Which 1930 protest march led by Gandhi challenged the British salt monopoly in India?

• A. The Non-Cooperation Movement
• B. The Salt March (Dandi March)
• C. Champaran Satyagraha
• D. Quit India Movement

Answer: (B)

The event tested here is Gandhi’s direct challenge to a specific British economic control in India: the salt monopoly. In 1930, Gandhi led a long march from Ahmedabad to the coastal town of Dandi, covering about 240 miles, to protest the Salt Act that restricted Indians from producing or selling their own salt and forced them to buy heavily taxed salt from the British. By making salt from seawater at the end of the march, Gandhi and his followers publicly violated the monopoly, turning a small, everyday act into a powerful symbol of civil disobedience and mass mobilization. This move drew widespread participation across Indian society and attracted international attention, signaling a new phase of the freedom movement.

The other campaigns occurred in different years with different aims. Champaran Satyagraha (1917) focused on indigo planters and tenant rights in Champaran. The Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–22) was a broad boycott of British goods and institutions, not tied to a single policy like the salt law. The Quit India Movement (1942) was a call for immediate end to British rule, occurring later and not centered on salt. The Salt March uniquely targeted the salt monopoly itself, making it the best answer.