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Dharasana Satyagraha
Dharasana Satyagraha was an organized movement meant to protest against the salt tax.

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Dharasana SatyagrahaDharasana Satyagraha was a protest against the British salt tax in colonial India in May, 1930. Following the conclusion of the Salt March to Dandi, Mahatma Gandhi chose a non-violent raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat as the next protest against British rule. Hundreds of Satyagrahis were beaten by soldiers under British command at Dharasana. The ensuing publicity attracted world attention to the Indian independence movement and brought into question the legitimacy of British rule in India

Background of Dharsana Satyagraha
Indian National Congress led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, on 26th January 1930 also publicly issued the Declaration of Independence or Purna Swaraj. The Dandi March concluded with the making of illegal salt by Gandhi on April 6, 1930, launched nationwide protests against the British salt tax. On the day of the protest a lot of frontline leaders were arrested like Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallavbhai Patel.

Dharasana March by Gandhi and His Followers
The entire march of Dharasana went on just as it was planned with Abbas Tyabji, a seventy six year old retired judge, leading the march along with Gandhi`s wife Kasturba Gandhi by his side. Both, however, were arrested before they could reach Dharasana and were sentenced to three months in prison. After the arrests were conducted, the peaceful agitation continued with the able leadership of Sarojini Naidu and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Some leaders of Indian National Congress disagreed with the Mahatma regarding the promotion of women for the march. There were hundreds of followers of Indian National Congress who also started marching towards the site of the Dharasana Salt Works. There were times when Naidu and the Satyagrahis also approached the salt works, before being turned by police. At a given point of time, they sat down and also waited for twenty eight hours. Hundreds more were arrested and lathi-charge followed. Many of the followers fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing in pain with fractured skulls or broken shoulders. There were helpless rage and loathing, almost as much against the men who were submitting unresistingly to being beaten as against the police wielding the clubs.

Bodies toppled over in threes and fours, bleeding from great gashes on their scalps. Group after group walked forward, sat down, and submitted to being beaten into insensibility without raising an arm to fend off the blows. Finally the police became enraged by the non-resistance. They commenced savagely kicking the seated men in the abdomen and testicles. The injured men writhed and squealed in agony, which seemed to inflame the fury of the police. The police then began dragging the sitting men by the arms or feet, sometimes for a hundred yards, and throwing them into ditches.

Aftermath of the Dharsana Satyagraha
Seeing so many people being greatly injured and, rampage by the British, there was a mass awakening among the people of India. The entire nation realized the brutal nature of the British and the urge and hunger for free and independent country started to creep in among the population.


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