Civil disobedience is the active, professedrefusal to obey certain laws, demands, orcommands of a government, or of anoccupying international power.

Civil disobedience is sometimes, thoughnot always, defined as being nonviolentresistance.

On 31st January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi sent aletter to Viceroy Irwin stating 11 wide-rangingdemands that involved all classes of the Indiansociety. The most stirring of all was the demandto abolish the Salt Tax.

Salt was something consumed by rich and pooralike and the Salt Tax and the Governmentmonopoly on salt production revealed the mostoppressive face of British rule.

Gandhi said that if his demands were not fulfilledby 11th March, he would launch a CivilDisobedience Campaign.

Irwin was unwilling to negotiate and so Gandhijistarted his famous Dandi March with 78volunteers and walked 240 miles from Sabarmatito Dandi in 24 days.

On 6th April, he reached Dandi and ceremoniallyviolated the law, manufacturing salt by boilingsea water. This marked the beginning of the CivilDisobedience Movement.

People were now asked not only to refusecooperation, as they had done during theNon-Cooperation Movement in 1921-22,but also break colonial laws.

Thousands of people in different parts ofthe country broke the Salt Law anddemonstrated in front of government saltfactories.

As the Movement spread, foreign clothwas boycotted, and liquor shops werepicketed.

Peasants refused to pay revenue andchaukidari taxes and village officialsresigned.

In many places, people violated forest lawsby going into Reserved Forests to collectwood and graze cattle.

• Worried by the Movement, the colonialgovernment began arresting Congress leadersone by one, leading to violent clashes atmany places.

• When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout discipleof Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in April1930, angry crowds demonstrated in thestreets of Peshawar, facing armoured carsand police firing. Many were killed.

» When Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings, law courts and railway stations – all structures that symbolized the British rule.

» A frightened government responded with brutal repression, Peaceful Satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten up and about 1,00,000 people were arrested.

ø In such a situation, Gandhiji decided to call off the Movement and entered into a pact with Irwin on 5th March 1931.

ø He agreed to participate in the Second Round Table Conference in London and the Government agreed to release the political prisoners.

ø Gandhiji went to London for the Conference, but the negotiations broke down and he returned disappointed.

* When he came back to India, Gandhijidiscovered that Jawaharlal Nehru and GhaffarKhan were both in jail.

* The Congress had been declared illegal, and aseries of measures had been imposed toprevent meetings, demonstrations andboycotts.

* Gandhiji relaunched the Civil DisobedienceMovement. For over a year, the movementcontinued, but by 1934, it lost its momentum.