SALT SATYAGRAHA IN THE COASTAL TAMIL NADU (1930-1931)

Dr.V.VENKATRAMAN, Ph.D., D.Litt D.EBI JAMES

Associate Professor and Head Assistant Professor
Research Centre in History Research Centre in History
Rajapalayam Rajus’ College Rajapalayam Rajus’ College
Rajapalayam-626117 Rajapalayam - 626117

Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India declared on 31 st October 1929, that
the goal of British policy was to confer Dominion Status on India. But a subsequent
meeting between Lord Irwin and Gandhi revealed that the Dominion Status
contemplated by Viceroy’s pronouncement was not up to the expectation of Gandhi .
Hence the Lahore Congress of 1929 had authorized the Working Committee to launch
a programme of Civil Disobedience 1 including, non-payment of taxes. Gandhi put
forth the program to be observed by the people on 26 th January 1930 as Purna Swaraj
Day which was approved by the Congress Working Committee 2. On 15th February
1930, the Congress Working Committee meeting held at Ahmadabad, authorized
Gandhi to launch the Civil Disobedience movement at time and place of his choice.
The Civil Disobedience began on the issue of Salt Tax. On 12 th March he began his
march to Dandhi with a band of devoted Satyagrahi’s to breach the Salt Law 3. Gandhi
appealed to his country men to start the Salt Satyagraha at their respective region.
Tamil Nadu played a commendable role in conducting Salt Satyagraha on the
Gandhian model. It was conducted in various places like Marin Beach at Madras,
Sholinganallur, Vedaranyam and Tuticorin and in the small coastal villages like
Killai, Owari, Devanampattinam and Tharuvaikulam which imbibed the spirit of
nationalism among the mind of people. This paper deals the incident on the micro
level narrating the events from the grass root level.

Salt Tax
The salt industry is one of the oldest industries in India 4.It was a cottage
industry for ages along the coast of Bengal, Bombay, Madras and the Rann of Cutch 5.
The salt tax was levied by British in India. The salt policy of the British was an

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important factor for their administration. Salt may appear an insignificant factor in
South Indian economy but its impact on nationalism cannot be ignored6.

Satyagraha of Gandhi
Gandhi coined the word Satyagraha which is Indian origin 7.The
evolution of the word Satyagraha has an interesting history .It was used to name the
movement which Gandhi had started in South Africa. “What name to give our
movement”8.In South Africa Gandhi started a movement of Indians between the years
1906 and 1914 against the unjust and inhuman laws of the British government which
was working under the racial and social discrimination .In its early stages he labeled
this movement as ‘passive resistance’ . But very soon he found the English phrase
‘passive resistance’ an inadequate description of the movement which was creating a
new force 9.After his return to India in January 1915 he used the same measures
against the British salt laws. Gandhi the leader of mass of the nation commenced the
Salt Satyagraha march on 12th March 1930 from the Sabarmathi Ashram with 77
Satyagrahis to break the salt laws at Dandi beach, as a token of Civil Disobedience
Movement programme .They reached Dandi on 5th April, 1930. Gandhi himself broke
the salt law by picking salt lying on the Dandi beach on 6 th April 193010. Further,
Gandhi appealed the Congress men to conduct similar movement at their respective
regions.

Marina Beach Satyagraha Madras

Madras, though the capital of the Madras presidency and had a large
number of Telugu speaking people blurted out during Salt Satyagraha movement. The
energetic and patriotic call of veteran leaders like T.Prakasam and K.Nagewara Rao
organized the salt Satyagraha11. The first batch was chosen for this purpose consisted
of 32 volunteers. Two days before the actual date for breaking the salt laws,
T.Prakasam informed the Government that he and his colleagues would prepare the
salt at Marina beach in Madras on 22 nd April 193012. People in thousands thronged the
Marina beach to witness the scene. The Marina beach which was located in Triplicane
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area he broke the salt law under with a of enthusiastic volunteers .According to the
British, preparation of salt was unlawful and so everybody was anxiously waiting to
see the consequences. After boiling the sea water on the beach first, the same
afternoon produced salt in his residence. Salt making and other demonstrations were
indulged in and were at first treated with forbearance as being contemptible. It soon,
however became evident that defiance of law and order in any form, however
ridiculous was at a danger of the public peace and stronger measure become
necessary. The first step was to arrest of the leader13.
Here the Salt and the Police officials got specific instructions and ready to
take punitive measures. Once he had successfully violated salt laws on the Madras
beach openly, T.Prakasam next wanted to prepare salt in indoors at his Udayana
beach in Mylapore14.He collected the salt water in brines from the beach and heated
them. While at the beach the public allowed him to go scot-free, but all of a sudden
F.L.Mullay, the Deputy Commissioner, rushed and tried to seize the white powder.
But T.Prakasam’s followers resisted and didn’t yield. On knowing that large crowd
gathered outside, the Police gave up the recovering the salt powder but contented with
arresting sheet anchor of this movement T.Prakasam. He was taken to the Mylapore
magistrate put a question whether he felt guilt. He replied boldly that he broke the salt
law intentionally. He didn’t show the signs of defiance or abetment. The Magistrate
was satisfied and ordered him to be released to the surprise to both Police and
Public15.

