Sholapur Commune and Chittagong Armoury Raid

In spite of this characteristic Gandhian apathy for the industrial working class and the landless rural poor, these classes vigorously participated in the ensuing civil disobedience movement. From 12 March to 6 April, Gandhi accompanied by 71 inmates of his ashram drawn from different parts of the country undertook the famous Dandi March. The issue of salt served as a simple yet very potent rallying point and the movement soon assumed a countrywide mass dimension. The arrest of Nehru in the middle of April led to bitter clashes between mill workers at Budge Budge near Calcutta and the police. The mood of the jute mill workers of Bengal was then quite upbeat, only the previous year they had organised a highly successful general strike in jute mills to beat back the employers' bid to increase working hours from 54 to 60 hours a week. Calcutta transport workers too waged a militant struggle. A major upsurge was also witnessed at Peshwar in North Western Frontier Province. The city continued to be rocked for ten days on end following the arrest of Badshah Khan (the Frontier Gandhi) and other leaders on 23 April, 1930 leading to the imposition of martial law on May 4. Refusal by the Garhwal regiment led by Chandra Singh Garhwali to open fire on peaceful demonstrators at Peshawar opened up a new possibility of fraternisation between the fighting people and the armed forces. Dock labourers in Karachi and Choolai Mill workers in Madras were also up in arms.

The climax came at Sholapur following Gandhi's arrest on 4 May. The entire work force in the textile industry went on strike from 7 May onward. Till martial law was clamped down on 16 May, the town remained virtually under workers' control. Liquor shops were burnt down and police outposts, law courts, the municipal building and the railway station all came under attack. Something like a parallel government seemed to have token over the entire township and if soon became well-known across the country as the celebrated case of the Sholapur Commune.

Meanwhile, revolutionary terrorism was also scaling new heights in Bengal. On 18 April, 1930, the Chittagong (Chattogram in Bengali) group of revolutionaries led by “Masterda” Surya Sen succeeded in capturing the local armoury. They also issued an Independence Proclamation in the name of the Indian Republican Army. Notable in the Chittagong group was the role of women like Preetilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutt. On 8 December, 1930, the trio of Binoy, Badal and Dinesh carried out a striking raid on the government headquarters in Calcutta's Writers Building.