Which one of the following is NOT correct about Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi Yatra or Salt March?
- (a)It was the first national activity in which women participated in large numbers
- (b)Gandhiji allowed the women's participation at the request of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
- (c)The march was fully covered by the Western press
- (d)The march began after the failure of the First Round Table Conference in London
Correct — D, The march began after the failure of the First Round Table Conference in London. The chronology is the wrong way round. The Salt March began at Sabarmati on 12 March 1930 and reached Dandi on 6 April, when Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt and broke the salt law. The First Round Table Conference opened in London only on 12 November 1930, eight months later, and ran to 19 January 1931; the Congress boycotted it entirely, which is why it produced nothing and why Gandhi attended the second session in 1931 after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. A march cannot have begun after the failure of a conference that had not yet met. The other three statements are all accurate, so option (d) is the answer to a NOT-correct item.
- (a)It was the first national activity in which women participated in large numbers — Correct as stated, and it is the standard textbook description of the Salt Satyagraha's significance for the participation of women.
- (b)Gandhiji allowed the women's participation at the request of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay — Correct as stated. The socialist activist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay persuaded Gandhi not to restrict the protests to men, and she herself courted arrest by breaking the salt and liquor laws.
- (c)The march was fully covered by the Western press — Correct as stated. The march drew heavy international coverage, and Time magazine, initially sceptical, reversed itself within a week and wrote of Gandhi as a saint and statesman.
The Salt March was chosen because salt was the one government monopoly that touched every household, rich and poor alike. Gandhi walked about 240 miles from the Sabarmati Ashram to the coast at Dandi with an initial band of seventy-eight ashram inmates, gathering crowds along the route, and the act of picking up untaxed salt on 6 April launched the Civil Disobedience Movement across the country. Parallel marches followed, including C. Rajagopalachari's from Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam on the Tanjore coast.
Fix four dates and this whole cluster of questions becomes safe: the Lahore session and the Purna Swaraj resolution at the end of 1929; the march in March and April 1930; the First Round Table Conference from November 1930 to January 1931, boycotted by the Congress; and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931, which took Gandhi to the second conference. A statement that reverses any two of these is the planted one. Option (d) also carries a second error worth noticing — the First Round Table Conference did not fail because of anything the march did; it failed because the Congress was not in the room.
- The Salt March ran from Sabarmati on 12 March 1930 to Dandi on 6 April 1930, a distance of about 240 miles.
- Gandhi set out with seventy-eight ashram volunteers and broke the salt law on reaching the coast.
- Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay persuaded Gandhi not to restrict the protest to men, and courted arrest herself.
- The First Round Table Conference sat in London from 12 November 1930 to 19 January 1931 and was boycotted by the Congress.
- C. Rajagopalachari led a parallel salt march from Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam, beginning 13 April 1930.
- Placing the First Round Table Conference before the Salt March instead of after it.
- Attributing the persuasion on women's participation to Sarojini Naidu, who led the Dharasana raid but not this.
- Confusing the Second Round Table Conference, which Gandhi attended, with the First, which the Congress boycotted.
Asked as a NOT-correct item in which three statements are drawn from the textbook description and the fourth inverts a well-known chronology.
In 1930 Mahatma Gandhi started Civil Disobedience Movement from
- (a) Sevagram
- (b) Dandi
- (c) Sabarmati
- (d) Wardha
Answer(c) Sabarmati
Tests the same march from its starting point, with Dandi offered as the trap because that is where it ended rather than where it began.
Which one among the following American newsmagazines was highly sceptical of Gandhiji's Dandi march initially but within a week completely changed its opinion and saluted him as a Saint and Statesman?
- (a) Saturday Evening Post
- (b) Readers Digest
- (c) Time
- (d) Life
Answer(c) Time
Direct evidence for option (c) of this item. The Western press coverage was not incidental — it is documented down to the magazine that changed its mind.
Who among the following socialist activists persuaded Gandhiji not to restrict the salt march protest to men alone?
- (a) Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
- (b) Sarojini Naidu
- (c) Matangini Hazra
- (d) Mithuben Petit
Answer(a) Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Option (b) of this item asked as a question in its own right a year later. Both are lifted from the same sentence of the standard textbook account.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Gandhi's Salt March ended at Dandi on which date?
- (a)12 March 1930
- (b)6 April 1930
- (c)26 January 1930
- (d)5 March 1931
Answer(b) 6 April 1930 — the march had begun from Sabarmati on 12 March.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The First Round Table Conference of 1930-31 was notable because
- (a)Gandhi attended it as the sole Congress representative
- (b)the Indian National Congress boycotted it
- (c)it produced the Communal Award
- (d)it was held at Simla
Answer(b) the Indian National Congress boycotted it — Gandhi attended only the second session, after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.