Killai Satyagraha
Apart from the main beaches of Tamil Nadu the Satyagrahis of remote areas
of coastal Tamil Nadu conducted the Salt Satyagraha in different coastal Villages
Nainappa Pillai a local congress leader of Killai took the decision of conducting salt
Satyagraha with Rajagopalachari , President of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee .
The President accepted the decision to conduct the Salt Satyagraha .The local leaders
were much concern in mobilizing mass support for the Satyagraha. They started a trail
at Killai a small, village two kilometers north east of Chidambaram on 11 th April
193016. Nainappa Pillai and Uppu Bhavaraga Moorthy along with 5 volunteers started
their march towards Killai .After four hours walk they reached the sea shore.
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Nainappa Pillai fired the oven to boil the water. Meanwhile a salt peon of the Public
Department came to the spot and thwarted the attempt of salt preparation. At this
juncture the Satyagrahis returned to Chidambaram with a great hope of increasing the
Satyagraha on the next day17.That was also ended in failure. However the desire of the
Satyagraha to break the salt law never subsided in this coastal village18.

Devanampatinam Satyagraha
There is a populous fishing village on Cuddalore beach called
Devanampattinam in Nagapattinam Taluk19 .On 15th April 1930 Nainappa Pillai sent
in advance one of the volunteer namely Srinivasa Ayyangar to the District Magistrate
Cuddalore to inform him about salt Satyagraha on 16 th April20. They traveled about
sixteen kilometers per day and reached Cuddalore on the morning of 16 th April. The
local Congress leaders, notably Sundara Naidu and Kumarasamy hosted them with a
warm welcome21 . The villagers of Devanampattinam began to help the volunteers
with fuel and refreshed them with coconuts when they reached from their days
activities22. After reaching the shore the volunteers were directed to collect the sea
water, firewood and to set up ovens of clay bocks on the sea shore. Then the
Satyagrahis started to prepare salt by boiling the sea water. Amidst the preparation,
salt peons of the Public Department came to the spot and thwarted the attempt of
Satyagrahis by pouring sea water on the oven. Similar attempts made by various
persons at Devanampttinam. The Police and salt peons take steps to check their
activities .The Salt Satyagraha at Devanampattinam drew every one’s attention in the
district not only for it’s long drawn out process , but also for the enthusiastic
involvement of innumerable people in that great struggle as they bore the repression
of the government23.

Sholinganallur Satyagraha
Another important centre of Salt Satyagraha in Tamil Nadu was
Sholinganallur , situated near Madras . It may be equated with the Salt Satyagraha at
Vedharanyam in terms of the way and it was organized and the enthusiasm of the

