Causes That Led Gandhi to Implement the Salt March

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“In 1975 The East India Company set up manufacturing monopolies” that guided the British to exercise their powers over the Indian market by applying devastating salt taxes (Watkins 121). An advocate of nonviolence disobedience, Mahatma Gandhi, relentlessly organized a strategy that refrained from using violence, to assure the Indians the proper justice for the usage of salt without any limitations. This idea led to the implementation of the Salt March, a protest of a mass from Ahmadabad to Dandi, which not only raised social awareness to the British but also highlighted a paradigm that changed the political power for the Indians. Gandhi was moved by the arduous poor workers who struggled to gather salt only to pay an enormous amount to the British. This march would also increase the confidence in the Indians and bring about Indian pride in the nation. In addition, Gandhi predicted that this protest would unify the Untouchables, Hindus, and Muslims, because they are fighting for justice that they all want equally. Gandhi’s strategy had an influence by the Indian social issues, which determined the implementation of the Salt March.

Gandhi’s influence for such protest could be traced back to the British colonization of India, which put forth many demands of change in social and political power by the Indians of the country. This colonization was the result of the East India Company’s monopoly over the trade with India, who called for an army to take over Bengal, Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Thus, the British government settled a colony officially in India. However, Gandhi says that “‘the British have not taken India; we have given it to them. They are not in India because of strength, but because we keep them’” (Watkins 121). The...

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... socialistic views of the nation. By implementing this idea of peaceful disobedience, Gandhi sought to motivate the individuals to voice their actions to the other protesters, establishing a civil belief of abomination of the British policies regarding salt taxes, and progressively removing the British out of the Indian nation.

Works Cited

Gold, Gerald. Gandhi a Pictorial Biography. 1st ed. New York: Newmarket, 1983. Print.

Mehta, Ved. Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles. 1st ed. New York: The Viking, 1977. Print.

Watkins, Philip. "The Salt March and Political Power." Culture Society & Praxis. 3.2 (2005):

121-124. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.

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Weber, Thomas. "Gandhian Nonviolence And The Salt March." Social Alternatives 21.2 (2002):

46-51. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Oct. 2011.

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