Mahatma Gandhi kick-started the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34) with the historic Dandi march against the repressive Salt Act of the British government. The Civil Disobedience Movement was marked by a unique character, regional spatial patterns and employment of new mobilization techniques, as discussed below:

Unique in character:

• This was the first nation-wide movement, as the other movements were to some extent restricted to the urban areas. It saw the active participation of the capitalist class and women for the first time in large numbers.
• Among the various forms of defiance, this period witnessed a new kind of no tax campaign i.e. the refusal to pay the chowkidar tax.
• Other unique forms of defiance included symbolic hoisting of Congress flags, holding of illegal Congress sessions, no-rent as well as no-revenue campaigns, violation of forest laws, illegal activities like secret radio transmitters.

Spread and pattern of the movement:

• Southern India: C. Rajagopalachari led a march from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranniyam (in Tamil Nadu) followed by widespread picketing of foreign cloth shops. In Malabar, K. Kelappan led a march from Calicut to Payyannur. District salt marches were organised in east and west Godavari, Krishna, and Guntur of Andhra Pradesh where the merchants in the region contributed to Congress funds.
• Eastern India: Gopabandhu Choudhury led the movement from Cuttack to Inchudi in Balasore sea coast in Orissa and it extended to Puri district as well. Satyagrahis in Assam walked from Sylhet to Noakhali (Bengal) to make salt. Also, Midnapur, Arambagh, and several rural pockets of Bengal witnessed powerful movements developed around salt satyagraha and chowkidar tax.
• Western India: Maharashtra and Central Provinces saw defiance of forest laws such as grazing and timber restrictions. A determined no-tax movement was organised in Anand, Borsad, and Nadiad areas in Kheda district, Bardoli in Surat district in Gujarat. Sarojini Naidu, Imam Sahib, and Manilal (Gandhiji’s son) took up the unfinished task of leading a raid on the Dharasana Salt Works.

Mobilization techniques followed:

• Organisation of volunteer corps and sankirtan processions in towns and villages popularised the message of Swaraj.
• Prabhat pheris were organised, wherein people including women and children in the villages and towns went around at dawn singing nationalist songs.
• Organisation of magic lantern shows and secret circulation of booklets containing nationalist literature in the villages spread nationalist ideas amongst the people.
• The setting up of underground Congress ashrams became a familiar mode of nationalist activities. Similarly, rural market places, temples and Gandhian ashrams became significantly new sites of nationalist activities.
• Widespread circulation of ‘illegal’ news-sheets or ‘Congress bulletins’ or patrikas either handwritten or cyclostyled to challenge the legitimacy of the Press Acts emerged as innovative ways of mobilizing people.
• Children volunteered to organise themselves into vanara sena or monkey squads and girls formed their own separate manjari sena or cat army.

The Civil Disobedience Movement, truly marked by an all-India character and spirit, is a milestone in India’s struggle for independence. The movement was temporarily withdrawn in the wake of the Gandhi-Irwin pact. However, after the failure of the Second Round Table Conference in 1932, the movement was resumed and finally fully withdrawn in 1934.