Question

Mahatma Gandhi started the salt satyagraha in the year __________.
a. 1930
b. 1931
c. 1929
d. 1928

Answer 1

Hint:
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March, and the Dandi Satyagraha, Salt Satyagraha movement was based on Gandhi's principles of nonviolent protest called satyagraha, which he loosely interpreted as "truth-force" It is made up of the Sanskrit words Satya, "truth" and agrapha, "insistence".

Complete solution:
Salt March, also known as Dandi March or Salt Satyagraha, was a major non-violent protest in India led by Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi in March–April 1930. The march was the first act of an even larger campaign of civil disobedience (satyagraha) waged by Gandhi against British rule in India, which lasted to early 1931, and garnered widespread support among the Indian population and significant worldwide publicity.

Salt production and distribution in India has long been a lucrative monopoly of the British. Under a variety of rules, the Indian population was forbidden from manufacturing or selling salt individually, and instead, the Indians were forced to buy costly, heavily taxed salt that was mostly imported. This affected the vast majority of Indians who were poor and could not afford to purchase it. Indian demonstrations against the salt tax started in the 19th century and remained a major contentious issue in the world.

At the beginning of 1930, Gandhi planned to organize a highly visible protest against the increasingly oppressive salt tax by marching through what is now the western Indian state of Gujarat from his ashram (religious retreat) in Sabarmati (near Ahmedabad) to the town of Dandi (near Surat) on the Arabian Sea coast. On March 12, he set out on foot, joined by a few hundred supporters. After each day's march, the party stopped in another village along the way, where more and more crowds would gather to hear Gandhi rail against the unfairness of the tax on poor people.

Thousands were arrested and imprisoned, including Jawaharlal Nehru in April and Gandhi himself in early May, after telling Lord Irwin (the viceroy of India) of his plan to march on the nearby Dharasana salt works. News of Gandhi's arrest inspired tens of thousands more to join the satyagraha. The march on the saltworks took place as scheduled on May 21, led by the poet Sarojini Naidu, and many of the 2,500 or so peaceful marchers were assaulted and beaten by the police. At the end of this year, some 60,000 people were in jail.

Hence, the correct answer is option A.

Note:
Gandhi was released from custody in January 1931 and began talks with Lord Irwin to end the Satyagraha movement. Subsequently, a truce was proclaimed, formalized in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact signed on 5 March. The calming of tensions paved the way for Gandhi, representing the Indian National Congress, to attend the second session (September–December 1931) of the London Round Table Meeting.