Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34): Purna Swaraj, Dandi March, Gandhi-Irwin Pact and Round Table Conferences (UPSC Notes + PYQs)

Background: 1922 to 1929

After the Non-Cooperation Movement ended, nationalist politics went through a quiet but important phase. The Swarajists fought elections and obstructed the councils, while No-changers built khadi, Hindu-Muslim unity and work among the depressed classes. In November 1927 the British appointed the Simon Commission to review the 1919 reforms, without a single Indian member. It was boycotted across India with the slogan ‘Simon Go Back’, and Lala Lajpat Rai died after a police lathi charge at Lahore in 1928. The Nehru Report (1928) proposed dominion status, which younger leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Bose thought too little. At Calcutta in 1928 the Congress gave the government a year to accept dominion status. Lord Irwin’s offer of a Round Table Conference (October 1929) did not promise it, and the Lahore session of December 1929 declared Purna Swaraj as the goal.

Background

The all-white Simon Commission (1927), the Nehru Report (1928), the Lahore session under Jawaharlal Nehru declaring Purna Swaraj, and 26 January 1930 observed as Independence Day. Gandhi’s Eleven Demands to Irwin were ignored.

Why salt

Salt was used by every household, taxed by the government and produced cheaply on the coast. Breaking the salt law was simple, non-violent and understood everywhere. Gandhi marched 240 miles from Sabarmati to Dandi with 78 followers.

Spread

• Tamil Nadu: C. Rajagopalachari’s march from Trichy to Vedaranyam.
• Malabar: K. Kelappan; Payyanur.
• North-West Frontier: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgars; Peshawar firing (Garhwali soldiers refused to fire).
• Dharasana salt works raid led by Sarojini Naidu.
• Manipur and Nagaland: Rani Gaidinliu.
• No-tax campaigns in UP and Gujarat; forest laws defied in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Central Provinces.
• Large-scale participation of women, picketing liquor and foreign cloth shops.

Gandhi-Irwin Pact and Round Tables

Gandhi’s eleven demands

Before launching the movement Gandhi sent Irwin eleven demands on 31 January 1930, a clever mix that spoke to different classes. General demands included a 50% cut in army spending and civil service salaries, total prohibition, release of political prisoners, reform of the CID and licences for firearms for self-defence. For the bourgeoisie he asked for a lower rupee-sterling exchange rate, protective tariffs on foreign cloth and reservation of coastal shipping for Indian firms. For peasants he sought a 50% cut in land revenue and abolition of the salt tax. When Irwin did not respond, the Congress Working Committee gave Gandhi full authority to start civil disobedience.

Assessment

It brought in women, merchants and peasants on a larger scale than before, while Muslim participation was lower than in 1920-22. Business groups supported it, then wanted a settlement. It led to the Government of India Act, 1935.

Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience compared

Role of women

Civil Disobedience brought women into the national movement on a scale never seen before. Gandhi asked them to lead picketing of liquor and foreign cloth shops, which he thought suited non-violent persuasion. Sarojini Naidu led the Dharasana raid after Gandhi’s arrest; Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay made salt in Bombay; Usha Mehta, then a schoolgirl, and many others joined processions. In cities like Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta thousands of women were arrested. In the North-East, the young Rani Gaidinliu led an armed struggle and was jailed for life. This participation changed both the movement and women’s own public role, and many of these women later shaped the Constituent Assembly debates and social reform after independence.

Communal Award and the Poona Pact

After the Second Round Table Conference failed, the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award in August 1932. It extended separate electorates to the depressed classes. Gandhi, then in Yerawada jail, saw this as an attempt to divide Hindu society and began a fast unto death in September 1932. The Poona Pact, signed by B.R. Ambedkar and Madan Mohan Malaviya among others, replaced separate electorates for the depressed classes with joint electorates and reserved seats, raising those seats from 71 to 148 in provincial legislatures. Gandhi then turned to the Harijan campaign against untouchability. The episode shows how the movement’s struggle with the British was linked with questions of caste and representation inside Indian society.

Assessment for Mains

The movement failed to win Purna Swaraj, and it was formally withdrawn in 1934. Yet it achieved much. It turned the abstract idea of independence into a mass demand, using salt, a commodity every household needed, as the symbol. It brought new groups into politics: women, merchants, tribal people and peasants in many regions. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact forced the British to deal with the Congress as an equal, and the Government of India Act, 1935 was in part a response to the pressure. Its weaknesses were the limited Muslim participation and the withdrawal of business support as repression grew. For the 2026 GS-I question on the masses mobilised by Gandhian movements, use Civil Disobedience as the clearest example of mass participation across classes and regions.

Civil Disobedience Movement: UPSC angle

Civil Disobedience Movement UPSC PYQs (Prelims)

Questions UPSC has actually asked, from the official papers. Pick an option to check yourself.

Mains PYQs on this topic

Questions from the official UPSC Mains papers (2023-2026 in the Battle IAS Mains bank), newest first. Each links to a model answer.

1. UPSC Mains 2026 · GS Paper I · Q3 · 10 marks

   The significance of the Gandhian movements lay in the masses they mobilized. Elucidate.

   Model answer and approach

2. UPSC Mains 2026 · GS Paper IV · Q3a · 10 marks

   Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had cautioned that employing civil disobedience within a constitutional democracy equates to endorsing ‘anarchy’. How should modern democracies navigate the ethical dilemmas posed by civil disobedience movements that aim to promote social justice against policies that may raise genuine concerns?

   Model answer and approach

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