The Salt March was peaceful, simple, and effective.

The longing for independence was strong, but it took a brilliant leader and his unusual approach to resistance to finally restore South Asian rule to South Asians.

The direct approach — military rebellion against the British — had proved a bloody failure. Although native Indians did at times make small gains, it seemed that the British kept on wringing more wealth from their colony at every turn.

In 1885, though, 73 native men from all over India formed the Indian National Congress. This organization became the heart of the movement for Indian independence and quickly attracted many followers.

In fact, by the third year of its existence, the Indian National Congress comprised 300 members. The Congress had very few Muslims in its ranks, which consisted mostly of Hindus. Muslims interested in achieving independence from European rule eventually formed the Muslim League.

In addition to its powerful army, Britain wielded economic might in its effort to keep native South Asians obedient. By selling goods manufactured in Britain to South Asian workers and citizens, the British ensured that money would continue to flow into their own pockets and that the South Asians would remain poor and dependent.

A man of peace and prayer, Gandhi's message touched the world.

The Swadeshi Movement arose to break British economic domination. Followers of the movement urged native South Asians to avoid buying products and goods made by the British and brought to India from overseas. Instead, they urged South Asians to buy clothing, food, and other items from their neighbors or to make such things themselves.

The Great Soul

Gandhi came from a wealthy background, but in South Africa he came fact to face with the suffering and poverty of underprivileged peoples. White South Africans imposed harsh taxes on Indians in order to make sure the Indians did not become too powerful politically.

Mohandas Gandhi spread his message of love and peace to India and the world.

The work of Gandhi and others to oppose this discrimination met with only limited success, but it led him to begin to develop his ideology of nonviolent resistance.

He called his idea satyagraha, which means "insistence on truth" in Sanskrit. He believed that injustices such as those practiced by white South Africans against others were so blatantly wrong that, simply by living and working according to one's own principles, one could change and ultimately overcome one's oppressors without ever resorting to violence. By putting this philosophy into practice, Gandhi and his followers managed to soften some of South Africa's racist laws.

The Struggle Continues

One of the founders of the Indian National Congress was a Scotsman named Allan Octavian Hume. An ornithologist by trainina and a senior civil servant in India, he served as the INC's general secretary for its first 22 years.

And fight Gandhi did — but never violently. He urged all Indians to live according to the ideals of the swadeshi movement, but he also began staging protests by directly violating unjust British laws.

One way the British kept Indians poor and dependent was by taxing salt, an important commodity in Indian cooking. The British insisted that they earn money off the manufacture and sale of all salt. Gandhi believed this to be yet another unjust law, so he flagrantly and publicly violated it as a symbol of his objection to British rule.

In 1930, he led the Salt March, in which he walked many miles to the ocean and made salt from the waves by a traditional Indian method.

Independence at Last

Inspired by the hunger strike of Mahatma Gandhi, the Tibetan Youth Congress organized a hunger strike in 1998 to encourage action against human rights violations in Tibet.

Hindus and Muslims frequently fought one another over difference of religious ideology, even though they both wanted independence from Britain. Gandhi was himself a Hindu, but he believed that violence between Hindus and Muslims must stop. Several times when violence erupted between the groups, Gandhi went on hunger strikes in protest. He came near to death on one of these strikes, and he was quite willing to die for his principles. Dismayed by the violence, Gandhi refused even to celebrate when independence was granted from Britain.

Not all Hindus and Muslims agreed with Gandhi about the importance of unity. Although Gandhi had many followers — Hindu, Muslim, and even British — some believed that his charismatic leadership and ideas about nonviolence threatened to destroy or undermine their own principles. Through nonviolent leadership and hunger strikes, Gandhi had managed to stop rioting in Calcutta and had brought peace to the city of Delhi in January 1948. But on January 30, 1948, a Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse shot and killed Gandhi.

During his life, Gandhi's leadership and charisma earned him both fear and admiration from the British. From native Indians, he received adoration. His ideas about nonviolence and the evils of colonialism not only helped push the British out of India, they influenced the entire world. Not long after India won its independence in 1947, European colonialists began to liberate countries they had long exploited all over the world.

Gandhi's World Instructions: Try to identify the person or term described in the white box. The number of blank spaces is the same as the number of letters in the answer. When a letter pops out of a hole, click on it if it matches the next letter in the answer. Click Here!

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