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The Salt Satyagraha was a mass civil disobedience movement initiated by Mahatma Gandhi against the salt tax imposed by the British government in India. He led a large group of people from Sabarmati Ashram on March 12, 1930 till Dandi, a coastal village in Gujarat, to break the salt law by producing salt from seawater.

Effect of Salt Satyagraha:

1. It pushed Indian freedom struggle into the limelight in western media.
2. It showed the power of non-violent Satyagraha as a tool for fighting oppression.

1. The Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 by the British government despite the united opposition of the Indian members.
2. It gave enormous powers to the government.
3. Indian people wanted to oppose it. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi they decided to launch a nationwide Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act 1919.
4. Rallies were organised in various cities.
5. Workers went on strike in railway workshops.
6. Shops were shut down.

To suppress the nationalists, the British administration:

1. Put the local leaders in jail.
2. Prevented Mahatma Gandhi from entering Delhi.
3. On April 10, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession.

1. When Indian leaders were arrested, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar, facing police batons and firing. Many were killed.
2. A month later Mahatma Gandhi himself was arrested; industrial workers attacked police posts, government buildings, law courts and railway stations and all institutions that symbolised the British rule.
3. To break the deadlock between Congress and the government, Lord Irwin invited Gandhiji to a peace pact i.e. Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
4. In such a situation, Gandhiji decided to call off the movement.
5. It couldn't sustain the Khilafat movement launched.

Khilafat Movement was a united struggle launched by Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Shaukat Ali with the cooperation of Mahatma Gandhi.

The First World War ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. There were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the Ottoman emperor, the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa). The Sultan was deprived of real authority even over those territories which were left under his control. This angered the Muslims in India.

To defend the powers of Khalifa and avert harsh peace treaty to be imposed on the Ottoman Empire, the Khilafat Committee was formed in 1919 in Bombay.

1. The Civil Disobedience movement was to be withdrawn.
2. Peaceful picketing was allowed but picketing for the boycott of foreign goods was not to be followed beyond a limit permitted by law.
3. The National Congress was to participate in the second round table conference.
4. Notifications declaring associations unlawful were to be withdrawn.

On April 13, 1919 a large crowd gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh - some to protest against the British government's repressive measures, others to attend the annual Baisakhi fair. The people were unaware of the imposition of Martial law in the city.

General Dyer, the Commander blocked the exit points of the area and opened fire upon the innocent citizens. His intention was to produce a "moral effect" and favourable submission. Hundreds of innocent people including women and children were killed, and injured due to this indiscriminate firing by the British soldiers. This incident was the most brutal incident in the history of British India.

Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal (known as Lal-Bal-Pal)

1. The sepoys lacked one clear leader; there were several. They also did not have a coherent plan by which the foreigners would be ousted.
2. Indian rulers who supported the revolt did not envision any plan for the country after the British were defeated.
3. Majority of northern India was affected by the revolt while Bombay and Madras remained mostly unaffected.

After arriving in India, Mahatma Gandhi successfully organized Satyagraha movements in various places:

1. In 1917, he travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
2. Then in 1917, he organised a Satyagraha to support the peasants of Kheda district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the peasants were unable to pay the revenue.
3. In 1918, he went to Ahmedabad to organise a Satyagraha movement amongst cotton mill workers.