Gandhiji’s Dandi March encouraged millions of Indians to defy the British by breaking the unfair salt laws of the British. Indians started making or buying salt illegally.
The non-violent satyagrahis did not defend themselves against the lathis of policemen, and many were killed instantly. The country was outraged. Gandhiji asked the people to give up wearing foreign cloth, and start using rough cotton khadi made of yarn spun by the charkha, or the wooden spinning wheel.
This would not only undermine Britain’s economic power, but also give employment to the poor in the country-side. All over India, piles of foreign cloth and foreign goods were burnt. It was civil disobedience on a scale never seen before.
The British administration was nearly paralyzed. The Viceroy, who had laughed at Gandhiji’s ‘crazy scheme of upsetting the government with a pinch of salt’, learnt that a pinch of salt could be more powerful than the mightiest cannon!