No Tax Campaign, Ahmedabad

Non-payment of tax was one of the non-violent successful methods of protest during the freedom struggle of India. Bardoli and Kheda were hailed as the centres of the No-tax campaign, but the contribution of the Ahmedabad district in Gujarat is unspoken. The district was reported to have dealt with the campaign for the first time the decade after the famine of 1899-1900. Later, inspired by the Bardoli Satyagraha, the people of Daskroi Taluka also refused to pay revenue to the British government from 17th April 1929. They collectively decided to close the doors on the revenue officials, and their arrival was to be warned by the beat of the drum. But the officials continued the forceful measures of forfeiture in the villages. In 1930, the No-tax campaign became one of the major activities during the civil disobedience movement. Following the launch of Dandi March, the Congress officially launched the no-tax campaign in Ahmedabad. Dhandhuka, Daskroi, and Dholka talukas were the major seats of the campaign in the district. The campaign gained huge popularity and made a great economic impact on the government. On 10th June 1930, the British government suppressed the movement with the ‘Unlawful Instigation Ordinance’, and peasants were arrested. In Dhandhuka alone, 28 persons, including Jiwan lal H Dewan, the Secretary of the Gujarat Provincial Congress Committee, who led the peasants, were arrested for supporting the cause.