“It is difficult not to laugh, and we imagine that will be the mood of most thinking Indians,” ridiculed a leading newspaper when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi suggested a nonviolent method to oppose the 1882 British Salt Act. True, Gandhi’s 24-day salt march did not win any major allowances from the British. But historians would agree it was the most electrifying of all his satyagrahic campaigns. It wasn’t just the British, most Congress leaders, too, were sceptical, except Rajaji. 

“Civil disobedience against salt tax is not our final end, but for the time being it is our aim, and we must shoot straight,” he said, when put in charge of a similar march in synchronisation with the Dandi march. Rajaji drew a plan for salt satyagraha based on the Gandhian model, but Madras, the capital city of the presidency, had no role in his planning. 

Rajaji expected no great response from the urban. Perhaps what he pondered on was Madras’s traditional loyalty to the British or salt being too small an issue for a rich city. And obviously, a satyagraha aimed at garnering attention had to be long drawn – in the coastal city of Madras, a march to the sea would have ended in merely half a day. He thus chose Vedaranyam to break the law and even shifted the headquarters of the presidency Congress to Tiruchy, to the residence of Dr TSS Rajan, who had led the city in protesting against the visit of the Prince of Wales a decade earlier. 

Rajaji had, however, miscalculated that Madras would not be responsive. For, even before he reached Vedaranyam, Madras had seen many salt-related marches and agitations and police brutalities. Initially, Madras saw no signs of agitations even as reports were pouring from all over the electrified country. But there was pressure for some sort of protest in Madras, too, which came from local political activists and students –  majority of them Telugu. 

As the entire Congress leadership was concentrating on Tiruchy, the agitators here chose the leadership of Prakasam and Nageswara Rao. Led by Prakasam, they reached Marina and started boiling brine in the vessels that they had brought along. Durgabai (later Deshmukh), then only a teenager, electrified the gatherings with patriotic songs sung in Telugu. Loud slogans rent the air as the salt was crystallised. It was auctioned, fetching them Rs 800. Though the marches were not very well organised, the agitators had indeed broken the salt law and challenged the British emperor. The police confiscated the salt and dispersed the satyagrahis. 

The police action attracted public interest and Madras began to witness confrontation with the police every day. People began making handful of salt, which was then auctioned publicly much to the chagrin of the police. When news came in that Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested, 20 volunteers under the leadership of Prakasam took out a procession through Broadway and other streets. By the time they reached North Beach road, the crowd had swollen to 200. This time, the leaders were arrested and produced before a magistrate. After a trial that lasted barely three minutes, Prakasam and Nageswara Rao were slapped with a fine of Rs 500. 

A hartal was held on April 22 to protest arrest of the leaders. Incidentally, there was a strike going on at Choolai textile mills. Many of the protestors joined the salt march, which then became uncontrollable. Some shopkeepers who defied the hartal were attacked. All this finally this led to clashes between the police and demonstrators. Provoked by stone throwing, Police Commissioner Cunningham reacted violently. He used horse mounted police and lathi-wielding constables to attack the crowd. Even women and onlookers were assaulted. The press came down harshly on the government following this. 

“The police can only arrest or fine those who participated in the salt making and it does not mention the horses could trample upon the people or protestors could be beaten up like dogs.” This caused a sea change in the outlook of the people of Madras – but not the police. During a meeting where 10,000 people gathered on Marina beach to hear speeches protesting police action, the police attacked again, this time with guns, killing three and wounding five. 

In fact, the salt satyagraha of Madras was well-attended and had a bigger impact on the British government than the agitations at Vedaranyam where there were no casualties. However, history chooses to remember the later as the only protest in the Presidency. One lasting impact was the unification of the Telugu groups. The seeds for the linguistic division of States had been sown.