Under the leadership of Gandhiji, congress launched the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. It started with the Dandi March. On 12 March 1930, Gandhiji with some of his followers left the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad and traveled towards dandi, a village on the west coast of India.

After traveling for twenty-five days and covering a distance of three hundred and eighty-five km, the group reached Dandi on 6 April 1930. Here, Gandhiji protested against the Salt Law (salt was a monopoly of the British government and no Indian was allowed to make salt) by making salt himself and throwing up a challenge to the British government. The dandi March marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

The movement spread and salt laws were challenged in other parts of the country. Salt became the symbol of people�s opposition to the government. In Tamil Nadu, C Rajagopalachari led a similar march from Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam. In Gujarat, Sarojini Naidu protested in front of the salt depots. Lakhs of people, including a large number of women actively participated in these protests.
The Civil Disobedience Movement carried forward the unfinished work of the Non-Cooperation Movement. The whole country became involved in it.

Hartals put life at a standstill. There was a large-scale boycott of schools, colleges, and offices. Foreign goods were burnt in bonfires. People stopped paying taxes. In the North-West Frontier Province, the movement was led by khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as �Frontier Gandhi�. For a few days, British control over Peshawar and Sholapur ended. People faced the lathis and bullets of the police with supreme courage.

No one struck back at the police. The movement was totally non-violent. As reports and photographs of this extraordinary protest began to appear in newspapers across the world, there was growing support for India�s freedom struggle.

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