The Civil Disobedience Movement started in 1930 against the salt law. The people of India and the colonial government reacted to the movement in their own way.
Reaction of the Indian people:
(i) Thousands of Indians in different parts of the country broke the salt law, manufactured salt and demonstrated in front of government salt factories.
(ii) As the movement spread, foreign cloth was boycotted and liquor shops were picketed.
(iii) Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials resigned, and in many places forest people violated forests laws – going into Reserved forests to collect wood and graze cattle.
Reaction of the government
(i) Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the congress leaders one by one. First of all they arrested Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi.
(ii) A month later, Gandhiji himself was arrested. This enraged the public. Industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal buildings law courts and railway stations — all structures that symbolised British rule.
(iii) A frightened government responded with policy brutal repression. Peaceful Satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten and thousands of people were arrested.
