Civil Disobedience Movement & Round Table Conferences

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter covers 1930 to 1934, the busiest four years of the freedom struggle before Quit India. SSC and RRB examiners love this period because it is packed with datable events: the Dandi March, three Round Table Conferences, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the Karachi session, the Communal Award and the Poona Pact. Expect 1 to 2 questions from this chapter in almost every SSC CGL/CHSL GA section, and it appears with similar regularity in RRB NTPC and banking exams.

The most repeated sub-topics are: the start and end dates of the Dandi March, the number of marchers, who attended which Round Table Conference, the terms of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, who presided at Karachi in 1931, and who signed the Poona Pact. Regional leaders of the salt satyagraha (Rajagopalachari, Kelappan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Rani Gaidinliu) form a favourite match-the-pair question. Learn the tables in this chapter cold and you will not drop these marks.

1. Background: From Lahore to the Eleven Demands

The Lahore session of the Congress (December 1929), presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, declared Purna Swaraj (complete independence) as the goal. The tricolour was hoisted on the bank of the Ravi at midnight on 31 December 1929. The session authorised the Working Committee to launch a programme of civil disobedience, and 26 January 1930 was celebrated across the country as the first Independence Day, with people taking the independence pledge. (After 1947, this date was chosen for the commencement of the Constitution, which is why 26 January is Republic Day.)

Before launching the movement, Gandhi gave the government a final chance. On 31 January 1930 he sent Viceroy Lord Irwin a letter listing Eleven Demands. These mixed general political demands with specific economic ones, deliberately, so that peasants, merchants and the middle class could each see their own grievance in the list. The best-remembered demands were:

• Abolition of the salt tax and the government salt monopoly
• Reduction of land revenue by 50 per cent
• Reduction of military expenditure and civil service salaries by half
• Total prohibition of intoxicants
• Reduction of the rupee-sterling exchange ratio to 1s 4d (it had been fixed at 1s 6d)
• Protective tariff on foreign cloth and reservation of coastal shipping for Indians
• Release of political prisoners and abolition of the CID's political branch
• Licences for firearms for self-defence

Irwin refused to negotiate. Gandhi now chose salt as the issue on which to break the law. The choice was deliberate. Salt was consumed by every Indian, rich or poor; the tax on it hit the poorest hardest; and violating the salt law was a simple, symbolic act any villager could perform. Gandhi said that next to air and water, salt was perhaps the greatest necessity of life.

2. The Dandi March (12 March – 6 April 1930)

On 12 March 1930, Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram (Ahmedabad) with 78 selected followers and marched about 385 km (240 miles) through Gujarat to Dandi, a coastal village in Navsari district. The march took 24 days. On the morning of 6 April 1930, Gandhi picked up a lump of natural salt at Dandi and broke the salt law. This single act launched the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).

Points examiners pick from the march:

• The march is also called the Salt Satyagraha or Dandi March.
• Sarojini Naidu greeted Gandhi at Dandi and called him "law breaker".
• The American journalist Webb Miller later reported the Dharasana raid to the world press.
• Before leaving Sabarmati, Gandhi declared he would not return to the ashram until Swaraj was won.
• The youngest known marcher, Vithal Liladhar Thakkar, was 16; the marchers were drawn from all regions and communities of India. (Exams rarely go deeper than the number 78.)

The programme of the CDM went well beyond salt: defiance of salt laws everywhere, boycott of foreign cloth and liquor shops, non-payment of land revenue and the chowkidari tax, violation of forest laws, resignation from government posts, and boycott of government schools and courts. Unlike Non-Cooperation, the CDM involved deliberate breaking of laws, not merely refusal to cooperate.

3. Spread of the Movement Across India

Once Gandhi broke the law at Dandi, salt satyagrahas erupted along every coast, and inland the movement took local forms. Learn this table; it is the highest-yield block of the chapter.

