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The Salt March, also known as the Dandi March and the Salt Satyagraha, was an act of civil disobedience. It was a march in colonial India initiated by Mohandas Gandhi to produce salt from seawater as was the practice of Bhartiya (Indian) people until British officials deemed such production to be illegal and repeatedly used force to stop it. The March began on 12 March 1930, and was a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. The march gained worldwide attention and gave impetus to the Indian independence movement; it started the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement. The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation movement of 1920–22, and directly followed the Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930. Gandhi (commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi) led the Dandi March from his base, Sabarmati Ashram, near the city of Ahmedabad. 78 people began the march with Gandhi, who intended to walk 240 miles (390 km) to the coastal village of Dandi, which was located at a small town called Navsari in the state of Gujarat. As Gandhi and the others continued on what would become a 24-day march to Dandi to produce salt without paying the tax, growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians.〔"Mass civil disobedience throughout India followed as millions broke the salt laws", from Dalton's introduction to Gandhi's ''Civil Disobedience''. Gandhi & Dalton, 1996, p. 72.〕 The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitudes towards Indian sovereignty and self-rule 〔Johnson, p. 37.〕〔Ackerman & DuVall, p. 109.〕 and caused large numbers of Indians to join the fight for the first time. After making salt at Dandi, Gandhi continued southward along the coast, producing salt and addressing meetings on the way. The Congress Party planned to stage a satyagraha at the Dharasana Salt Works, 25 miles south of Dandi. However, Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at Dharasana. The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage. The satyagraha against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi's release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference.〔Dalton, p. 92.〕 Over 80,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha.〔Johnson, p. 234.〕 However, it failed to result in major concessions from the British.〔Ackerman & DuVall, pp. 106.〕 The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of nonviolent protest called ''satyagraha'', which he loosely translated as "truth-force" or "truthful demand"."〔"Its root meaning is holding onto truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it Love-force or Soul-force." Gandhi (2001), p. 6.〕 Literally, it is formed from the Sanskrit words ''satya'', "truth", and ''agraha'', "insistence". In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organise the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating by British police of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in Dharasana, which received worldwide news coverage, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice.〔Martin, p. 35.〕 The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American activists Martin Luther King, Jr., James Bevel, and others during the movement for civil rights for blacks and other minority groups in the 1960s.〔King, p. 23.〕 ==Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule == (詳細はIndian National Congress raised the tricolour flag of India on the banks of the Ravi at Lahore. The Indian National Congress , led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, publicly issued the Declaration of sovereignty and self-rule, or Purna Swaraj, on 26 January 1930.〔"The pledge was taken publicly on 26 January 1930,at morning thereafter celebrated annually as Purna Swaraj Day." Wolpert, 2001, p. 141.〕 (Literally in Sanskrit, ''purna'', "complete," ''swa'', "self," ''raj'', "rule," so therefore "complete self-rule".) The declaration included the readiness to withhold taxes, and the statement: We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full opportunities of growth. We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. We believe therefore, that India must sever the British connection and attain ''Purna Swaraj'' or complete sovereignty and self-rule.〔Wolpert, 1999, p. 204.〕 The Congress Working Committee gave Gandhi the responsibility for organising the first act of civil disobedience, with Congress itself ready to take charge after Gandhi's expected arrest.〔Ackerman & DuVall, p. 83.〕 Gandhi's plan was to begin civil disobedience with a satyagraha aimed at the British salt tax. The 1882 Salt Act gave the British a monopoly on the collection and manufacture of salt, limiting its handling to government salt depots and levying a salt tax.〔Dalton, p. 91.〕 Violation of the Salt Act was a criminal offence. Even though salt was freely available to those living on the coast (by evaporation of sea water), Indians were forced to purchase it from the colonial government. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Salt March」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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