Annotated Bibliography of Gandhi and the Salt March of 1930

Associated Press (1930, April 6). Gandhi Makes Salt, Defying India’s Laws. The New
York Times.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/300406
salt-march.html
The authors, reporters for the Associated Press, provide extensive reporting of
Mahatma Gandhi’s over two-hundred-mile march to the sea from Ahmedabad to make salt in
defiance of British law that prohibited such an act. The report was made on the day that
Gandhi arrived at a seaside village of Dandi in western India and a day before he and his
followers began extraction of salt from the Arabian sea. The report is important because it
reveals the spiritual aspects of Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy. On the eve of the
momentous event of illegally drawing salt from the sea, Gandhi spent his time having
passages of the Vedas read to him and meditating. It shows how Gandhi often fused spiritual
and political matters. The article is also important because it reveals attitudes of Indian
villagers and peasants towards Gandhi’s non-violent campaigns. According to the author,
Indian peasants in whose name Gandhi conducted the Salt March were often apathetic to the
campaigns. The author’s suggestion is that Gandhi’s non-violent campaigns against the
British were an undertaking of the elites who had failed to incorporate the peasants into their
movement. This assertion is in contrast with that promoted by Sellers & Oltvai who claim
that the success of the Salt March as an example of a non-violent protest was partly due to
Gandhi’s ability to include every face of Indian society, particularly poor peasants, into the
campaigns.

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Gandhi, M. (1930, May 4). Gandhi’s letter to Lord Irwin. Gandhi Sevagram Ashram.
https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/selected-letters-of-mahatma/gandhi-
letter-to-lord-irwin.php.
In the letter to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, Gandhi informs him about his plans
to conduct a Salt March to the sea and the reasons for the march. Even though the march was
primarily meant to be a protest against Salt Laws which forced Indians to buy salt from the
British instead of making their own salt from the sea, the letter reveals that the salt march
could have also been a tool that Gandhi used to prevent violence resulting from extensive
human rights abuses that the British had committed against Indians. Gandhi lists many such
abuses, including beatings, shootings into crowds, and unlawful arrests. According to Gandhi,
Indians were angry at such acts and were willing to take up the course of violence to prevent
their continuation. Therefore, Gandhi planned to use the Salt March to show both the British
and Indians that non-violence was a better and more effective mean of addressing grievances
than violence. Gandhi warns Lord Irwin that if he prevents his non-violence acts, Indians
might resort to more radical methods that include violence. The letter is powerful because it
shed new light into the purposes of Gandhi’s Salt March. It is only when taken in the context
that is presented in the letter that one can objectively determine whether the Salt March was a
success or a failure. Additionally, the letter does a lot to let one know about how bad the
situation was in India at the time the march took place and why so many people joined
Gandhi in the march.
Livingston, A. (2018). Fidelity to truth: Gandhi and the genealogy of civil disobedience.
Political Theory, 46(4), 511-536.
In this article, Livingston traces the roots of non-violence philosophy which Gandhi
effectively applied in the 1930 Salt March. According to the author, Gandhi was not the