Region	Leader(s)	What happened
Tamil Nadu	C. Rajagopalachari	March from Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam (April 1930), broke salt law on the Tanjore coast
Malabar (Kerala)	K. Kelappan	March from Calicut to Payyanur to break the salt law
Gujarat (Dharasana)	Abbas Tyabji, then Sarojini Naidu	Non-violent raid on Dharasana Salt Works (21 May 1930); satyagrahis were brutally beaten; Webb Miller's report shocked the world
North-West Frontier Province	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	Led the Khudai Khidmatgars ("Servants of God"), known as Red Shirts; Peshawar saw mass upsurge in April 1930
Peshawar	Chandra Singh Garhwali	Soldiers of the Garhwal Rifles refused to fire on unarmed demonstrators (April 1930)
Sholapur (Maharashtra)	Textile workers	Violent upsurge after Gandhi's arrest; martial law imposed (May 1930)
Manipur–Naga hills	Rani Gaidinliu	Young Naga leader of the Heraka tradition who rose against British rule; arrested in 1932, sentenced to life imprisonment; Nehru gave her the title "Rani"; released only in 1947
Bengal	Village level	Refusal to pay the chowkidari tax in Midnapore and other districts
Bihar	Village level	Chowkidari tax and no-revenue campaigns
Central Provinces, Maharashtra, Karnataka	Tribal and forest villagers	Deliberate violation of forest laws (grazing and timber restrictions)
Assam	Students	Protest against the Cunningham Circular, which forced students' parents to furnish assurances of good behaviour
United Provinces	Peasants	No-revenue, no-rent campaign (against both government and landlords)

Two more features distinguish the CDM socially:

Massive participation of women. Thousands of women left their homes for the first time to picket liquor shops and foreign-cloth shops and to make salt. Gandhi had specifically assigned picketing to women. This was the largest female participation in any movement till then.

Business support. Merchants and industrialists supported the early phase; imports of foreign cloth fell sharply. However, participation of Muslims was much lower than in 1919–22, partly because of the communal atmosphere after the late 1920s, and the movement had limited reach among the depressed classes.

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan deserves a separate line for exams. Called "Frontier Gandhi" and Badshah Khan, he founded the Khudai Khidmatgars in 1929. The organisation was avowedly non-violent, which made the Pathan response to it remarkable in British eyes. Ghaffar Khan was later the first non-Indian citizen to receive the Bharat Ratna (1987).

4. Government Repression and the First Round Table Conference (1930–31)

The government replied with force. Gandhi was arrested on 5 May 1930 (before the Dharasana raid). The Congress was declared illegal, its leaders including both Nehrus were jailed, the press was gagged, and by early 1931 about 90,000 persons were in prison, the largest number in any movement so far.

Meanwhile the constitutional track moved in London. The Simon Commission report (1930) had been rejected by all Indian parties, so the British government convened a Round Table Conference (RTC) to discuss India's constitutional future.

First RTC: 12 November 1930 – 19 January 1931, London. It was opened by King George V and chaired by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (Labour). The Congress boycotted it, since its leaders were in jail and it saw no point in talks without a promise of substance. Those who attended included:

• The Muslim League: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muhammad Shafi, the Aga Khan, Maulana Muhammad Ali
• The Hindu Mahasabha: M.R. Jayakar, B.S. Moonje
• The Liberals: Tej Bahadur Sapru, C.Y. Chintamani, Srinivasa Sastri
• The Depressed Classes: Dr B.R. Ambedkar
• The Princely States, the Sikhs (Sampuran Singh), and others

The princes announced willingness to join an all-India federation, and the idea of a federal structure with dyarchy at the centre took shape. But everyone present knew that no settlement was worth much without the Congress. The British government itself signalled that the Congress should be brought to the table.

5. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact (5 March 1931)

Moderate leaders Tej Bahadur Sapru and M.R. Jayakar worked as intermediaries. Gandhi and other Working Committee members were released in January 1931, and after a fortnight of talks Gandhi and Viceroy Lord Irwin signed a pact on 5 March 1931. It is also called the Delhi Pact. For the first time the government negotiated with the Congress as an equal, which is why Churchill famously sneered at the "half-naked fakir" striding up the steps of the Viceroy's palace.

Government agreed to:

• Release all political prisoners not convicted of violence
• Withdraw all ordinances and pending prosecutions
• Return confiscated property not yet sold to third parties
• Permit peaceful picketing of liquor and foreign-cloth shops
• Allow people living near the coast to make salt for personal consumption (the salt tax itself was NOT abolished)

Congress agreed to:

• Suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement
• Participate in the Second Round Table Conference

Gandhi's two demands that Irwin refused are frequent exam questions: a public inquiry into police excesses, and commutation of the death sentences of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. The three were hanged on 23 March 1931, barely a fortnight after the pact, which caused deep anger among the youth against Gandhi.

