Dharasana Satyagraha was a protest against the British salt tax

Gabelle

The gabelle was a very unpopular tax on salt in France before 1790. The term gabelle derives from the Italian gabella , itself from the Arabic qabala....

 in colonial India

Colonial India

Colonial India refers to areas of the Indian Subcontinent under the control of European colonial powers, through trade and conquest. The first European power to arrive in India was the army of Alexander the Great in 327–326 BC. The satraps he established in the north west of the subcontinent...

 in May, 1930. Following the conclusion of the Salt March to Dandi, Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

 chose a non-violent raid of the Dharasana Salt Works in Gujarat as the next protest against British rule

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

. Hundreds of satyagrahis were beaten by soldiers under British command at Dharasana

Dharasana

Dharasana is a town in the state of Gujarat, India. It shot to worldwide fame in May, 1930 as the site of the Dharasana Satyagraha. Here, British Indian police brutally attacked a group of non-violent protestors as they marched upon the Dharasana Salt Works, as part of the Salt Satyagraha...

. The ensuing publicity attracted world attention to the Indian independence movement and brought into question the legitimacy of British rule in India.
The Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

, led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

, publicly issued the Declaration of Independence, or Purna Swaraj

Purna Swaraj

The Purna Swaraj declaration, or Declaration of the Independence of India was promulgated by the Indian National Congress on January 26, 1930, resolving the Congress and Indian nationalists to fight for Purna Swaraj, or complete self-rule independent of the British Empire...

, on January 26, 1930.