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originator of the philosophy; he was its most effective popularizer. In developing his non-
violence philosophy, Gandhi was greatly influenced by the teachings of Socrates as well as
Henry David Thoreau. The suggestion from the article is that to understand the philosophy
that underpinned the Salt March, it is not enough to read the works of Gandhi. One should
also familiarize themselves with works of Gandhi’s predecessors, such as Henry David
Thoreau and Socrates. What makes the article great is that it not only explains why Gandhi
supported non-violent campaigns against oppression but also examines in detail the reasons
for his aversion of violence. According to the author, an understanding of all of these aspects
of Gandhi’s philosophy is important for their correct practice in modern times. It is also
important in understanding how Gandhi organized the Salt March and why believed that
organizing the march in the manner that he did was the best way of achieving the political
goals that Indians had at the time.
Miller, Webb (1930, May 21). Natives beaten down by police in India salt raid. United
Press International. https://100years.upi.com/sta_1930-05-21.html
The author was an American journalist who was well-versed with India’s struggle for
independence and had interviewed Gandhi on multiple occasions before the Salt March.
Therefore, he was fairly knowledgeable about the philosophy of non-violence as preached
and practiced by Gandhi. In the article, he provides a detailed description of the police’s raid
on Dharasana Salt Works. After the march in Dandhi led by Gandhi, marchers planned to raid
the Dharasana Salt Works using non-violent means. Despite Gandhi’s arrest before the raid,
the raid went on as planned. However, upon reaching the works, police intervened to stop the
march and have everyone return to their homes. Miller’s article describes the methods that
the police used to stop the raid. Even though the march was peaceful, police used extremely
violent methods to try to disperse the marchers. The protesters were beaten with clubs and
many were left unconscious or nursing serious injuries. The article is important because it

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shows that even though Gandhi used non-violence methods, the response of British
authorities to the marches that he organized was often violent. The article also reveals the
powerful effect Gandhi’s teachings had on Indians. The non-violent raid of the Dharasana
Salt Works occurred Gandhi had already been arrested. However, despite his absence the
marchers did not resort to using violence even when the police responded with great use of
violence against them. The actions of the marchers in the face of extensive use of violence by
the police shows that by 1930 Gandhi had managed to make non-violence a philosophy that
was widely accepted and practiced by a large number of Indians.
Sellars, M., & Oltvai, K. (2016). The Salt March Today: Gandhian Lessons for Social
Media Activism. Denison Journal of Religion, 15(1), 6.
Sellers and Oltavai explain why they consider the 1930 Salt March a success and
examine various factors that they believe contributed to the success of the march. According
to the authors, the Salt March was a success because it became a model that was used by
India’s home-rule campaigners. It also represented a perfect implementation of Gandhi’s
nonviolence tactics which he had previously employed with little success. The authors
present two factors that they believe made the march a success. First, that Gandhi managed to
achieve great publicity for the event. Thanks to his efforts, most of the local, national, and
international media put their spotlight on the event. Secondly, the march’s success can be
attributed to inclusivity. Gandhi managed involve every community, class, and gender in the
event. While the authors single out these two factors as being the primary reason why the
march succeeded, their explanation is somehow weakened by their lack of examination of
previous non-violent campaigns led by Gandhi that failed. Little evidence is provided to show
that the previous events which the authors consider failed or moderately successful events
lacked adequate publicity or were not inclusive. On the whole, however, the author’s provide

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strong points regarding the uniqueness of the Salt March as a non-violent campaign and why
it became the symbol of India’s struggle for self-rule.
Shani, O. (2015). Gandhi’s Salt March: Paradoxes and Tensions in the Memory of
Nonviolent Struggle in India. In Cultural Memories of Nonviolent Struggles (pp.
32-51). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
The author takes an in-depth look at the Salt March and how the non-violence
example that it set is remembered in India. More important to the topic under discussion is
how the author analyzes the Salt March and Gandhi’s role in the march. According to the
author, the Salt March represented the peak of Gandhi’s non-violent campaigns that he had
started a decade earlier. The author considers the Salt March to be Gandhi’s most successful
non-violent campaign and the most impactful. However, it is important to note that the author
does not consider the Salt March to have been a success because it achieved its goals. Instead,
the author holds the march to have been a success because of the dramatic manner in which it
transformed Indian politics. According to the author, the march was instrumental in changing
India’s Congress Party from an elite party to a mass movement. The author also believes that
another major success of the march was significantly reducing the legitimacy of the British
rule. The weakened legitimacy of the British colonialists and the transformation of Congress
Party into a mass movement was critical in the achievement of India’s independence around a
decade and a half later. Thus, the authors present an interesting angle to look at when
determining whether the Salt March, and a certain degree, non-violent resistance, was a
success or failure.