6. The Karachi Session (March 1931)

The Congress met at Karachi on 29 March 1931, six days after the executions, under the presidentship of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Angry young protesters greeted Gandhi with black flags. The session:

• Endorsed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the decision to attend the Second RTC.
• Passed a resolution admiring the bravery and sacrifice of the three martyrs while dissociating the Congress from political violence.
• Adopted the famous resolutions on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme, drafted mainly by Jawaharlal Nehru. This was the first time the Congress spelt out what Swaraj would mean for the common person: free speech and association, equality before law regardless of caste, creed or sex, neutrality of the state in religious matters, universal adult franchise, free primary education, living wage for workers, abolition of bonded labour, reduction of rent and revenue, and state control of key industries, mines and transport.

For exams: Karachi 1931 = Patel as president = Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme resolution. SSC has asked this combination repeatedly.

7. The Second RTC and the Resumption of the Movement (1931–32)

Second RTC: 7 September – 1 December 1931, London. Gandhi attended as the sole representative of the Congress, sailing on the SS Rajputana and staying at Kingsley Hall in London's East End. Sarojini Naidu and Madan Mohan Malaviya were also present at the conference (in their individual capacities, not for the Congress).

The conference failed, for two main reasons:

1. The communal question. Gandhi claimed the Congress represented all Indians. The Muslim League, the depressed classes under Ambedkar, the Anglo-Indians, the Europeans and others formed a "minorities pact" demanding separate electorates, which Gandhi opposed, especially separate electorates for the depressed classes.
2. Change of government in Britain. The Labour ministry had given way to a National Government dominated by Conservatives, far less sympathetic to Indian demands. Samuel Hoare was the new Secretary of State.

Gandhi returned to Bombay on 28 December 1931 with nothing. The new Viceroy, Lord Willingdon (1931–36), had already begun a crackdown: ordinances in the UP (where a no-rent campaign was on) and in the NWFP, and the arrest of Jawaharlal Nehru and Ghaffar Khan. The Working Committee decided to resume the Civil Disobedience Movement in January 1932. Gandhi was arrested on 4 January 1932 and lodged in Yerawada jail, Poona. The Congress and its allied bodies were banned, and repression in 1932 was harsher than in 1930; about 80,000 people were arrested within a few months. The movement's second phase never reached the intensity of 1930.

8. The Communal Award and the Poona Pact (1932)

On 16 August 1932, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald announced the Communal Award. It granted separate electorates not only to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans, but now also to the Depressed Classes (Scheduled Castes), who would vote separately for their own candidates in reserved constituencies for 20 years.

Gandhi saw separate electorates for the depressed classes as a device to split Hindu society permanently and to wall the depressed classes off from the rest of the nation. On 20 September 1932, he began a fast unto death in Yerawada jail against this provision. Note carefully: Gandhi did not oppose reserved seats; he opposed separate electorates for the depressed classes.

Frantic negotiations followed between leaders including Madan Mohan Malaviya, Tej Bahadur Sapru, M.R. Jayakar, C. Rajagopalachari and Dr B.R. Ambedkar. On 24 September 1932, the Poona Pact was signed in Yerawada jail. Ambedkar signed on behalf of the depressed classes and Madan Mohan Malaviya on behalf of caste Hindus. (Gandhi, as a prisoner and the man fasting, was not a signatory.) Its terms:

• Separate electorates for the depressed classes were abandoned.
• Instead, seats were reserved for them within the general (joint) electorate.
• Reserved seats in provincial legislatures were raised from the Award's 71 to 147/148, and 18 per cent of the central legislature's general seats were reserved.
• Adequate representation in public services and a share of educational grants were promised.

The government accepted the pact and amended the Award. After the fast, Gandhi turned his energy to the campaign against untouchability. The Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded in 1932 with industrialist Ghanshyam Das Birla as president and Amritlal Thakkar (Thakkar Bapa) as secretary, and Gandhi started the weekly Harijan in 1933.

