bapu, around 80,000 people in India were sent to jail after the Salt Satyagraha.
The Salt Satyagraha campaign was run by the leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi, as a nonviolent protest against British Rule. The literal meaning of the Satyagraha is the “truth force”.
This campaign in India affected a lot to the American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped him in his civil rights fight for blacks during the 1960s.
Contribution Of Dandi March In The Indian Independence Movement
The Dandi March’s campaign was the continuation of the Indian Independence Movement which affected British rule to a great extent. In 1929, at midnight on the 31st of December, a tricolor Indian flag was made by the Indian National Congress at Lahore.
The Indian National Congress party, led by Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, fought for the freedom of Purna Swaraj of India.
British rule ruined India in every way if it was politically, economically, culturally, or spiritually. Salt Satyagraha was proved as a big way to break British rule and accomplish Purna Swaraj in India. This campaign was held under the leadership of Gandhi Ji as the first civil disobedience against the British salt tax.
The Salt Act of 1882 granted the British government authority over the production of salt in India, making it illegal for Indians to produce their salt.
The British taxed salt in India, which caused hardship for the poorest Indians. To protest the tax and produce their salt, Mahatma Gandhi and 78 others walked from the Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat.
The first day of the march ended with 21 km in the Aslali village. Throughout the whole march, various villages were passed and crowds increased on the way of March by beating the drums and singing the Hindu bhajan “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram”.
Bapu denoted in his speech that the salt tax is inhuman whereas the salt Satyagraha is a “poor man’s battle”. This movement was very necessary to bring poor people on the way to fight for their own freedom, rights, and country.
Dandi March Day Celebration in India
The Great Salt March campaign celebration is organized every year by the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation to commemorate the event which has also been named the “International Walk for Justice and Freedom”.
The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi (Tushar Gandhi) including several other marchers follows the same Dandi route.
During the celebration of the year 2005, the march was started on the 12th of March in Ahmedabad in the presence of Sonia Gandhi.
The Government of India issued a series of stamps commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Dandi March in 2005.
Read More:
| March Social Events | Date of Celebration |
| National Safety Day | 4th March |
| International Women’s Day | 8th March |
| Dandi March Day | 12th March |
| World Kidney Day | 12th March |
| Ordnance Factories Day | 18th March |
| International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination | 21st March |
| World Forestry Day | 21st March |
| World Water Day | 22nd March |
| Martyrs Day | 23rd March and 30th January |
| World Meteorological Day | 23rd March |
| World TB Day | 24th March |