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local people. The camp was run from 16 th April to 16th May of 1930. The volunteers
who had come to Madras from Gudiyattam, North Arcot district had to reach to
Sholinganallur by bus. But they were prevented from getting into the bus by the
police. So they marched in a procession to Sholinganallur 24. Here the movement was
led by Sankara Iyer a young man of 26 and Swami Shanmugananda, a differently
abler. A batch of 13 Salt Satyagrahis from Gudiyattam arrived in Madras on 17 th April
1930and proceeded to Sholinganallur . The Satyagrahis dug a pan about 6’ * 4’ and
stock canal water in hope of getting salt 25. A prominent volunteer delivered a lecture
to an audience of 70 to 80 people. T.Prakasam of Madras arrived on that day and
brought provisions to the volunteers staying in the Village. There were lectures almost
every day. Rangaiyya Naidu and Swami Shanmugananda addressed the villagers and
wanted the villagers to support the Satyagraha. The villagers who were indifferent
earlier began to show interest over the volunteers and their activities 26 . They actively
sympathized with the volunteers and jeered at the reserve police camping in the
Village. They become more disaffected when the village Munsiff proposed to resign
in case of he could not prevent the villagers from taking part in the Satyagraha. The
defiance of the law carried on by the Satyagrahis brought disaffection .Still the pan
dug by them which was did not yield any salt. It required some expertise and
equipments which the Satyagrahis lacked. Finding the pans dug at Sholinganallur not
yielding good quantity of salt and to avoid the authorities interfering in their task, the
volunteers went and dug pans at Semmenjeri a nearby village expecting good
results 27. But they were destroyed by salt peons. On April 28 th and 29th, 1930some
more pans were made in Semmenjeri , but they were destroyed by the authorities . In
Sholinganallur village the Congress volunteers who came there concentrated on salt
manufacture. But all the attempts failed owing the presence of the police and salt
officials. Though they failed, they were successful in erecting how to miscalculate a
spirit of defiance among the villagers. So an order under section 144 Cr. P. C. was
issued on 16th May. But the villagers as a whole continued to be defiant. This finally
culminated in their breaking the law and holding meeting on the night on 2 nd June.
When the Police dispersed, the meeting the villagers pelted stones at them. When
some of the police constables were injured, the police resorted to firing, killing one

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villager and wounded two others. With this the movement violently put down in the
village28.

Vedaranyam Satyagraha
Gandhi’s re-entry to the active politics and his Salt Satyagraha march to
Dandi in March 1930 infused a new spirit to the national movement in India . In
Madras Presidency, C.Rajagopalachari , the President of Tamil Nadu Congress
Committee drew up a plan for the Salt Satyagraha in Tamil Province on the Gandhian
model 29. He selected 100 Satyagrahis from all over Tamil region and started the
march from Trichy to Vedaranyam beach on 13 th April 193030. Vedaranyam is a small
unimportant town situated on the east coast 31. There were various reason for choosing
Vedaranyam for Salt Satyagraha . It was favorably suited for salt campaign because it
was near to Agasthiyampalli salt factory . Further the Tamil Nadu Congress
Conference was held in 1929 which was Presided by Vallabai Patel . Further it was
the native place of Vedarattanam Pillai an active Congress worker and a license
holder of Agasthiyampalli salt factory32 . Thus Vedaranyam became a battle field .
C.Rajagopalachari showed very caution in selection of volunteers. Owing to the
vigorous propaganda made by C.Rajagopalachari and T.S.S. Rajan nearly 1000
applications were received for enlistment as Satyagraha volunteers. C.Rajagopalachari
scrutinized the application , selected 100 volunteers and formed the first batch to lead
to Vedaranyam. The march was started on 13th April 1930 marked as being Tamil
New Year and Jallian Wallabgh Day.The route chosen to Vedaranyam was from
Trichinopoly to Tanjore ,Tanjore to Kumbakonam , Kumbakonam to Mannargudi
and from Mannargui to Vedaranyam through Thituthuraipundi33 . The march was
started from T.S.S. Rajan’s house at Trichy .The volunteers were singing the hymns
and the patriotic songs especially written for this movement by the popular Tamil poet
Namakal Ramalingam Pillai . Propaganda was made all along the route.
Rajagopalachari wanted very strict discipline among the volunteers. He announced
the code of conduct and asked them to follow them very strictly. In the initial stage
the Government of Madras remained aloof . On 3 rd April 1930 J.A.Throne the
District Magistrate , requested permission to treat the marchers as unlawful assembly ,

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and to arrest Rajagopalachari . On 8th April 1930 J.A.Throne made a call to Madras
seeking permission to arrest Rajagopalachari . But both permissions was rejected 34 .
The volunteers reached Vedaranyam on 28th April 193035 and on the next day 29th
April was observed as a day of fasting and prayer 36 . On 30th April morning
Rajagopalachari along with 15 selected volunteers and the local resident
Vedarathinam Pillai went into the swamp and collect the salt 37 . However he was
arrested immediately for violating the salt law and sentenced to 6 months simple
imprisonment under Sec. 145 IPC and fine of Rs.200/- under the section 74 of the salt
law. After his arrest other leaders who accompanied him attempted to continue the
Satyagraha .

Rameswaram Satyagraha
A proposal to make salt at Rameswaram a well know place of
pilgrimage was planned in Ramnad shortly after Gandhi’s arrest , but nothing come
out . N.S.Ramaswami Iyer come from the Trichy district to infuse some life into the
cause and by the 26th May preparations were completed 38
. However on May 29th
N.S.Ramaswami Iyer and five more were arrested and on the same day
N.S.Ramaswami Iyer was convicted for an offence under Sec.117 I.P.C and sentenced
to suffer one year rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay fine of Rs.200/- 39 .
Consequently the movement was stopped on May 30, 1930.