9. The Third RTC and the End of the Movement (1932–34)

Third RTC: 17 November – 24 December 1932, London. It was a small, thin affair of 46 delegates. The Congress did not attend; the British Labour Party also stayed away. Ambedkar and Tej Bahadur Sapru were among those present. Its discussions fed into the White Paper of 1933, which was examined by a joint select committee under Lord Linlithgow, and the outcome was the Government of India Act, 1935 (next chapters).

The Civil Disobedience Movement itself wound down in stages:

• May 1933: Gandhi began a 21-day self-purification fast; the mass movement was suspended, and in its place individual civil disobedience was permitted from August 1933.
• April 1934: Gandhi decided to withdraw the movement completely; the All India Congress Committee, meeting at Patna in May 1934, formally ratified the withdrawal and decided to contest elections to the Central Legislative Assembly.
• October 1934: Gandhi resigned from the Congress membership to concentrate on constructive work (Harijan uplift, village industries). He remained the movement's guide from outside.

Leaders like Satyamurti, Bhulabhai Desai, M.A. Ansari and B.C. Roy revived the idea of council entry, leading to the formation of a new Swaraj-style parliamentary wing and, eventually, the Congress's sweep in the 1937 elections.

10. Civil Disobedience vs Non-Cooperation: The Comparison Exams Ask

Point	Non-Cooperation (1920–22)	Civil Disobedience (1930–34)
Method	Refusal to cooperate with the government	Deliberate breach of laws (salt, forest, revenue laws)
Goal declared	Swaraj (undefined)	Purna Swaraj
Muslim participation	Very high (Khilafat alliance)	Much lower (except NWFP)
Women's participation	Limited	Massive, first large-scale entry of women
Peasant/business role	Present	Stronger; no-tax campaigns, merchant support
Students/lawyers giving up institutions	Central feature	Not emphasised this time
How it ended	Withdrawn abruptly after Chauri Chaura (Feb 1922)	Suspended 1931, resumed 1932, withdrawn 1934 in stages
Prisoners	About 30,000	About 90,000 (first phase)

An assessment in one paragraph: the movement did not win Purna Swaraj, and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact secured no major constitutional gain. But it took the national movement into villages and among women on an unmatched scale, destroyed the moral authority of British law in ordinary eyes, and forced the British to accept that no constitution could be built without the Congress. The mass base built in 1930–34 delivered the Congress its victory in the 1937 provincial elections.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Purna Swaraj resolution: Lahore session, December 1929, president Jawaharlal Nehru.
• First Independence Day celebrated: 26 January 1930.
• Gandhi's Eleven Demands letter to Irwin: 31 January 1930.
• Dandi March: 12 March – 6 April 1930, Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, about 385 km in 24 days.
• Number of marchers who set out with Gandhi: 78.
• Gandhi broke the salt law at Dandi on 6 April 1930.
• Dharasana Salt Works raid: 21 May 1930, led by Sarojini Naidu after Abbas Tyabji's arrest; reported by Webb Miller.
• Vedaranyam march (Tiruchirappalli to Vedaranyam): C. Rajagopalachari, April 1930.
• Calicut to Payyanur march in Malabar: K. Kelappan.
• Khudai Khidmatgars (Red Shirts) founded by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan ("Frontier Gandhi"), 1929.
• Garhwal Rifles under Chandra Singh Garhwali refused to fire at Peshawar, April 1930.
• Rani Gaidinliu of the Naga hills was arrested in 1932; Nehru gave her the title "Rani".
• Gandhi arrested in the first phase of CDM: 5 May 1930.
• First RTC (Nov 1930 – Jan 1931): chaired by PM Ramsay MacDonald; Congress absent; Ambedkar and Jinnah attended.
• Gandhi-Irwin (Delhi) Pact: 5 March 1931; CDM suspended; salt for personal use allowed; salt tax not abolished.
• Irwin refused to commute the sentences of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev (hanged 23 March 1931).
• Karachi session, March 1931: president Vallabhbhai Patel; resolutions on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme.
• Second RTC (Sept – Dec 1931): Gandhi the sole Congress representative; failed over the communal question.
• Gandhi stayed at Kingsley Hall, London, and sailed on the SS Rajputana.
• CDM resumed January 1932 under Viceroy Lord Willingdon; Gandhi arrested 4 January 1932.
• Communal Award: 16 August 1932, by Ramsay MacDonald; separate electorates extended to the Depressed Classes.
• Gandhi's fast unto death in Yerawada jail began 20 September 1932.
• Poona Pact: 24 September 1932; signed by Ambedkar and Madan Mohan Malaviya; joint electorate with 147/148 reserved seats.
• Harijan Sevak Sangh founded 1932, president G.D. Birla; weekly Harijan started 1933.
• Third RTC (Nov – Dec 1932): Congress and Labour Party both absent; led to the White Paper 1933 and the GoI Act 1935.
• CDM finally withdrawn: April–May 1934; Gandhi resigned from Congress in October 1934.
• About 90,000 arrests in the first phase (1930–31) of the CDM.
• Cunningham Circular (Assam) forced students' parents to give assurances of good behaviour; students agitated against it.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Year and Event Chronology (1929–1935)

