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The Calcutta Congress was held in December 1928 under the Presidentship of Motilal Nehru. A revolutionary spirit was aroused in the youth of the country.

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Representing the younger generation, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose opposed the all-Parties’ report supporting Dominion status.

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Effecting a compromise, Gandhi moved a resolution that gave a year’s grace to the Government for granting Dominion Status and warned,” in the event of its non-acceptance by December31,

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Political tension was mounting. A rude awakening came on April 8, when Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt dropped two bombs in the Central Assembly as a protest on behalf of those who had no other means

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Deploring the incident, Gandhi appealed to the people to pursue non-violence with redoubled vigour.

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Gandhi’s epoch-making autobiography his experiments with truth till 1920 appeared in two volumes. “My life from this point onwards,” argued he,

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Gandhi hailed the young President-elect of the Congress, “Jawaharlal is pure as the crystal, he is truthful beyond suspicion…he has, by his bravery,

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The year of grace was coming to an end…
The forty-fifth session of the Indian National Congress met on the banks of the Ravi on the outskirts of Lahore.

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Motilal Nehru handed over charge of the Congress Presidentship to Jawaharlal.

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Son followed father and declared himself a socialist and a republican. Independence, for him, meant complete freedom from British domination and British imperialism.

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The overflowing enthusiasm was for a symbol and an ideal. The atmosphere was surcharged with the gravity of the occasion.

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At the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1929, as the old year yielded place to the new, Gandhi’s historic resolution on Independence and the action to be taken was passed.

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To give a start to the campaign, January 26, 1930, was observed as Independence Day…the vast multitudes all over the country solemnly pledged…”We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people,

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We hold it to be a crime against man and God to submit any longer to a rule that has caused disaster to our country…’

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The celebration gave the necessary impetus to Gandhi convincing him that time was ripe for action.

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He published an eleven-point manifesto stressing that total prohibition, reduction of the land-revenue and the military expenditure and abolition of the salt-tax were the vital needs of the people.

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“Next to air and water, salt is perhaps the greatest necessity of life,” wrote Gandhi.

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In a letter to the Viceroy, he announced his intention “if my letter makes no appeal to you heart, on the eleventh day of this month, I shall proceed to disregard the provisions of the salt law

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On receiving a ‘no’ from the Viceroy, Gandhi exclaimed,” On bended knees I asked for bread and I received stone instead…”

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Gandhi resolved that he would himself perform the first act of civil disobedience by taking salt illegally form the sea with select Ashram inmates for whom non-violence was an article of faith..

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India was preparing to vindicate its right to freedom. On March 9, 1930 crowds and crowds of men, women and children forded the river Sabarmati.

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Gandhi devoted all his time and energy to an intensive preparation of the Ashram for the final conflict at the appointed hour… Every one was on the tiptoe of expectation.

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On the eve of the historic salt march, Gandhi touched the tender chords of the people’s hearts when he said, “these may be the last words of my life on the sacred banks the Sabarmati…

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Hoping that the stream of civil resisters would flow unbroken, he gave the instruction, “after I have broken the law wherever possible, civil disobedience of salt laws should be started by manufacturing, purchasing and selling contraband salt…

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On March 12, with the coming of daylight, India’s soul was awake…More and more eager and throbbing crowds collected…Prayer having been sung, the pilgrim was ready to make the great beginning of the great movement…

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The long awaited hour arrived and he was there. Great march for liberty began. Gandhi started on his 241-mile-long trek from the Ashram to Dandi- a village on the sea-cost along with his chosen band of seventy-eight Ashram inmates,...

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As the epic march began, multitudes thundered out their welcome to the revolution and expressed their will to go and die through the cries of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.

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Sixty-one year old Gandhi, with his undying faith in the justice of the cause he was pursuing, and in the success of the great campaign he had embarked upon, marched at the head of the procession with quick and unfaltering steps.

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“The pilgrim marches onward on his long trek through the seas of humanity, to the appointed place, where India is first coming to grips with the great British Empire’, observed Jawaharlal Nehru.

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“Staff in hand, he goes along the dusty roads of Gujarat, clear-eyed and firm of step with his faithful band trudging along behind him. Many a journey he has undertaken in the past, many a weary road traversed. But longer than any that have gone before is this last journey of his,...

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The soldiers of freedom marched all long the distance of thirteen miles to Asiali, the first halt.

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The villagers gave a ceremonial reception to the Satyagrahis on the outskirts of the village.

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After the day’s march through heat and dust, Gandhi and his followers entered the village dharmashala for the night’s rest.

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In the evening the prayer meeting was held in the village, Gandhi explained his mission, “the soldiers of the first batch had burnt their boats the moment the march began”…he added that he would not return to the Ashram until the salt act was repealed and Swaraj won.

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He expounded the real nature of democracy, “ We want to establish a Government which will not do anything against the will of the people.”

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He exhorted the villagers to take to the spinning wheel, to look to the sanitation of the village and to treat the untouchables with brotherly love. He also urged them to join the movement to break the most inhuman poll-tax as it would be a step forward on the way to Swaraj.