Mahatma Gandhi led this movement and marched on foot from his Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmadabad to Dandi on the Gujarat coast, to break the salt law. The law did not permit people to make or collect salt from the sea. The violation of the salt law was his first challenge to the British government. Gandhiji was arrested and kept in jail at Poona.

Thousands of men and women joined in the Civil Disobedience movement. About 60 thousand persons went to jail in the course of the movement. The British welcomed the Satyagrahis with blows and lathis. Many were killed. The movement spread to every part of India including the princely states. The movement was led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the northwest, Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland in the northeast and C. Rajagopalachari in the south.