Date	Event
Dec 1929	Lahore session; Purna Swaraj resolution (president: J. Nehru)
26 Jan 1930	First Independence Day observed
31 Jan 1930	Gandhi's Eleven Demands to Irwin
12 Mar 1930	Dandi March begins from Sabarmati (78 marchers)
6 Apr 1930	Salt law broken at Dandi; CDM launched
Apr 1930	Peshawar upsurge; Garhwal Rifles refuse to fire
5 May 1930	Gandhi arrested
21 May 1930	Dharasana Salt Works raid
Nov 1930 – Jan 1931	First Round Table Conference (Congress absent)
5 Mar 1931	Gandhi-Irwin (Delhi) Pact
23 Mar 1931	Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev hanged
29 Mar 1931	Karachi session (president: Vallabhbhai Patel)
Sep – Dec 1931	Second RTC; Gandhi sole Congress representative
4 Jan 1932	Gandhi arrested; CDM resumed under Willingdon
16 Aug 1932	Communal Award announced
20 Sep 1932	Gandhi's fast unto death begins in Yerawada jail
24 Sep 1932	Poona Pact signed
Nov – Dec 1932	Third RTC (Congress absent)
1933	White Paper; weekly Harijan started
Apr–May 1934	CDM withdrawn; AICC meets at Patna
Oct 1934	Gandhi resigns from Congress
Aug 1935	Government of India Act, 1935

Table 2: Person and Association

Person	Remember for
C. Rajagopalachari	Vedaranyam salt march, Tamil Nadu
K. Kelappan	Calicut–Payyanur salt march, Malabar
Sarojini Naidu	Led Dharasana raid; attended Second RTC
Abbas Tyabji	First led the Dharasana batch after Gandhi's arrest
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan	Khudai Khidmatgars / Red Shirts, NWFP; "Frontier Gandhi"
Chandra Singh Garhwali	Garhwal Rifles' refusal to fire, Peshawar 1930
Rani Gaidinliu	Naga movement; arrested 1932; titled "Rani" by Nehru
Webb Miller	American journalist who reported Dharasana
Tej Bahadur Sapru & M.R. Jayakar	Intermediaries for the Gandhi-Irwin Pact
Ramsay MacDonald	British PM; chaired First RTC; announced Communal Award
Lord Irwin	Viceroy; Delhi Pact 1931
Lord Willingdon	Viceroy during the second phase and repression of 1932
Vallabhbhai Patel	President, Karachi session 1931
B.R. Ambedkar	Attended all three RTCs; signed Poona Pact for depressed classes
Madan Mohan Malaviya	Signed Poona Pact on behalf of caste Hindus
G.D. Birla	First president, Harijan Sevak Sangh (1932)

Table 3: The Three Round Table Conferences

Conference	Dates	Congress?	Key points
First RTC	12 Nov 1930 – 19 Jan 1931	Absent (boycott)	Princes accept federation idea; Ambedkar, Jinnah, Sapru attend
Second RTC	7 Sep – 1 Dec 1931	Gandhi, sole representative	Deadlock on communal question; National Government in Britain
Third RTC	17 Nov – 24 Dec 1932	Absent	Only 46 delegates; led to White Paper 1933 and GoI Act 1935

Practice MCQs

Q1. The Dandi March began on 12 March 1930 from which place? (a) Dandi (b) Sabarmati Ashram (c) Wardha (d) Porbandar

Q2. How many followers accompanied Gandhi at the start of the Dandi March? (a) 72 (b) 76 (c) 78 (d) 80

