explain the events that led to civil disobedience movement?

From the very start, Gandhi had an agenda of Non -violence,Swaraj, Swadeshi and Boycott. The laws of British government were most oppressive. On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands. These demands were of general interests which identified with all classes within Indian society. Salt was consumed by the rich and the poor alike. The salt tax was most stirring of all because government had monopoly over its production. The eleven demands were an ultimatum to the government failing to fulfill which he would resort to his agenda of swaraj. Hereby, Gandhi chose to break the salt law peacefully. This instigated the Civil disobedience movement and the salt march to Dandi.

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- rejection of ganhiji 's 11 demands by lord irwin
- effects of economic depression
- simon commission
- lahore session of congress

simon commision

the new Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon. Set up in response to the nationalist movement, the commission was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in India and suggest changes. The problem was that the commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British.

When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, it was greeted with the slogan ‘Go back Simon’. All parties, including the Congress and the Muslim League, participated in the demonstrations

rejection of gnghiji's 11 demands by lord irwin

gandhiji sent a letter to lord irwin stating 11 demands.

If the demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the letter stated, the Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign.

Irwin was unwilling to negotiate

So Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78 of his trusted volunteers.

The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day.

Thousands came to hear Mahatma Gandhi wherever he stopped, and he told them what he meant by swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British.

On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling sea water.

effect of the worldwide economic depression.ON INDIAN ECONOMY
- Agricultural prices began to fall from 1926
- it collapsed after 1930.
- As the demand for agricultural goods fell and exports declined, peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their revenue.
- By 1930, the countryside was in turmoil.
LAHORE SESSION OF CONGRESS

In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for India. It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as the Independence Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence. But the celebrations attracted very little attention.