Tuticorin Satyagraha
Plans were made from time to time from April to June 1930 for making salt
at different centers on the eastern coast like Ovary, Tuticorin , Tharuvaikukam,
Veppalodai and Anjengo . However the planes were abandoned shortly before the
actual dates of Salt Satyagraha became the coastal villagers consisted mostly of
Parava Christians populations who have no sympathy for the movement . The
contractors of Salt at the various factories along the coast were also powerful allies of
government . The Secretary of the Congress Committee S. Palaniyandi Mudaliyar was
a weak-kneed supporter of the Civil Disobedience Movement 40. Himself and the other
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office bearer suggest the Government the activities related to the movement were
promptly suppressed and assuredly land them in prison.

There was a spontaneous response from the people to the Salt Satyagraha
march due to the positive propaganda of the nationalist press and the political
literature of Tamil Nadu. They motivated the rural and suburban people a lot to the
movement. The Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha turned the attention of India towards
South Tamil Nadu. The government took various counter measures to dilute the
movement by issuing leaflets, passing anti Satyagraha acts, proscription of press etc.
In spite of that the people of Tamil Nadu whole hearted by participated in the Salt
Satyagraha and made the movement a successful one equal to Dandi March.

References
1. Bipan Chandra , India’s Struggle for Independence , New Delhi,
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 1999, p.270.
2. S.R.Bakshi, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience Movement, New Delhi,1985, p.1
3. Saroja Sundarajan , March to Freedom in Madras Presidency , 1916-1947,
Madras ,1989, p 461.
4. S.C. Agarwal , The salt Industry in India , New Delhi, 1976, p1.
5. Ibid.,p2.
6. Ch.M. Naidu , Nationalism in South India , New Delhi ,1988, p.67.
7. Nirmal Singh , Non-Violence and Satyagraha in Gandhian Philosophy,
Patna,1998, p.37.
8. Ibid.p112
9. M.K.Gandhi ,Satyagraha in South Africa , Ahmadabad, 1906, p.109
10. V.Venkatraman ,Towards Independence , 2nd Edition, Rajapalayam, 2007, p.85.
11. Saroja Sundarajan , op.cit.p.463
12. Ch.M.Naidu, Salt Satyagraha in Coastal Andra , New Delhi
1986 , p.172
13. The Civil Disobedience Movement, (Madras , n.d. {1931} ) p.136
14. Ch.M. Naidu , Salt Satyagraha in Coastal Andra , op.cit p.173
15. Ibid p.174
16. Under Secretary’s Safe File , May 12, 1930
17. Ibid, May 24, 1930
18. Ibid, May 12, 1930
19. The Civil Disobedience Movement (Madras )1930-31 , p.72
20. Under Secretary’s Safe File , May 24, 1930
21. Ibid.p.3
22. The Civil Disobedience Movement 1930-31 , (Madras , n.d. {1931} ) p.72
23. V.kumar , Britisher’s Salt Monopoly In South Arcot District ,
Ulundurpet, May 2008 , p 87
24. Sudandra Sangu , 19 April ,1930
25. Under Secretary’s Safe File , 699 (B) May 12, 1930. p.5
26. Ibid p.7
27. Ibid.p.8
28. The Civil Disobedience Movement (Madras) 1930-31, p.80
29.Fortnighty Report , strictly confidential ,Second half of March ,1930
30. V.Venkatraman, Non-Violence: Tamil Press on Salt Satyagraha at
Vedaranyam, 1930-31, Quest Historica, Vol.5, No.2, Rajapalayam,
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 October, 2009.
31. The Civil Disobedience Movement (Madras) 1930-31, p.156
32. Ibid.p.157
33. Ibid.p.158
34. David Arnold. The Congress in Tamilnad, New Delhi, 1977, p.120
35. V.Venkatraman,Sudandra Sangu and the Civil Disobedience
Movement (T), 1930-33 , Rajapalayam ,2003,p8-10.
36. The Civil Disobedience Movement (Madras , n.d. {1931} ), p.163
37. Under Secretary’s Safe File , 687(B) May 31, 1930
38. Ibid p.151
39. Law General (G.O. No.3425) August 15, 1930
40. The Civil Disobedience Movement (Madras )1930-31, p.171-172

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