In the summer of 1930, Mahatma Gandhi launched the Civil Disobedience Movement to intensify and broaden the freedom struggle. He embarked on a 24-day Salt Satyagraha to oppose the tax imposed on salt. He and his followers marched from the Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the west coast.
A week after the Dandi March, his associate and veteran Congress leader C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) took up the responsibility of leading the non-violent civil disobedience in the Tamil land. Historian and author Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of both Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji, wrote in his book, Rajaji-A Life, that when the Mahatma decided to break the salt law, Rajaji decided to march with Satyagrahis for about 150 miles (around 240 km) from Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) to Vedaranyam, a coastal town in the erstwhile Tanjore district.
