Editing Jawaharlal Nehru (section)

=== Salt March: 1930 ===
Nehru and most of the Congress leaders were ambivalent initially about Gandhi's plan to begin [[civil disobedience]] with a ''satyagraha'' aimed at the British [[salt tax]]. After the protest had gathered steam, they realised the power of salt as a symbol. Nehru remarked about the unprecedented popular response, "It seemed as though a spring had been suddenly released".<ref>[[Gopalkrishna Gandhi|Gandhi, Gopalkrishna]]. [http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article388858.ece "The Great Dandi March – eighty years after"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717030642/http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article388858.ece|date=17 July 2012}}, ''[[The Hindu]]'', 5 April 2010.</ref> He was arrested on 14&nbsp;April 1930 while on a train from Allahabad to [[Raipur]]. Earlier, after addressing a huge meeting and leading a vast procession, he had ceremoniously manufactured some contraband salt. He was charged with breach of the salt law and sentenced to six months of imprisonment at Central Jail.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Vinod|last=Khanal|title=Mahatma Gandhi describes Nehru's arrest in 1930 as 'rest'|website=[[Times of India]]|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Mahatma-Gandhi-describes-Nehrus-arrest-in-1930-as-rest/articleshow/45140212.cms|date=13 November 2014|access-date=16 August 2021|archive-date=28 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128191124/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Mahatma-Gandhi-describes-Nehrus-arrest-in-1930-as-rest/articleshow/45140212.cms|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2754199?searchWord=nehru&backquery=&#91;query=nehru+liaquat+pact&originalquery=&sort_by=dc.date.accessioned_dt&order=desc&rpp=20&etal=0&start=100 |title=Civil Disobedience Movement in the United Provinces. Arrest of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru |publisher=United Provinces Government |year=1930 |location=New Delhi |pages=71 |chapter=Telegram Post No. 90, dated (and read) 14th April, 1930 |quote="For breaking Salt Law Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested at Allahabad this morning." |access-date=9 September 2022 |url-access=registration |via=[[National Archives of India]] |archive-date=10 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221010075306/https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/handle/123456789/2754199?searchWord=nehru&backquery=%5Bquery=nehru+liaquat+pact&originalquery=&sort_by=dc.date.accessioned_dt&order=desc&rpp=20&etal=0&start=100 |url-status=live }}</ref>

He nominated Gandhi to succeed him as the Congress president during his absence in jail, but Gandhi declined, and Nehru nominated his father as his successor.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=167}} With Nehru's arrest, the civil disobedience acquired a new tempo, and arrests, firing on crowds and [[Baton charge|lathi charges]] grew to be ordinary occurrences.{{sfn|Moraes|2007|p=168}}

==== Salt satyagraha success ====
The [[salt satyagraha]] ("pressure for reform through passive resistance") succeeded in attracting world attention. Indian, British, and world opinion increasingly recognised the legitimacy of the claims by the [[Congress party]] for independence. Nehru considered the salt satyagraha the high-water mark of his association with Gandhi,<ref>Fisher, Margaret W. June 1967. "India's Jawaharlal Nehru." ''[[Asian Survey]]'' 7(6):363–373 [368]. {{doi|10.2307/2642611}}. {{JSTOR|2642611}}</ref> and felt its lasting importance was in changing the attitudes of Indians:<ref>Johnson, Richard L. 2005. ''Gandhi's Experiments With Truth: Essential Writings By And About Mahatma Gandhi''. [[Lexington Books]]. {{ISBN|978-0-7391-1142-0}}. p. 37.</ref>

<blockquote>Of course these movements exercised tremendous pressure on the British Government and shook the government machinery. But the real importance, to my mind, lay in the effect they had on our own people, and especially the village masses.&nbsp;... Non-cooperation dragged them out of the mire and gave them self-respect and self-reliance.&nbsp;... They acted courageously and did not submit so easily to unjust oppression; their outlook widened and they began to think a little in terms of India as a whole.&nbsp;... It was a remarkable transformation and the Congress, under Gandhi's leadership, must have the credit for it.</blockquote>