Q3. Who presided over the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress in 1931? (a) Jawaharlal Nehru (b) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (c) Subhas Chandra Bose (d) Maulana Azad

Q4. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed on: (a) 5 March 1931 (b) 23 March 1931 (c) 16 August 1932 (d) 26 January 1930

Q5. Who among the following announced the Communal Award in 1932? (a) Lord Willingdon (b) Lord Irwin (c) Ramsay MacDonald (d) Winston Churchill

Q6. The Khudai Khidmatgar movement in the North-West Frontier Province was led by: (a) Muhammad Ali Jinnah (b) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (c) Maulana Muhammad Ali (d) Hakim Ajmal Khan

Q7. Match the following salt satyagraha leaders with their regions:

1. C. Rajagopalachari — A. Malabar
2. K. Kelappan — B. Tamil Nadu
3. Sarojini Naidu — C. Dharasana (a) 1-B, 2-A, 3-C (b) 1-A, 2-B, 3-C (c) 1-C, 2-A, 3-B (d) 1-B, 2-C, 3-A

Q8. In which session did the Congress adopt the resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme? (a) Lahore, 1929 (b) Karachi, 1931 (c) Faizpur, 1936 (d) Lucknow, 1936

Q9. Which of the following statements about the Second Round Table Conference is NOT correct? (a) Gandhi attended it as the sole representative of the Congress (b) It was held in London from September to December 1931 (c) It resolved the communal question through a minorities agreement acceptable to all (d) B.R. Ambedkar participated in it

Q10. The Poona Pact of September 1932 was signed between B.R. Ambedkar and: (a) Mahatma Gandhi (b) Madan Mohan Malaviya (c) Tej Bahadur Sapru (d) C. Rajagopalachari

Q11. Under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the government agreed to which of the following? (a) Abolition of the salt tax throughout India (b) Commutation of Bhagat Singh's death sentence (c) Permission for coastal villagers to make salt for personal use (d) A public inquiry into police excesses

Q12. Rani Gaidinliu, who was arrested in 1932 for leading a movement against the British, belonged to which region? (a) Chota Nagpur (b) The Naga hills of the Manipur region (c) Telangana (d) The Santhal Parganas

Q13. Arrange the following events in correct chronological order:

1. Communal Award 2. Gandhi-Irwin Pact 3. First Round Table Conference 4. Poona Pact (a) 3, 2, 1, 4 (b) 2, 3, 1, 4 (c) 3, 1, 2, 4 (d) 2, 3, 4, 1

Q14. Consider the following statements about the Communal Award:

1. It granted separate electorates to the Depressed Classes.
2. Gandhi undertook a fast unto death in Yerawada jail against it.
3. Gandhi opposed both separate electorates and reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes. Which of the statements are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

Q15. The Cunningham Circular, against which students agitated during the Civil Disobedience Movement, was issued in: (a) Bengal (b) Assam (c) Punjab (d) Bombay Presidency

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(b)	The march started from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, and ended at Dandi
2	(c)	Gandhi set out with 78 chosen satyagrahis
3	(b)	Vallabhbhai Patel presided at Karachi, March 1931
4	(a)	The Delhi (Gandhi-Irwin) Pact was signed on 5 March 1931
5	(c)	British PM Ramsay MacDonald announced it on 16 August 1932
6	(b)	Ghaffar Khan, the "Frontier Gandhi", founded the Red Shirts
7	(a)	Rajaji in Tamil Nadu (Vedaranyam), Kelappan in Malabar, Naidu at Dharasana
8	(b)	Karachi 1931 passed the Fundamental Rights and Economic Programme resolutions
9	(c)	The conference deadlocked on the communal question; nothing was resolved
10	(b)	Malaviya signed for caste Hindus; Gandhi, then fasting in jail, was not a signatory
11	(c)	Salt-making for personal use near the coast was conceded; (a), (b), (d) were refused
12	(b)	She led the Heraka-linked Naga movement; Nehru later called her "Rani"
13	(a)	First RTC (Nov 1930) → Gandhi-Irwin Pact (Mar 1931) → Communal Award (Aug 1932) → Poona Pact (Sep 1932)
14	(a)	Gandhi opposed separate electorates, not reserved seats, so statement 3 is wrong
15	(b)	The circular in Assam demanded good-conduct assurances from students' parents